Do Taxes Fund Spending?

But, of course, this is the whole point of ¡°Modern Monetary Theory¡± ¨C as I regularly and apparently irritatingly point out, the first word of that phrase is an adverb modifying the adjective, not an adjective modifying the noun. It¡¯s a theory of modern monetary systems, not a modern theory of monetary systems. That¡¯s why people shouldn¡¯t be surprised to find that there¡¯s not much to it that wasn¡¯t in Keynes. The word ¡°modern¡± here means ¡°not gold standard¡± and it is meant to describe a system in which the government sector is able to issue IOUs which don¡¯t need to be paid back; money. That changes things a lot.

Daniel Davies discusses the semantics and substance of Keynesian theory and MMT. [more inside]
posted by mark k at 9:16 PM PST - 13 comments

The Fullbright Paradox: The Fulbright Paradox Race and the Road to a New American Internationalism (should be the paywall free link), published in Foreign Affairs, is far more than the promised retrospective of J. William Fullbright's career and how it has led to and influenced contemporary events (though it is that). It also points out the foreign policy decisions of Fulbright and his contemporaries were, in fact, based on an internalized belief in racial hierarchy, in which white supremacy shaped decisions and, indeed, history. As such, non-white countries were in some ways deliberately stymied in achieving global parity on an economic or social level. [more inside]
posted by CSE279 at 8:13 PM PST - 8 comments

The Shanti Sena Mini-Manual pretty accurately sums up the way the Rainbow Family of Living Light deals with violent situations when they arise at Gatherings. [more inside]
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 5:05 PM PST - 22 comments

Xi Jinping Aims to Rein In Chinese Capitalism, Hew to Mao¡¯s Socialist Vision Mr. Xi¡¯s conviction: Chinese socialism under sole control of the party will prevail over U.S.-style capitalism. [more inside]
posted by jcrcarter at 3:57 PM PST - 43 comments

The Writers Guild of America "Find a Writer" search is fun. IMDb has a ton of ads these days and the WGA site is, in contrast, calm and text-based. See TV and movie writing credits for writers such as Naren Shankar, Gretchen J. Berg, Glen A. Larson, Susannah Grant (the writer of Erin Brockovich), Jane Espenson, Callie Khouri (the writer of Thelma and Louise, who also evidently worked on a pilot with Steven Bochco), and Joss Whedon's father and grandfather. Or check out the season-by-season writing staff of shows such as Psych or Saturday Night Live. And if you search for "pilot" and choose the "other" tab you see a long list of intriguing TV pilots that did not make it to series.
posted by brainwane at 9:29 AM PST - 3 comments

America is a pyramid scheme. ¡°It relies on people buying into the American Dream and then working hard to get to the top. But of course - almost no one does. Beneath each successful person in America is a downline of unpaid and underpaid labor.¡± So reads the buried lede in Anne Helen Petersen¡®s insightful interview with Meg Conley where they discuss 'LulaRich,¡¯ a baffling story of greed, crime, and crappy leggings. What shape is more sustainable (and more delicious) than a pyramid? A doughnut.
posted by ReginaHart at 9:18 AM PST - 46 comments

Because I guess there's a Canadian election today.
posted by clawsoon at 7:34 AM PST - 399 comments

How the world got Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopia so wrong "In less than two years, Abiy has gone from darling of the international community to pariah, condemned for his role in presiding over a protracted civil war that, by many accounts, bears the hallmarks of genocide and has the potential to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region." [more inside]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 5:38 AM PST - 7 comments

Award-winning Cherokee writer, activist and journalist Rebecca Nagle [??? ????. ??? ??? ??.] has focused the second season of her This Land podcast (previously, previouslier) on a Texas foster care case that is turning out to be something much more ominous: a far right federal trojan horse using Native children, and aiming for the wholesale dismantling of American Indian rights in the U.S. [more inside]
posted by progosk at 3:21 AM PST - 15 comments