Thread by @MarkVinPaul

The GND is on the move. Biden is now promising $2T in green spending. House Select Committee offered up a big report this summer. Voters are demanding green stimulus. But how should we finance a GND? @aldatweets & I have thoughts. THREAD 1/ dissentmagazine.org/online_article…

First, let's recognize that we live in a mixed economy. Decarbonization is going to require large amounts of both public and private spending. A recent proposal by @STOmarova calls for a National Investment Authority (NIA) has been getting some attention. dataforprogress.org/memos/voters-s…

First, I want to say that our aim is to promote healthy debate on the left as we all grapple w/ these big and thorny questions. I believe we share many of the same goals as @STOmarova, though we disagree over some details, and details matter. 2/

.@STOmarova tries to do a lot all at once. This can be both a feature and a bug. There's something to be said to creating something big and new, even if it's a bit clunky. Importantly, it tries to answer the “how will you pay it?” question that forever haunts climate activists 3/

Specifically, it proposes to create 2 new government-owned corporations. 1) a national infrastructure bank (spot on); 2) a national capital management corporation, or “Nicky Mac,” which is essentially a public option for private equity. The second proposal is where we split. 4/

Nicky Mac seeks to create "new form of public-private partnership, in which the public leads and private capital follows.”

BUT it would pay back private capital for these investments by giving them a share of expected economic growth, perhaps in the form of dividends. 5/

This amounts to subsidizing private capital to help solve a problem that doesn't exist. These investments could simply be financed via traditional deficit spending, though the politics are complicated there. That said, NIA would still need to be enacted via Congress 6/

Rather than seeding power to Wall Street, why not fight directly for making spending on nonprofit, shared goods a *public* investment?

Of course, criticism is cheap. What should we do instead? Well, read the article in @DissentMag to find out! /fin dissentmagazine.org/online_article…