pjs
petersheik.bsky.social
pjs
@petersheik.bsky.social
Reposted by pjs
"If the domain in which obligations are formally recorded and enforced is structurally a 'dead zone,' then public money and public accounting can only be trusted insofar as they are kept at arm’s length."
The Utopia of Refusal: David Graeber, Debt & the Left Monetary Imagination
by Will Beaman & Scott Ferguson Note: David Graeber leaves behind a rich and complex body of work that remains influential for leftist thought and practice. Since his passing in 2020, however, …
moneyontheleft.org
November 29, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by pjs
Our featured image for this post comes from Chuck Jones' deliciously self-reflexive Merrie Melodies short Duck Amuck (1953). We chose it because it so vividly demonstrates how any act of erasure requires fresh and hence contestable inscriptions.
November 29, 2025 at 10:36 PM
“This is a moment when solidarity is essential, and we weaken our cause with internal squabbling about tactics, the necessity or inadequacy of nonviolent strategies, and the rest. Keep your eyes on the enemy and the big picture.”
June 11, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by pjs
Dear friends in UK higher ed,
Nothing that is happening in your institution right now is inevitable, unavoidable, or necessary.
The unfolding disaster is not your fault, but it won’t be overcome until we reject the private money paradigm and embrace *both* HE and money as the public goods they are.
June 10, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by pjs
Any future federal digital payments infrastructure must unbundle fiscal policy from public debt management, making clear to the world that legislative action does not redistribute extant funds, but rather creates money afresh every time Congress votes to spend.

moneyontheleft.org/2025/04/01/d...
April 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Liz “MMT” Franczak, we love to see it. ✊
March 7, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Reposted by pjs
Key will be to include the development of new public monetary infrastructures designed to take care of people and environments, rather than to fuel inequality and ecocide. www.aaup.org/article/stop...
Stop Trying to Find the Money—Create It
Despite intensified controversy over university finance during the COVID-19 pandemic, dis­putes about budgeting and spending cuts in US higher education have remained remarkably out of touch with broa...
https://www.aaup.org/article/stop-trying-find-money—create-it#:~:text=Such%20is%20the%20thesis%20of,money%20and%20for%20what%20purpose%3F
February 9, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by pjs
In addition to resisting the dismantlement of the federal bureaucracy with all of our might, now is a critical time to begin imagining & designing new, post-neoliberal public infrastructures for the post-Trump era.
February 9, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by pjs
This essay by @willbeaman.bsky.social is a good place to begin, for those who are interested in MotL's contributions to the debate. moneyontheleft.org/2021/03/23/m...
Money Beyond Sovereignty (Essay)
In her recent interview with the Money on the Left podcast, Lua Yuille offers a helpful critique of how Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is often characterized by proponents as a value-neutral lens tha…
moneyontheleft.org
January 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by pjs
It's very frustrating to see critics of MMT continue to ignore the contributions of @moneyontheleft. Critics need not agree with the MotL approach, of course. Yet to simply omit our work from the scholarly dialog--to wish it out of existence--amounts to incompetence, cowardice, or both.
Monetary sovereignty and the ‘Invisible Leviathan’: the politics of Marx’s theory of money
A debate has recently emerged in Heterodox Economics and Political Economy on the nature of monetary sovereignty, and whether it can be democratized and wi...
durham-repository.worktribe.com
January 4, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by pjs
"Money is a public system. It’s a public utility. It’s inexhaustible. You can always afford to do whatever you can mobilize your community to do."
Community Currencies with Jens Martignoni
Money on the Left speaks with Dr. Jens Martignoni, lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and chief editor of the International Journal of Community Currency Research …
moneyontheleft.org
January 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by pjs
🚨BOYCOTT STARBUCKS🚨

Union baristas are calling on EVERYONE to NOT buy from ANY Starbucks store between Dec. 20 -Dec. 24 while the workers are on strike! Here’s how to support: x.com/sbworkersuni...
December 22, 2024 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by pjs
Boxing is a labor story.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/an-intervi...
December 17, 2024 at 1:51 PM
“On the left, we don’t know how to appeal to people’s deep passions. We think we’re very smart and very critical. But where’s the radical imaginary by which people will be passionately absorbed?”
December 15, 2024 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by pjs
every episode of American Vandal is a work of synthesis that should be required listening for academics of all stripes.

but this one is a doozy: Dr. Cottom and Dr. Grotke go so hard on what education under attack has to learn from the history of HBCUs and has to fear from ponzi private equity
December 2, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by pjs
If we can reclassify banknotes as assets rather than liabilities, then imagine what else we can do. Yes, the magic money tree is inexhaustible. The lesson here, however, is that you can mess with money’s fundamental structures & values in radical & even pro-social ways.
How to modernise central bank balance sheets: no notes
Should we call time on the anachronism of classifying banknotes as liabilities?
www.ft.com
November 29, 2024 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by pjs
Mark Twain on Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England 2 or 3 centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for annually, not oftener, if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians…

1/5
November 28, 2024 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by pjs
This graph replies to the claim Democrats should be less pro trans rights.
Gallup shows that of 22 issues motivating voters' ballots, transgender rights was last.
But support for equal rights is eroding. That should be actively resisted, not run from. Don't let the right set the terms of the debate.
November 26, 2024 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by pjs
It’s our urgent job to show that people don’t need to choose between caring about the fires and storms threatening their homes and their equally urgent need to economically survive.

(6/8)
November 19, 2024 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by pjs
We all need to become eco-populists. That means championing policies that significantly lower daily costs while lowering emissions. Heat Pumps for All, alongside much more robust tenant rights; free and better public transit; price caps on green energy; make polluters pay for the transition.

(4/8)
November 19, 2024 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by pjs
We (me and @lhh.bsky.social) talk a good amount about these dilemmas in in our book Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Here's a Dig interview from just before the election that gives a decent overview if it's of interest: thedigradio.com/podcast/soli...
Solidarity w/ Astra Taylor & Leah Hunt-Hendrix
Featuring Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on their book Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Guest hosted by Micah Uetricht.
thedigradio.com
November 16, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by pjs
What containers can we build/invest in to reinforce and spread more inclusive culture? Not the Dems since they're not a real party. Labor is key but limited. DSA is great but we need to reach people who aren’t already socialists. Campus culture is obsessed over but lotsa folks aren't profs/students.
November 16, 2024 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by pjs
Folks are talking about creating more inclusive culture on the left—and I approve! But culture needs to be grounded in infrastructure and real relationships, not just social media (which incentivizes individualism/sensationalism). This is why I’m always going on about organization and organizing…
November 16, 2024 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by pjs
Economist @mazzucatom.bsky.social: "By not admitting the public side of the value creation process (the public money behind many innovations), we have ended up socializing risks while privatizing reward." evonomics.com/economic-myt...
November 16, 2024 at 4:00 PM