Discussion
This is a fundamental restructuring of public spending, a way out of neoliberalism's violent allergy to the fiscal spending that expands the economy and lifts up the population. It's been nearly a century since the New Deal and Americans are *still* basking in its benefits (where they survive). It is time to renew those benefits:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/03/we-dont-care-we-dont-have-to/#were-the-phone-company
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Austerity can't get us out of a collapsing economy. It is precisely when the private sector withers that the state must step in, providing the income that people need to do the purchasing that makes the private sector possible. After all, money ultimately comes from the government (try making your US dollars and see how far you get). It's only through government spending (and government authorized lending through banks) that money enters our economy.
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When governments stop spending, money - the economy's lubricant - dries up, and the economy grinds to a halt.
Public debt issuance isn't "borrowing" in the sense that you or I might borrow. Governments are not households or businesses. Governments aren't money *users*, they are money *creators*. Governments don't need to "borrow" to create money any more than Starbucks needs to "borrow" to create gift cards redeemable for future mochalattafrappacheenaspressae.
16/
Private debt is a drag on the debtor. State debt is *generative*. It creates the roads, the hospitals, the schools, the educated and healthy populace, needed for the private sector.
To issue Blue Bonds, states - which cannot be forced into bankruptcy - must repeal their disastrous "balanced budget" rules and rules requiring supermajorities to raise taxes.
17/
From Money on the Left: "public deficits are healthy, so long as they support communities and take care of our planet. What is debt but a promise to bring about a desired outcome in the future?"
Trump has destroyed investor confidence in the US economy. The only paths to returns today are flushing your money into the crypto casino or backing giga-mergers that only go through if the companies involved throw sufficient bribes at the tip jar on the Resolute Desk.
18/
Blue Bonds are a safe place for institutional investors seeking a safe haven from kleptocratic chaos.
As the authors say, this is "the true Abundance agenda" - not the "diet Reaganism" of deregulation and sacrifices to the market gods being peddled by the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. A true Abundance agenda "builds robust public systems, including newly chartered public banks, that put people over profits."
19/
Blue Bonds are the good version of Trump's beloved shitcoins. Rather than wildcat money created by and for speculators, Blue Bonds are a source of public prosperity, backed by a present or future Fed under democratic control, accountable to the people. Trump and his fascist pals are all-in on creating as many forms of "money" as there are memes on the internet. Here, at last, is a form of novel money creation that builds a human, shared future.
20/
I'm on a tour with my new book *Enshittification*!
Catch me next in #Cambridge, MA; Washington, #DC and #Brooklyn!
Full schedule with dates and links at:
https://pluralistic.net/tour
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