Modern monetary theory on money, sovereignty, and policy: A marxist critique with reference to the Eurozone and Greece

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts Modern Monetary Theory and Marxist monetary theory focusing on the relationship of money to commodities, the role of state power in monetary processes, and the significance of global hierarchy for world money. Money is a social relation, as MMT claims, but for Marxist theory capitalist money is specifically a relation of class, both domestically and internationally. The room for state policy is correspondingly constrained, not least because the international monetary system is hierarchical. These issues are placed in historical context by analyzing a politically important plan for Eurozone exit during the Greek crisis of the 2010s. It is shown that regaining monetary sovereignty was a demanding technical problem but also, and more fundamentally, a class issue embedded in relations of international subordination.