Ep 24 [2/2]: Joe Firestone: The Treasury, Fed, Coronavirus, and Homer Simpson

Welcome to episode 24 of Activist #MMT. Today is part two of my conversation with PhD political scientist, author, and MMT-er Joe Firestone (Twitter/@joefirestonephd). In this second part of a two-part episode (here is part one), Joe and I read through and talk about Pavlina Tcherneva's article, What Would Roosevelt Do?. The article describes her prescription for how our government should respond to the coronavirus health crisis. We then discuss the mechanics of how the Treasury and Federal Reserve work together in order to fund Congresses agenda, particularly focusing on how the Fed auctions off treasuries. The revenue of those auctions is destroyed (as is all federal revenue), but the amount collected is the amount that the Fed is authorized to fill in the Treasury's spending account. That is then what actually "pay for stuff." The idea that the revenue from treasury-sales is destroyed and then immediately recreated (issued) reminds me of my favorite moment of my favorite Simpson's episode: That moment involves an ice cream cone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b44t_VCfG70 We also address the ideas of means testing and revenue sharing. More resources and thoughts can be found in the description to episode one. #LearnMMT For an overview of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) with many reliable sources to learn more, here is a good place to start: The original livestream from which this audio comes. On the web: My layperson intro with many expert sources listed at the bottom. On Twitter: My massive pinned tweet with expert sources and layperson tutorials. On Facebook: Follow this podcast :) The pinned post contains the above web-article. Also, the pinned post on Modern Monetary for Real Progressives contains a wealth of information. Please become a monthly patron of Activist #MMT We shouldn't have to beg, but we do have to beg. So it's not *that* we beg, but *who* we beg. I am choosing to beg you, my listeners, to financially support this show. $1 patrons are very much appreciated. Every little bit helps. Thank you. $5 patrons get exclusive access to episodes (generally) four days before they are released to the public, and exclusive "patron only remixes". $10 patrons get much earlier access to episodes – sometimes weeks in advance. To be clear, all episodes of Activist #MMT are free for all, forever. Patrons only get the opportunity to hear them before the public. Take a listen. If you like what you hear, thank you for considering becoming a patron of Activist #MMT (here: https://www.patreon.com/activistmmt). ✌️, ❤️, and #MMT 🦉