What’s New
Real Progressives is always progressing. Here’s what’s new for us lately and what we’re working on.
Real Progressives’ New Website Is Up!
If you’ve been reading our newsletter for the past few months, you’ll recall we’ve been talking about our brand new upcoming website for a while now. Well, it’s finally here – and it looks really great!
What We’ve Got
The website opens with an engrossing slideshow mini-documentary about why the New Deal was needed, what it accomplished, and how its gains were destroyed. The presentation is so good that it inspired the inimitable J.D. Alt to write an article, which now accompanies it. These two items serve as a fantastic springboard into the rest of the website.
This site really hammers home the conceptual structure of Real Progressives that is the Seven Knowledge Areas (Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, Peace with Justice, Equality, Democracy, Health and Nutrition, and Technology) and Four Pillars (Education, Policy, Activism, and Media). In the Environmental Justice Knowledge Area section, for example, one will find resources on environmental-focused education, policy, activism, and media. Organizing the website around this concept will really help visitors understand the targeted strategies that define our organization – and help us, as well, in quickly locating and helping to spread information. We aspire to be a trusted and widely-used resource in electronic research.
Of course, MMT being the cornerstone of our movement, Modern Monetary Theory gets its own standalone section. This is currently divided into three topics: Federal Debt, Taxation, and Rebuttal articles. To that end, we also have an RP Bookshelf section for easy access to academic works on MMT and progressive literature in general.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” We were there for the first two bits of this process and have endured much in the way of being ignored and laughed at. As we move now into the “fighting” stage of this disruptive endeavor of ours, our About Us section documents a history in which Real Progressives – and Steven Grumbine personally – smashed through the walls of intelligentsia like a wrecking ball, bringing MMT out of the ivory towers directly into the center of the national conversation. We are proud to see the work being done in the mainstream now – Stephanie Kelton on news shows, best-selling economics textbooks, and the Forbes and Bloombergs of the world pulling out their collective hair – but it wasn’t always this way. Our About Us section also features a photographic trip down memory lane all the way back to the early days. We hope to see your face there one day too – the hard part is just getting started.
What’s Coming
- Dreadnought Media. The Dreadnoughts were iron boats that changed the course of naval warfare forever, overtaking the opposition with newer, better ideas. In the midst of this world of propaganda and “mindfare,” Real Progressives’ media platform aims to be that Dreadnought, taking down failed modes of thinking with indisputable information and analysis and building a “sea change” in how these issues are discussed and handled. We will feature podcasts, short and longer videos, documentaries, interviews, lectures, and much more.
- Why does Houston have a better economy than Detroit? Our “Race to the Bottom” Interactive Map will be a hover-and-click resource showing the state of each area’s economic conditions, complete with information on what’s gotten them there. Net job creator states and cities are the ones that are succeeding, of course; so we will examine what’s gotten them there as well.
We hope to see you there! Come check it out!
The Con: A Tale of the Greatest Bait and Switch in Human History
It’s common knowledge that the economic system is rigged against the poor in a continuous effort to maintain the wealth and power of the ruling elite. The Con gives us specific knowledge of how it’s rigged in gory detail. Patrick Lovell and Eric Vaughan dissect the 2008 financial crisis like a criminal investigation in this 5-part docuseries, unraveling one homeowner’s story and following it to the rot at the center of a whole financial apparatus – the toxic, greed-inflated web precipitating the Great Recession. The whole thing, Lovell admitted, “went way further than I ever thought”.
As our entry point to the scam, the first episode examines the tragic story of Addie Polk. Her case is like a textbook model of the chain of overlapping predatory lending practices that wrought devastation and destruction to multitudes of poor and middle class families. According to Lovell, the point of the series is to empower rather than overwhelm; you don’t need an MBA in economics to track down what happened, as greed isn’t complicated. “It’s not rocket science, it’s corruption” he said.
The series is heavy on the detail, if low on hope for the greed-incentivized financial world’s capacity to change. “What we’ve created is a system that is an incubator and factory of deception,” said Lovell. “It’s a failure of institutions, and a failure of our system.” The Con is in virtual theaters now, you can find it at the links below, and it should be mandatory viewing for anyone still not completely radicalized against this unjust and theft-oriented pyramid scheme economy.
Watch episode 1 HERE.
Find virtual theaters HERE.
August National Outreach Call, On Video: #Unis4All
If you missed our August National Outreach Call, you’re in luck. You can watch the webinar presentation HERE.
Ben Wilson and Scott Ferguson are working with the MMT community to develop the plan for a new university-issued currency, the Uni. According to our guests, the Uni’s value extends beyond immediate financial practicalities. The project can use the university as a proxy for reformulating the macro economy on a micro scale, creating real-world experience pushing the modern money agenda forward.
In addition to the National Outreach Call, we also have an episode of Macro N Cheese dedicated to this subject. This is a rare opportunity: check out Ben and Scott talking about the Uni on the podcast then watch them answer audience questions in the webinar.
In case you missed July’s call with Bill Black, Patrick Lovell, and Eric Vaughan on their Docu-Series The Con (mentioned above), you can watch it HERE.
Real Progressives’ Media Library
In case you missed them, we wanted to make sure you listen to these three excellent MACRO N CHEESE podcasts.
The World of Angrynomics with Mark Blyth
PODCAST: World-renowned economics professor and accomplished author/podcaster/speaker Mark Blyth joins us this week to discuss MMT, the variants of capitalism, and the current culmination of the populist anger outlined in his new book Angrynomics, co-authored by Eric Lonergan. The book, in brief, is a revolutionary, yet practical solution for an economically unjust world brought into clear focus by the Covid19 pandemic.
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Banking Surveillance and Racial Taxation with Raúl Carrillo
PODCAST: Racialized taxation manifests in many ways – the disparity in public schools due to the inequities in local property tax funding schemes are just one such way. What one may not realize is the intrinsic connection between racialized taxation and private digital currency. For instance, we also have racialized surveillance; and private digital currency is definitely in the surveillance business. Raúl Carrillo breaks it all down in this informative interview.
Paying Ourselves to Save the Planet: An MMT Story with J.D. Alt
PODCAST: J.D. Alt joins Steve Grumbine to talk about his new book, Paying Ourselves to Save the Planet: A Layman’s Explanation of Modern Monetary Theory. After realizing that there are things we need as a society that don’t generate a profit, and exploring why it’s said the federal government “can’t afford” these things, J.D. Alt began his journey into MMT. This intellectual journey is replete with thoughtful insights and is a good resource for MMT beginners – and experts.
Meme of the Month
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