; Whereas, on January 17, 2019, Michael Strain, Director of Economic Policy Studies at AEI, wrote in an opinion article in Bloomberg entitled Modern Monetary Theory Is a Joke That’s Not Funny that if you thought from the start that the whole idea sounded like lunacy, you were right, even if it’s possible to admit some sliver of sympathy for it ; Whereas Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences— (1) on March 1, 2019, posted on Twitter a point-by-point rebuttal to an article entitled The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Stephanie Kelton, which concluded with Krugman tweeting that— (A) Sorry, but this is just a mess. Kelton's response misrepresents standard macroeconomics, my own views, the effects of interest rates, and the process of money creation. ; (B) Otherwise I guess it's all fine. ; and (C) See what I mean about Calvinball? ; and (2) on February 12, 2019, wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times the following: And debt can’t go to infinity—it can’t exceed total wealth, and in fact as debt gets ever higher people will demand ever-increasing returns to hold it. So at some point the government would be forced to run large enough primary (non-interest) surpluses to limit debt growth. ; Whereas, on November 15, 2019, Jason Fichtner and Kody Carmody of the Bipartisan Policy Center wrote in a report entitled Does the National Debt Matter? A Look at Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT that— (1) deficits do have a role to play in public finance but, as interest rates rise, some private-sector projects no longer make financial sense and are forgone. Crowding out private investment ultimately leads to a misallocation of resources away from their most economically productive use, hampering economic growth. . . . The more we borrow today, the more expensive it will be to continue borrowing in the future. At some point, debt has to be paid back. There is no free lunch.