Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Presented by Bridge Bank. Be bold. Venture wisely. I'm Danper Mack. On today's show, coronavirus throws U.S.

business into chaos, and big tech may face a new antitrust boss.

But first, the Bernie economy. So we are less than 24 hours from the start of Super Tuesday,

when 14 states will make their presidential primary picks. And despite Joe Biden's big win in

South Carolina and Pete Buttigieg's campaign suspension, it seems most likely that Bernie Sanders will wake up on Wednesday with a commanding delegate lead.

So it is worth exploring exactly how Sanders understands the U.S. economy, given his loud pronouncements about fundamentally changing it.

To be clear, I am not talking here about socialism versus capitalism.

Instead, this is about traditional monetary theory, which most political candidates subscribe

to, versus modern monetary theory, which Sanders tacitly endorses.

As Axios Marcus editor Dionne Rubin writes this morning,

traditionalists on both sides of the political aisle usually view government policy

kind of like a household

budget with a fixed capacity for earning and for spending.

And a new spending must be offset by cuts elsewhere or by increased revenue.

Otherwise the deficit becomes too large to handle.

But modern monetary theory, or M.M.T, basically says that the deficit itself is irrelevant because the U.S.

government can repay its debts by simply printing more money without necessarily resulting in

inflation.

Kind of like how our deficits have ballooned under the Trump administration, but inflation has not.

Why it matters is that this theory is the answer when people ask Bernie,

how are you going to pay for it? Even though Sanders himself hasn't quite figured out how to

...