Advocating the government print money without worrying about paying the bills to guarantee jobs for everyone, Medicare for all, or the Green New Deal is a dangerous approach being pushed by far-left Democrats, former Barack Obama economic advisor Larry Summers told CNBC on Tuesday.
"I don't think this is a realistic calculus," said Summers, blasting the idea of Modern Monetary Theory, backed by self-described democratic socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who last month announced another run for the White House.
"This Modern Monetary Theory, where we can guarantee jobs for everybody or have Medicare for all and just rely on money printing to finance it, I think that is quite a dangerous approach," Summers said in a "Squawk on the Street" interview.
"Countries all over South America have tried it with disastrous results," said Summers, who also was Treasury secretary during Bill Clinton's presidency. He also argued that MMT-like policies were tried and reversed in the early 1980s in France and the late 1990s in Germany.