Money Archives - Public Seminar

Finance

Platforms, Payments, and Ponzi Schemes

A review of Rachel O’Dwyer’s Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform

May 1, 2024 • by Paulo L. dos Santos

Electronic platforms can also be thought of as a distinctive type of “terrain” that, like land, can define specific types of revenue and power for those who control them. ...

Corporations

Camden Got Answers—And They Revealed A Lot

So much money for big corporations, not many jobs for local residents

March 9, 2023 • by Pat Garofalo

disclosure can be a powerful tool for uncovering exactly how flawed particular subsidy deals really are. We never would have known how few local residents these heavily subsidized corporations were hiring without a committed group of activists using the available legal tools to implement a new disclosure regime....

Camden Got Answers—And They Revealed A Lot

Politics

What You Don’t Know Can’t TIF You

Pretend something isn’t a problem and it goes away, right?

September 29, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

TIFs date back to the 1950s, and every state except Arizona has them in one form or another. There are thousands upon thousands of TIF districts all across the country. Chances are decent you’ve heard about one in your local area....

Economy

The Wall Street Journal Resurrects Mandeville

Do poor Americans have too much?

September 27, 2022 • by David Lay Williams

According to a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Phil Gramm and John Early, the problem is not that the wealthiest Americans have seen their fortunes dramatically explode. It is rather that the poorest Americans have too much! ...

The Wall Street Journal Resurrects Mandeville

Higher Ed

The Best Student Debt Forgiveness? Discharge Loans Already Paid

But to do that, the Department of Education would have to release its data

September 21, 2022 • by Susan F. Feiner

Today, in some states you can even lose your driver’s license due to unpaid student debt. Senior citizens on Social Security can have their monthly checks garnished by student loan debt collectors without a court order, an authority that is unique. Other borrowers have had wages, alimony, or IRS tax ...

The Best Student Debt Forgiveness? Discharge Loans Already Paid

Uncategorized

The Invention of Money

April 12, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

The invention of money -- discussed last week by Julia Ott -- is one of the greatest of all human inventions, comparable to the invention of the wheel, if not quite up to the discovery of fire. If we situate this invention in the context of the class we can ...