Episode Details

Carlos García Hernández is the author of Fiat Socialism: Achieving the Goals of Socialism through Modern Monetary Theory. He lays out the five goals of fiat socialism:

• Full employment
• Full and prudent use of material resources
• The guarantee of the five essentials to every citizen: food, housing, clothing, health services, and education
• Social security at all major exposed points in the social structure (eg, old age, sickness, accident, temporary unemployment, and childbearing)
• Labor standards, to be assured by labor unions

Carlos maintains that any society achieving these five goals at the same time and permanently should be called socialist, no matter the size of the private sector.

Steve and Carlos discuss the philosophical foundations of both fiat socialism and Marxism. They also look at the role of the IMF and the possibilities for monetary sovereignty in developing nations.

Carlos García Hernández is the founder and director of Lola Books, a publishing house that has introduced MMT to Spanish and German readers. He is the author of Fiat Socialism: Achieving the Goals of Socialism through Modern Monetary Theory.

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