Sorry, what? This is the free speech warrior?

Ghost is open source software capable of being self-hosted by anyone. They offer hosting services for a fee.

That is a long, long cry from intentionally soliciting & paying 'talent' in the way Substack does.

But more importantly,
the idea that the problem is 'terrorists and pedophiles' may be able to publish content, rather than a large commercial platform deliberately amplifying certain prominent voices with its VC money, is the kind of argument spooks and cops use to suppress individual expression.
"The NYT shouldn't solicit and publish Tom Cotton's warmongering lies, i'm going to resign and host my own Wordpress blog instead"

"OMG you know terrorists and pedophiles can get a Raspberry Pi and host a WP site, right? Pre-tty hy-po-cri-ti-cal"

"...What?"
I deal with a very similar and equally bullshit argument all the time in the context of financial infrastructure. It's like equating the fact cash can be used by bad actors with HSBC intentionally laundering cartel money. If you can't tell the difference you're an idiot.

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More from @rohangrey

9 Apr
Interest rate policy is:

- a blunt tool with lots of negative side effects
- by definition not targeted to the actual source of inflation
- potentially counterproductive due to contradictory effects of income channel vs price channel
- usually considered to exclusion of all else
New Keynesians have for years relied on interest rate adjustments to singlehandedly manage inflation outside of the ZLB/ELB, as Jason's own thread asserted.

What's the point in acknowledging it's shortcomings if you're just going to default back to knee-jerk reliance on it?
It's like someone looking for their keys a mile from where they lost them because that's where the light is, someone points out it's not where they lost them, and they say 'I agree, my search approach has shortcomings but I'm still gonna search here first".

Why? What the hell?!
Read 17 tweets
7 Apr
Watching leftists and people whose ostensible raison d'etre come to the defense of Substack by criticizing Ghost is pretty sad.

By any objective metric, a non-profit that provides a f/oss product capable of being self-hosted, and which funds the development of that product via
paid hosting services, is far more aligned with progressive values re: concentrated economic power and platform censorship than a VC-funded, for-profit company that solicits big names by paying them advances, and giving them employee-like benefits without actually hiring them.
The real question shouldn't be "why are Nathan and others leaving Substack for Ghost", it should be "why the hell didn't you all move to Ghost in the first place, and why aren't you doing it now independent of Nathan et al's reasons for doing so?"
Read 8 tweets
7 Apr
I get that someone like Breyer is positionally almost required to say this kind of stuff, but to pretend like Bush v Gore didnt represent a profound challenge to the long term health of this worldview is frankly dishonest.
Bush v Gore wasn't just a matter of favoriting conservative causes, it showed - similar to the Whitlam dismissal in Oz - that when push comes to shove the fiction of a clean separation between elected and non-elected branches is not enough to sustain/protect democratic values.
"Oh well but notice we didn't take up any election cases this time around" - so what? Is that supposed to make people feel better? Every election cycle, are we expected to just cross our fingers and hope that whatever makeup of the Court at the time resembles 2020 more than 2000?
Read 6 tweets
18 Feb
🚨🚨🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨🚨🚨

@AyannaPressley Unveils Historic Federal Job Guarantee Resolution.

pressley.house.gov/media/press-re…
The resolution draws on historical Civil Rights leaders like Coretta Scott King & economists like Sadie Alexander, & is supported by a wide coalition including @policylink, @NatlJobsForAll, @thepublicmoney, @SEIU, @sunrisemvmt, @CPDAction, @ACREcampaigns, @ourmoneyus, @NelpNews
@AyannaPressley: “It’s time to establish a legal right to a job for all people in America. For years, we have legislated hate, harm & injustice ... It’s long past time to pursue bold, intentional policies that affirm equity & recognize the dignity & humanity of all people.”
Read 16 tweets
17 Feb
As someone who has been aggressively advocating for recurring $2k checks for the duration of this crisis, I couldn't agree more.

As @RaulACarrillo & I argued in our debate over UBI with Matt Bruenig, a standalone UBI does not challenge the capitalist system of production.
Of course, that is not to say we shouldn't argue for better wages and generous income supports to those who need it. Rather, it's that we need to be clear about what we're arguing for, why, and what the endgoal is.

More on that here:

rohangrey.net/files/equalpay…
I'm reminded of that quip that it's easier for some people to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

Leftists proposing big, transformative macroeconomic policies must be able to imagine a world beyond the cash nexus, or we're all fucked.
Read 4 tweets
17 Dec 20
Some thoughts on @nic__carter's piece on regulating stablecoins:

1. Nic is correct that "fiat-backed stablecoins are simply a crypto-native wrapper for commercial bank dollars." That is exactly the problem.

2. Nic is also correct that the *actual*

coindesk.com/nationalizing-…
debate we should be having is whether stablecoin issuers should be regulated via a new federal money transmitter charter or via updated bank chartering laws. What he gets wrong about the STABLE Act is that it specifically allows regulators to create new rules for narrow banks,
so that the relevant choice is not between a 'vanilla banking license' and a new money transmitter license, but between a narrow bank license and a money transmitter license.

3. Nic is wrong that with stablecoins, "the representation of value is simply leaving the commercial
Read 15 tweets

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