Maren Poitras

USA | 2023 | 95 min

NSW Premiere

Rated PG

Finding the Money follows the economist Stephanie Kelton on a journey through the controversial Modern Money Theory (MMT), the heterodox economic policy model that reframes our understanding of government funding, spending, and national debt. 

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Kelton provocatively asserts the American National Debt Clock that ticks ominously upwards in New York City is not actually a debt for taxpayers at all. Instead, Kelton describes the national debt as simply a historical record of the number of dollars created by the US federal government currently being held in pockets, as assets.

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Whilst top economists and politicians from across the political spectrum condemn the theory as “voodoo economics”, Kelton traces the conflict all the way back to the story we tell about money, injecting new hope for democracies around the world to tackle the biggest challenges of the 21st century: from climate change to inequality.

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The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director Maren Poitras and Gabbie Bond, Administrator at Modern Money Lab and Modern Monetary Theory & Ecological Economics Adelaide, and Prof. Julianne Schultz Founding Editor of the Griffith Review.