Macro N Cheese

Modern Monetary Theory is often accused of only being relevant to the US. While this is a ridiculous claim, some of us might be a bit guilty of lacking in-depth knowledge about Africa and developing nations. That ends today. We’re excited to introduce our listeners to Ndongo Samba Sylla, whom we met at the 3rd International MMT Conference where he delivered the keynote on “Money, Imperialism, and Development.” Fadhel, an old friend of this podcast, needs no introduction. Ndongo is an expert on the CFA Franc, a currency imposed on the former French colonies in Africa, who cannot achieve monetary sovereignty until they rid themselves of it. To provide context, he and Fadhel talk about the meaning of monetary sovereignty from an MMT perspective. It is important not to confuse it with political sovereignty. Political independence is limited without it. For full monetary sovereignty, a country must issue its own currency, tax the population in its own currency, be able to issue debt in the national currency (i