‘There is no free lunch’
This is the second of a three-part series, which highlights Modern Monetary Theory and the South Korean policies. _ ED.Legendary investor Jim Rogers blasts the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a heterodox macroeconomic theory that encourages printing more money to boost the economy despite mounting sovereign debts.“I call it More Money Today. Everybody wants free lunch. Throughout history, there were always people who are coming up with new theories,” he said in a recent interview with Korea News Plus.“Mr. Marx had a great theory, and many people tried it for a long time. Nobody wants to be a Marxist anymore. I don't even think North Koreans want to be Marxists anymore because everybody knows it didn't work, and it doesn't work.”The Singapore-based financial commentator said that MMT does not work because there is no free lunch.“Now, a new theory sounds good. More Money Today says that you don't have to worry about debt. Just print more money and will take care of things. That's great, wonderful. Everybody loves it. But it is not going to work in the end,” he said.“But eventually, somebody has to produce real things, real goods. There will never be a free lunch. We want a free lunch. We want to get rich this month, but that's not the way the world works.”Along the same line, he was critical of the rising government debts as the result of stimulus checks and subsidies amid the virus pandemic.“As I said, everybody wants a free lunch. Everybody wants an easy life. But the easy answers don't work,” he said. “The easy answers don't work, and somebody has to work hard and produce real goods. We all want an easy life, but we have to work for it.”He also pointed out that the Korean property market is in a bubble as the country’s apartment prices keep rising.“It's just very, very expensive. Nobody just can afford to buy in Seoul. Just I said before; bubbles go on much longer than people expect. They get crazy and crazier. I don't know any bubbles will going to pop. But it will pop,” he said.이 기사를 공유합니다
Hillary Lee
(homin30@hanmail.net)