Scott Ferguson

In the case of this proposal, it can create a situation in which robust public arts programming requires tech companies to make a killing on Gen AI that is socially & ecologically destructive. If companies fail and the market radically contracts, however, there goes the public arts programs.

Of course, there may be strategic political or ideological reasons to pretend to tax-finance public programs, above all because it is legible to the electorate & MMT is scary. But it's important to recognize that such a strategy is fundamentally compromised. It creates perverse incentives.

MMT 101 is a helpful corrective here. If public spending is not, in truth, financed by taxes (or any private source), then predicating pro-social public policies on anti-social private activity only incentivizes said activity.

Next week, an August treat.

"Investors+CEOs must speak out—because the ability to explore, question, +discover isn’t just essential to academia. It’s the engine of innovation, the foundation of markets, and the key to our long-term growth."

silence of pharma, tech CEOs since day 1 against $ interest suggests other interests

Trump’s Rose Garden redesign is in. And critics aren’t impressed Official pictures of the completed refurb project emerged Saturday

"Grok replied: 'It looks ugly.'"

FTP Library Elections & Appointments Training Cohort Hello! You're filling out this form because you've expressed interest in running for or seeking appointment to a local library board seat in your community (or because you're a serving trustee who'd l...

If you think you might want to run or seek appointment to your local library board, we have a 2026 cohort for you. You can sign up now to be alerted when applications open this fall - docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Trump Administration Suspends UCLA Grants After Rights Probe The federal government is suspending certain research funding to the University of California at Los Angeles over concerns about antisemitism and bias on campus, hitting one of the most prestigious public higher-education systems in the US.

The federal government is suspending certain research funding to the University of California at Los Angeles, citing concerns about antisemitism and bias on campus, according UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk

Rather than merely working to restore liberal institutions for the post-Trump era, let's get excited about creating new, robust, & well-financed public provisioning systems that are insulated from liberal austerity & right-wing attacks alike.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down

No words.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down

No words.

Big thanks to @vijaybk.bsky.social for joining us on the Money on the Left podcast this month. We had a fascinating & wide-ranging conversation. Don't miss it!

For fellow New Yorkers: thanks to @jvp.bsky.social, you can easily tell NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli you want him to stop purchasing Israel bonds with state pension funds⤵️
www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/btb...

…We interpret his response as shaped by a moral position grounded in historical experience—one that can, and should, be reincorporated into a renewed, critical monetary populism.”

Read, share and follow @moneyontheleft.bsky.social for the urgent renewal of monetary populism against Fascism.

… the possibilities of credit as enfranchisement. Rather than dismiss his letter or take it at face value, we offer a reparative reading: one that holds Du Bois’s skepticism in tension with the deeper political insight his reply also contains. …

A Forgotten Letter to W.E.B. Du Bois: Monetary Populism and the Scapegoating of Black Political Life by Will Beaman In July 1934, W.E.B. Du Bois received a letter from an Atlanta resident named Gus Reich. We are excited to share both Reich’s letter and Du Bois’s short reply below.  A lay theo…

✍️ A Forgotten Letter to W.E.B. Du Bois✨

“Du Bois, as always, is careful. But his reply reveals how even the most perceptive critics can find themselves caught between traditions—rejecting the burden of credit for an oppressor’s redemption without fully seeing…

moneyontheleft.org/2025/07/31/a...

Lots for historians and abolitionists in here ❤️

Read and share if you like!!!

It’s Time for Complementary Currencies By the Money on the Left Editorial Collective Introduction Zohran Mamdani’s landslide win was not just a local upset—it was a turning point. It proved that member-led, volunteer-powered campaigns c…

At the end of May at the Money Talks (llc.ed.ac.uk/english-and-...) conference at U of Edinburgh I made a similar call: Alt currencies as democratic praxis.
moneyontheleft.org/2025/07/28/i...

I’m in MOTL again (I know a guy there) writing about an amazing artifact of correspondence between W.E.B. Du Bois & a Christian monetary reformer.

I tried to unpack the historical context behind the eccentric letter of Du Bois’s dismissive response, but I am sure there’s so much more to say.

✨✨

Below, @greenbackbetter.bsky.social shares a forgotten correspondence between W.E.B. Du Bois & Christian monetary reformer Gus Reich in order to reflect on the racial complexities of monetary politics in U.S. history. The result is a brilliant meditation on some truly fascinating artifacts.

Missing Matter in Universe Found Using Caltech's DSA-110 radio telescope, astronomers pinpoint whereabouts of "fog" between galaxies.

Now we can finally afford a Green New Deal.

An important article. Please take the time to read it.

How Conservative Christians Cracked a 70-Year-Old Law

Ugh why do NY Times headlines have to be so NY Timesy?

Lol, we used complex math to avoid having to argue with MMT at the level of theoretical framing and first principles.

🤪😂🫠

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

300,000 NYC residents need Albany to plug a $1.2B annual hole—created by Republicans' federal budget cuts to SNAP—just to keep food on the table.

Currently, @governor.ny.gov Kathy Hochul is singing the billionaires' favorite fiscal tune of silence. We must make her sing a new song: #TaxTheRich.

💋

Introducing study mode A new way to learn in ChatGPT that offers step by step guidance instead of quick answers.

The belated introduction of “study mode” really betrays the reckless way in which commercial Gen AI has been rolled out without meaningful governance, dialog, or accountability.

Opinion | Democrats, This Is Our Moment to Lead. We Can’t Blow It.

The Democratic establishment confuses triangulation with leadership and treats stability as a virtue in and of itself. There’s a chasm between what we say and what we deliver. We continue asking voters to show up while we refuse to show up for them.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...