Thread by @doctorow

Finding The Money is a new documentary about #ModernMonetaryTheory, a heterodox, exciting, and fascinating way to think about where money comes from and what it means for governments to run "deficits."

findingmoneyfilm.com

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It features the work of @StephanieKelton, a brilliant economist whose lectures illuminate the subject of money as a public utility that can be used to address existential crises like the climate emergency and (as we're seeing), the pandemic.



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(Kelton also has a new book about this, "The Deficit Myth": "Deficits can enrich a small segment of the population, driving inequality to new heights, while leaving millions behind. Or they can be used to sustain life and build a more just economy.")

stephaniekelton.com/book/

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The pandemic is validating MMT's core hypothesis: that governments don't build capacity by saving money (governments create money by typing numbers into spreadsheets).

They build capacity by SPENDING money.

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No amount of government cash reserves can make more ventilators available for sale.

But if we hadn't cut the budget that maintained California's stockpile of ventilators, masks, and ENTIRE TRANSPORTABLE HOSPITALS in 2008, we'd have them today.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/29/gri…

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As Kelton says in the documentary: finding money is the easiest part.

"Instead of asking ‘how will you pay for it?’ we should ask ‘how will you resource it?’ This debate can change everything about policy from the health of our pocketbooks to the health of the planet."

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The trailer makes this look like an amazing project. The trick of the finance sector has been to surround its work with performatively dull, shitty math and jargon to exclude the public from the debate. This kind of debullshittification is crucial.

vimeo.com/387886793

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Meren Poitras, the director, is seeking donations to finish the film:

charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/…

(I gave).

eof/