Jeff Spross

Can someone explain to me what the fuck the Biden administration thinks it’s achieving by escalating in Ukraine like this? And how it’s worth the attendant risks?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/opinion/trump-cabinet-hegseth-defense-secretary.html

Instead, they insisted the solution lay in the black box known as “culture.” How is culture changed? No one knows.

I figured this was just an annoying tick of the conservative mind. 2016 and onward taught me that, no, progressives and liberals absolutely have their own version of this hang-up. 2/2

During the Obama years, I was constantly frustrated by conservatives who simply refused to credit the idea that better economic conditions (full employment, high wages, low poverty) could reverse the decline of marriage or repair decaying social fabrics. 1/2

I am always puzzled by this line of argument: “We need to stop thinking the causes of Trumpism lie in material conditions we could change through policy, and realize the problem instead lies in the souls of our fellow Americans.”

Okay, so… what’s the plan then?

There’s a version of this problem in the private economy as well. But it hits different, since there, “merit” and “qualification” are not defined by small-d democratic deliberation, but by the whims of our small, oligarchic population of capital owners.

This was the fundamental problem with Democrats running around asking how anyone could vote for Trump over Clinton or Harris, when the latter two were obviously so much more “qualified” for the position.

Ultimately, there is no way to define “qualifications” or “merit” for a public post that is purely technocratic or ideologically neutral. Inevitably, your definition will smuggle in *some* partisan political vision for what sort of country and institutions we should have.

(Also, meant to end that first sentence with an exclamation point, not a period. :) An instance where the emotional valence of punctuation matters.)

YouTube video by ABCs of MMT Money Growth Does Not Cause Inflation! - John T. Harvey

Glad to hear my piece was useful.

Also, now I’m googling John Harvey, and it looks like someone may have adapted that article into a YouTube video? www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8St...

The National Debt Can Never Become Too Big: Hyperinflation On flows versus stocks, government deficits versus government debt, and why "too much" federal borrowing will never lead to a hyperinflation crisis.

My second of three pieces on why the US national debt can never become “too big.” This time up: why the size of the debt will never generate a hyperinflation crisis, no matter how large it becomes. (And even if the debt is “fully monetized.”) open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

The National Debt Can Never Become Too Big: The Bond Vigilantes A tour through the banking system, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. Federal Reserve, to explain why private investors will never stop buying U.S. government debt.

The first of three posts on why the US national debt will never become “too big.” This one deals with why private lenders will never stop buying US debt. The other two will be on why we needn’t worry about hyperinflation or “crowd out” of private investment. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

Is Providing the World's Reserve Currency a Blessing or a Curse? Why the rest of the world likes to stockpile U.S. dollars. And how lots of folks misunderstand the upsides and the downsides of this situation.

Figured I should get back on the newsletter-writing horse. Since Trump recently threatened to punish countries that drop the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency, here’s an explanation of 1) what a reserve currency is, & 2) is being one a good thing? open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

This week's newsletter will be out in a day or two. For now, re-upping last week’s, which digs through inflation, real wage growth, and the political science of “policy feedback,” to understand why voters aren’t giving Biden higher marks on the economy. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

“Bono and Lawrence Summers” is, like, THE byline of late-stage capitalism.

The jobs recovery from the COVID recession really was a near-miracle of macroeconomic policy. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

Real wages fell for roughly two years under Biden. Americans got poorer, and the bleeding only just stopped. So again, it shouldn’t surprise that Biden’s econ approval is low. But! Real wage growth is finally positive again, and likely to remain so. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

If you want to understand why Biden's economic approval is in the tank—despite all the genuinely beneficial things Dems have done—a good place to start is that Bidenomics' policies really weren't designed with these characteristics in mind.

Dems really should read the political science work on "policy feedback." It's not enough to provide voters w/ material benefits. The policies need to have specific characteristics if voters are to recognize the benefits and reward politicians accordingly. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

Biden Got One Big Thing Wrong On the Economy, and One Big Thing Right Democrats didn’t pass the sort of policies that voters remember and respond to. But, despite inflation, they’ve managed the macroeconomy well. And they’ll probably be rewarded for it.

It may seem counterintuitive to say, but Bidenomics was not designed to illicit goodwill from voters. That said, it’s managed the macroeconomy well, and that fact will probably pay political dividends for Dems before Election Day 2024. open.substack.com/pub/theworkb...

No One is Kenough yes I'm doing Barbie discourse three weeks too late

“Human beings need other human beings. All of us. You might be inclined to lament that fact, and you’re entitled to if you want. But you don’t get to choose to be self-sufficient, any more than you can choose to not require oxygen or water.” freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/no-one-is-...

“We go into explanation with the TV shows we have.” 😆

We Want Banks to Do Two Mutually Contradictory Things Banks make loans. And they provide us with a money system. But those are two very different economic functions, for which voters and regulators have completely incompatible expectations.

A “big picture” look back at the SVB crisis: Banks make loans. But they also provide us with a money system. And those are two very different functions, for which our society has completely incompatible expectations. https://open.substack.com/pub/theworkbench/p/we-want-banks-to-do-two-mutually

A useful mental exercise is to imagine technological innovations entering an economy w/ a much different political order: say, one w/ a genuine soc dem welfare state, & in which every company was a worker-owned democracy. https://open.substack.com/pub/theworkbench/p/every-technological-change-is-an

Every Technological Change Is an Opportunity for the Owners to Rob You: Hollywood Edition Streaming and artificial intelligence were not destined to be threats to actors and writers. The problem is that Hollywood's workers don't control how that technology is deployed.

This week's newsletter uses the Hollywood strikes as an example of how technology is not *inherently* a threat to workers, but is made into a threat by how we've structured the rules of markets and ownership. https://open.substack.com/pub/theworkbench/p/every-technological-change-is-an

If Trump Voters Don't Care About Their Own Material Circumstances, What Are We Even Doing Here? An extremely common lament among progressives renders their own political stances incoherent, and leads to practical dead ends.

There's a common lament that Trump voters are indifferent to any improvement Dems may make in their material well-being. I've always found it unpersuasive and nihilistic. But even assuming it's accurate, what should we DO? https://theworkbench.jeffspross.com/p/if-trump-voters-dont-care-about-their