What is money, where does it come from and why is it important?   Patricia & Christian talk to award-winning primary MMT academic Professor L. Randall Wray about his latest book “Making Money Work For Us” and his part in the new academic collaboration “Modern Monetary Theory - Key Insights, Leading Thinkers.”   Also in this episode: What are taxes for? Where do commercial banks fit in? And what is “doing MMT”?   Please help sustain this podcast! Patrons get early access to all episodes and patron-only episodes: https://www.patreon.com/MMTpodcast       Order L Randall Wray’s latest book, “Making Money Work for Us” (2022): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BDCS46BG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0   Order the Gower Initiative’s “Modern Monetary Theory - Key Insights, Leading Thinkers” (2023): https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/modern-monetary-theory-9781802208085.html     For an intro to MMT: Our first three episodes: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41742417 Episode 126 - Dirk Ehnts: How Banks Create Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62603318   All our episodes in chronological order: https://www.patreon.com/posts/43111643   All our episodes with L. Randall Wray: https://www.patreon.com/posts/44467066   Relevant to this episode: Episode 133 with Professor Hannah Appel, co-founder of The Debt Collective: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67518491 For more on quantitative easing: Episode 143 - Paul Sheard: What Is Quantitative Easing?: https://www.patreon.com/posts/71589989?pr=true Episode 59 - Warren Mosler: What Do Central Banks Do?:https://www.patreon.com/posts/39070023 For more on the meaning of endogenous and exogenous money, listen to our episode 43 - Sam Levey: Understanding Endogenous Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/35073683 For more on the MMT Job Guarantee (the targeted spending Professor Wray refers to in this episode), Pavlina Tcherneva lays out why the Job Guarantee is core to Modern Monetary Theory in Episode 148: https://www.patreon.com/posts/73211346?pr=true “WHAT IS MONEY?” by A Mitchell Innes: https://www.community-exchange.org/docs/what%20is%20money.htm     Quick MMT reads: Warren’s Mosler’s MMT white paper: http://moslereconomics.com/mmt-white-paper/ Steven Hail’s quick MMT explainer: https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-modern-monetary-theory-72095 On government debt: “Some Numbers Are Big. Let Me Help You Get Over It”: https://christreilly.com/2020/02/17/some-numbers-are-big-let-me-help-you-get-over-it/   For a short, non-technical, free ebook explaining MMT, download MMT founder Warren Mosler’s “7 Deadly Innocent Frauds Of Economic Policy” here: http://moslereconomics.com/wp-content/powerpoints/7DIF.pdf     Episodes on monetary operations: Episode 20 - Warren Mosler: The MMT Money Story (part 1): https://www.patreon.com/posts/28004824 Episode 126 - Dirk Ehnts: How Banks Create Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/62603318 Episode 13 - Steven Hail: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Banking, But Were Afraid To Ask: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41790887 Episode 43 - Sam Levey: Understanding Endogenous Money: https://www.patreon.com/posts/35073683 Episode 84 - Andrew Berkeley, Richard Tye & Neil Wilson: An Accounting Model Of The UK Exchequer (Part 1): https://www.patreon.com/posts/46352183 Episode 86 - Andrew Berkeley, Richard Tye & Neil Wilson: An Accounting Model Of The UK Exchequer (Part 2): https://www.patreon.com/posts/46865929    Episodes on inflation: Episode 7: Steven Hail: Inflation, Price Shocks and Other Misunderstandings: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41780508 Episode 65 - Phil Armstrong: Understanding Inflation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40672678 Episode 104 - John T Harvey: Inflation, Stagflation & Healing The Nation: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52207835 Episode 123 - Warren Mosler: Understanding The Price Level And Inflation: https://www