Michael Goodwin

@economixcomix

I wrote Economix, a graphic novel explaining the economy, available here: You must of course steer clear of pirated versions, like this one, right here, at this link, one free click away:

329 Siguiendo363 Seguidores616 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y economixcomix.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· 6d

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· May 5

Foresight is also possible when things are blindingly obvious (eg, check the date on this post).

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Apr 8

Panel: Same scene. Narrator started to walk, but the people from before (“you suck at it.”) are grabbing him back, by the collar or with one of those vaudeville hooks or whatever.

Person: Not so fast.
Narrator: Urk!

Panel: The people speak to Narrator. He’s sheepishly shrugging.

Person 1: So you’re gonna rethink everything from scratch?
Person 2: And we’re supposed to just . . . believe you?
Person 1: You’re just some doof who reads books and writes comics!

Panel: Narrator among the books and screens again.

Caption: Well, first off, I won’t be starting from scratch. I’ll mostly be bringing together other people’s insights.
Narrator: The ideas are already out there!
On every book and screen: Idea

Panel: Narrator holds up Economix.

Narrator: That’s the approach I took when I wrote Economix (2012), a graphic novel that gives the history of the economy.
Arrow to book: Still in print! International bestseller!
Arrow to that arrow: Shameless plug!

Panel: The scene with Biden repairing the car again. We’ve zoomed in on the quote.

Caption: And good insights are everywhere.
Arrow to quote: Remember this? New Tomorrow was just some Twitter rando, but they understood the situation better than the President did.

Panel: A dead older man. He’s lying next to an open bottle that he’s clearly just consumed and poisoned himself; maybe the bottle has spilled. There’s a picture of a horse on the bottle.

Caption: But yeah, dumb ideas are everywhere, too.
On bottle: Ivermectin
In smaller type on bottle: Not for humans!

Panel: A person in a MAGA hat on the left, Narrator on the right.

Caption: (Even a lot of people who see that the system sucks still draw the wrong conclusions.)
On MAGA person’s sign: Down With Big Pharma, “Free Trade,” the Deep State, Wall Street, and the Clintons
On Narrator’s sign: What He Said
On Narrator’s sign, smaller: But For Very Different Reasons

Panel: Narrator speaks. Maybe he’s pointing at the “how do we know things?” entry from the list before?

Narrator: Point being, don’t take anyone’s word for it. Good ideas have evidence behind them.
Small text: Again, there are panel-by-panel references at economixcomix.com/home/politix.

Panel: Now Narrator is walking again, like just before the most recent page break.

Caption: And you haven’t seen much evidence yet, so I’m not asking you to believe me.
Narrator: I’m asking you to keep an open mind.
Narrator, in separate word balloon: Read on!

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Apr 8

Six more pages!

Title: The Movement

Panel: A crowd of rich people. In front we see H.L. Hunt, Mellon/Scaife family, The Koch family, Walton family, Uhlein family, Phil Knight, DeVos family (we only need to see Betsy), Peter Thiel, XX Mercer, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, all labeled. They don’t have to be recognizable; they can be schematic.

Caption: First off: We didn’t get into this mess by chance. It was the work of people.

Panel: Now they, or some of them, are pouring money on a bunch of institutions (Congress, a law court, a Gothic structure, a TV transmitter, an office building, a corporation, a billboard, a church. Or they’re dropping money in the previous panel and it’s falling into this one.

Caption: People who were (and are) so rich they could corrupt our institutions.
Labels on various institutions (or are these needed?):
Congress: Government
Law court: Law
Gothic structure: Academia
TV transmitter: Media
Office building: Think tanks
Corp: Big business
Billboard: Advertising
Church: Churches
Etc.

Panel: Richard Hofstadter points to the crowd in the previous panel (either redrawn or he’s pointing to the panel itself).

Caption: People who worked for this outcome for a very long time.
Hof: “It is at least conceivable that a highly organized, vocal, active, and well-financed minority could create a political climate in which the rational pursuit of our well-being and safety would become impossible.”
Arrow to Hof: The historian Richard Hofstadter in 1964, back when the movement was just getting noticed.

Panel: A rich person looks menacing.

Caption: That’s the first catch: the only way out of this mess is to break their power. And they’re very powerful.

Panel: Narrator speaks.

Narrator: But it can be done. We’ve done it before.

Panel: A Wall Streeter has walked off a cliff, but hasn’t noticed, much like Wile E. Coyote.

Caption: Heck, we can expect them to start the process themselves. While Wall Street is still soaring as I write. . . .

Panel: Now he’s looking down, shocked.

Caption: That will stop at some point. . . .

Panel: Now he’s landed on Trump, Pence, and RFK.

Caption: Which will disproportionally hurt the super-rich and the movement they fund.

Panel: A chart showing share of income in the US high, then falling, then climbing again starting in 1980.

Arrow to 1929-1931: Not coincidentally, the last time we broke the power of the super-rich, we started after a big financial crash (1929). . . .
Arrow to the drop in the early 1940s: Although it took another crisis (World War 2) to complete the process.
Caption by the long period of low inequality. (If you’re nostalgic for when America was great, you’re probably thinking about this period.)
Caption by rise after 1980s: But taming the super-rich only worked for a while.

Panel: The menacing rich person freaks out.

Caption: Next time we need to go farther. Nobody should have that much wealth and power.

Panel: Narrator is shaking the rich person upside down so that a lot of money falls out.

Caption: That means reshaping the economy. Not for efficiency’s sake; for democracy’s sake.
Narrator: The efficiency is just a bonus.

Panel: Narrator points to a list.

Caption: But that brings us to the second catch. Reshaping the economy means rethinking it. And not just the economy—everything.
Narrator: The economy involves everything.
How does the economy work?
How do rich people get rich?
What is democracy?
What is freedom?
How do we know things?
What’s the point, even?

Panel: Narrator caught up in the whirlwind.

Narrator: But we’ll also need to act quickly, with no time to debate every last detail.

Panel: Milton Friedman speaks.

Caption: So we’ll be looking for ideas that are ready to go.
Friedman: “Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.”
Arrow to Friedman: Milton Friedman, economist (1912-2006).

Panel: Narrator reads or points to an Econ 101 text.

Caption: And right now our ideas suck donkey balls.
Narrator: They’re the same ideas that got us into this mess in the first place!

Panel: People are reading a comic.

Caption: So what follows will be an attempt to free our imaginations. To see how we got into this mess in the first place. . . .
Person: What's an "oil depletion allowance"?

Panel: A shining city.

Caption: To imagine a better world. . . .

Panel: The city again, now we see the full landscape with the city in the distance. Narrator and the people in the handbasket are far away the city. They’ve gotten out of the handbasket. Between them and the city, there’s all sorts of obstacles (e.g., a narrow rope bridge, alligators in a lake, all sorts of comical traps). Point being, there’s a way there, but it’s not easy. This could be a continuation of the previous panel if that works.

Caption: And to map out how to get there from here.
Narrator: It’s still possible.

Panel: Narrator is starting to move toward the city.

Narrator: So let’s get started!

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 26

Three more pages!

Panel: Some tiny people look up at a giant Uncle Sam, a giant general, a big elephant-in-a-suit, a big donkey-in-a-suit, a big economist, and a few giant corporations (one of which has a TV for a head, and one of which is the one from the Moderna panels. They’re all looking down very imposingly. The people are straining to push against a corp but it’s not moving.

Caption: People who did see the insanity had a hard time imagining how to change it. . . .

Panel: Caption: Or even what change could mean.
Quote text: Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good? --Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962.

Panel: Now the people from 2 panels ago are still standing around, but all the big things are acting goofy in various ways—stepping on rakes, slipping on banana peels, and so on. Uncle Sam is hitting himself on the head with a hammer. The general is off in some kind of water, gleefully smashing or shooting a small fishing boat with way too much force (like, if he’s shooting it, it’s with a bazooka).

Caption: The point is, as bad as what’s coming will be, it will break that spell.
Person: Um. . . .

Panel: A landlord is in a street; a tenant is sticking their head out a window. The landlord and tenant are wearing masks.

Caption: We got a taste of that with COVID, when the old routines stopped making sense.
Landlord: Time to pay the rent!
Tenant: But I stayed home like I was supposed to. I couldn’t earn money.
Landlord: Time to pay the rent!

Panel: A list.

Panel: A list.

Caption: And we really did come up with a lot of solutions, quickly.
List:
Eviction moratoriums
Debt moratoriums
Unemployment payments that were actually generous for once
Money for businesses, some of which actually went to small businesses and kept them afloat
Straight-up sending checks to people
Some health care for free

Panel: Some people in suits speak at a conference table.

Caption: We were even considering things that had been unthinkable just a few months before.
Person: What if we canceled rent until the crisis is over?
Person: That’d be unfair to small landlords.
Person: Not if we also canceled their mortgage payments.
Person: That’d be unfair to banks.
Person: So? They’re unfair to us.

Panel: Now the landlord from above is gleefully watching as cops drag the person out of the building (i.e., they’re being evicted). Maybe there’s an eviction notice somewhere.

Caption: After that crisis the old ways of thinking returned. . . .
Landlord: We’re back to normal!

Panel: The landlord is now talking to a new tenant; the area is flooded and the landlord is in a boat.

Caption: But that won’t last.
Landlord: Time to pay the rent!
Tenant: Seriously?

Panel: People walking away from the big institutions, which are now going even more insane in comical ways—like, the general with the gun or bazooka is pointing it in his own mouth, or at another of the big figures (Uncle Sam). A corporation is almost falling over (like, arms flailing).

Caption: So as the old ways collapse around us, we’ll have the chance to envision a better world.

Panel: Now the tiny people who were straining before are helping the corporation fall over entirely (i.e., because it was already imbalanced.)

Caption: And to take action to make it happen.

Panel: Narrator speaks. The people from before (“You suck at it”) look on.

Narrator: Not just better than what we have, better than what we had.
Person: Okay, I guess that’s kind of hopeful. . . .

Panel: Same scene. This can be part of the previous panel if that works.

Narrator: But there’s a catch.
Person: Of course there is.

Panel: Same scene. The people are back to chugging booze or whatever.

Caption: Two catches, actually.
Narrator: Read on!

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 23

Three new pages!

Panel: Biden is repairing a car. He’s using a hammer to nudge a wheel back on.

Caption: But with no bigger vision, we just tried to return to the status quo. . . .
Quote: “Here at Joe Biden’s repair shop, we try to put your car back into the exact condition it was 10 seconds before the wheels fell off.” –New Tomorrow, March 2020.
Hammer SFX: taptaptaptap

Panel: Uncle Sam is now driving that car, and the wheels have come off. Some catastrophe is about to happen (like he’s going off a cliff or something).

Caption: And so here we are.
Quote text: “When there is no vision, the people perish.” --King Solomon

Panel: A scene of the Palisades fire burning.

Caption: This lack of vision goes beyond politics. Think of how the 2025 Palisades fire in Los Angeles (the sort of thing we can expect more of as the world heats up). . . .

Panel: Now it’s just burnt-out lots. Gavin Newsom is talking to a crowd from a podium.

Caption: Was followed by this:
Newsom: I’m voiding regulations to help people rebuild!
Crowd member: Rebuild the same type of housing that just burned?
Newsom: Yes!

Panel: A caption box.

Caption: Point being, we’re screwed if we can’t envision a future that’s not just the past. . . .

Panel: A tombstone.

Caption: Because the world we grew up in is gone. No amount of wishing will bring it back.
On tombstone:
The postwar order, 1945-2025
Relatively peaceful
Sometimes democratic
Prosperous for many

Panel: Two of the people in the debauched party are looking at Narrator.
Person 1: Hey, weren’t you supposed to be giving us hope?
Person 2: You kinda suck at it.
Narrator: Yeah, well. There’s no point in pretending things aren’t bad.

Panel: Now Narrator is declining people, or just arms from offscreen, offering him booze, a joint, a syringe, pills, and maybe a laptop with the Baldur’s Gate welcome screen (or just
“Baldur’s Gate”) on it.

Narrator: But that’s exactly why I have hope.

Panel: Narrator is writing on the tombstone, or if it’s hard to show him writing, then just the tombstone with written-in text.
Caption or Narrator: Thing is, a lot was wrong with the world we just left.
Carved on tombstone:
The postwar order, 1945-2025
Relatively peaceful
Sometimes democratic
Prosperous for many
Written on tombstone: But good riddance to a lot of it
Panel: A caption box.

Caption: Like, in May of 2025, the Trump administration canceled a $766 million contract for Moderna to develop new flu vaccines.

Panel: A patient in a hospital bed.

Caption: We’ll feel the evil effects of that soon enough.

Panel: A person hands a stack of cash to a big corp.

Caption: But if things were still “normal,” Moderna would have developed the vaccines and then charged us through the nose.
Person: Why does it cost so much?
Corp: Developing drugs is expensive!
Person: But we paid you to develop it.
Corp: Shut up!

Panel: A bunch of stressed people at computers.

Caption: That was a tiny example, but examples like that added up to a world that was, well, nuts.
Person 1: Guys, I’m exhausted, and my family hasn’t seen me all week. Can we pack it in?
2: Sorry, we have to get this Coke ad done.
1: What happens if we don’t?
Person 3: Children will drink less Coke! Do you want that on your conscience?

Quote text: “Every day we wake up and collectively make a world together; but which one of us, left to our own devices, would ever decide they wanted to make a world like this one?”
― David Graeber, anthropologist

Panel: A fish in a fishbowl that has a little castle in it. In its thought balloon we see the fish and the castle only (ie, not the bowl or the water.)

Caption: The insanity was so pervasive that it could be hard to see.
Quote: “It’s not subtle, but it’s subtle to Americans. They can’t perceive the capitalist atmosphere that they’re bathed in. . . . It’s like if you ask the goldfish the main characteristic of its environment, it would never say water. –Joe Bageant, author.

Panel: One of the stressed people now sits on his couch, exhausted; he’s watching two screens. There’s music coming from speakers. On one of the screens is a baseball game (or other sport); on another is porn. There’s a takeout container nearby. There’s also a phone with an Instagram photo of Paris.

Caption: Like, it was just normal to have no time or energy left for basic human activities, to the point that we had to let specialists do them for us.
Arrow to takeout: Cooking
Arrow to music: Making music
Arrow to baseball: Playing
Arrow to phone, if it’s there: Travel
Arrow to porn: Having sex

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 20

From my new piece; looks like maybe I should post it sooner rather than later.

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 19

The torso and upper legs of a fat man with tiny hands. He's naked except for a tie and a diaper. He's using the Constitution as a diaper.

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 17

First pages (not counting the title page) of a new project.

Panel: A full page. A storm or whirlwind. Some people are caught up in it, including Narrator. In the wind are words, a list of many things that have happened.

Caption: As I’m writing, Donald Trump has been president for less than 10 months.
Narrator: It’s been . . . a lot.
Arrow to Narrator: The author.
List:
DOGE gets the keys of government and all our data
But DOGE is just some dipshit kids who can’t even do math
But now they have our private Social Security info
USAID destroyed, letting 400,000 kids die in X months
A drunk runs the military
An anti-vax killer runs health policy
600 fewer VA doctors
Alzheimer’s research cut
January 6th traitors pardoned
Consumer Protection Financial Bureau dead so banks can cheat us more
Tax cuts for the super-rich
Medicaid cuts
Research on causes of autism shut down
Government will no longer investigate chemical explosions
Suicide hotline funding cut
Trump keeps firing generals who might obey the Constitution instead of him
DHS spends $200 million on ads thanking Trump (at his behest)
Trump seizes $7 billion in school funds
It’s harder to cancel subscriptions now
No more birthright citizenship?
Churches can endorse political candidates
DOGE breaks air traffic control
$2 million for a study on whether DEI causes plane crashes
Israeli pedophile set free
Research on brain cancer in kids cut
No more black lung screenings for coal miners
Medicare claims will be rejected by AI companies, who will get a cut of the savings
Hospitals closing
Airlines no longer have to compensate you when they cancel your flight, even if it’s their fault
Musk decides his self-driving cars can straight-up run you over
Health program for 9/11 survivors gutted
Anti–human-trafficking unit gutted
Great Lakes water protection killed
Man jailed for (accurately) quoting Trump
ICE Assistant Chief Counsel is a racist shitposter
145% tariffs
Wait, no tariffs
Tariffs again
Tariffs against Mattel specifically
Drowning prevention program killed
National Weather …

Panel: The whirlwind continues, with people and Narrator.

Caption: It can be hard to even keep track of the chaos.
Narrator: Here’s some of what happened just on August 1, 2025:
List:
Tariffs go into effect
Corporation for Public Broadcasting closes
Trump fires head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he doesn’t like the stats
RFK JR. demands a study be retracted because he doesn’t like it
Ghislaine Maxwell transferred to cushy, spa-like prison (“Club Fed”) to keep her quiet
Hunger strike at illegal concentration camp

Panel: Narrator checks off marks on a checklist. We don’t see the bottom of the list (like, there’s more than what we see.

Caption: But chaos isn’t just random—it has patterns.
Narrator: And the pattern here is clear.
Checklist title: Signs of Fascism
Checklist:
In process Happening
Government controls what schools and universities can teach 
Secret police take people away without due process 
Science becomes “whatever the leader wants” 
Elections become shams 
Minorities demonized 
Media controlled 
Books banned 

Panel: Uncle Sam is sliding down a slope, leading from Flawed Democracy, to Democratic Backsliding and Competitive Authoritarianism (the downslope), to Full Fascism (a level area on the right).

Caption: The process isn’t complete. . . .

Panel: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries speak. They look lame and low-energy, like Droopy Dog.

Caption: But it’s not like anyone in power is doing much to stop it.
Schumer: “We sent him [Trump] a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions.”
Jeffries: The important thing is bipartisanship.
Schumer: Don’t forget to donate.
Label by S and J: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, bitter disappointments.
Arrow to Schumer quote: Anything in quotation marks and italics is a direct quote.

Panel: A globe with arrows pointing to it.

Caption: And it’s not just the political climate that’s gone mad; it’s the actual climate.
Arrows:
Seas turning neurotoxic?
I…

Panel: More of the whirlwind.

Caption: Something the regime’s actively making worse. . . .
In the whirlwind:
Department of Energy bans words like “emissions,” “sustainable,” or “CO2 footprint”
Federal grants denied if they include the word “bicycle”
Treasury illegally cuts wind and solar tax credits
Team researching the effects of extreme heat laid off
Fuel economy standards to be rolled back?
Trump attacks state climate laws
NOAA stops tracking cost of extreme weather
13 million acres in Alaska opened for drilling
EnergyStar Program, which costs $32 million a year and saves consumers $40 billion, to be killed?

Panel: Farmers are talking to a scientist. There are dead cows around. The farmers are getting progressively wackier (i.e., farmer 3 is wackier than 2, is wackier than 1.)

Caption: Which can only make our politics crazier.
Farmer: Who killed our cows?
Scientist: It was the record heat, which we’ve predicted for decades. . . .
Farmer 2: It was government weather control!
Farmer 3: Destroy their weather radar!
Small text, or arrow to Farmer 3’s word balloon: Yes, antigovernment militias are targeting weather radar.

Panel: Now the people who were caught in the whirlwind are in a debauched party. There’s booze, people undressing, syringes, and so on. Don’t go over the top here—this debauchery will appear more than once and get crazier each time. The whirlwind is happening outside.

Caption: It may seem like there’s no hope.
Person: Might as well enjoy the time we have left!

Panel: More of the party; Narrator is there, but just standing there, not participating.

Caption: But I wouldn’t be writing this if I thought so.
Narrator: There is hope.

Panel: Now Narrator is home, surrounded by books and computer screens. The whirlwind is outside.
Caption: To understand why, we need to get some perspective.
On books and screens:
History
Economics
Psychology
Science
Etc.

Panel: Two people at a bar. A guy is getting histrionically upset. His friend (let’s make her a …

Panel: A march with various signs with the No Kings symbol.

Caption: Most of us are not on board. . . .

Panel: A bunch of people, including at least one in an inflatable frog costume, rush down the street. A whistle sound is coming from where they’re running to (ie, they’re running determinedly toward the sound, not running from anything.)

Caption: Many of us are fighting. . . .
Whistle sound: FWEET FWEET FWEET
Quote text at bottom: “[I] don’t want to downplay the harm [or] make it seem like a fair fight. But in neighborhoods across the city . . . people are running toward ICE to protect neighbors.” -—Sarah Lazare, Chicago journalist, October 22, 2025

Panel: A Zohran victory party.

Caption: And we’re rejecting the old leaders who won’t fight.

Panel: A list.

Caption: If you want to fight, here are some orgs that can help plug you in.
List: No Kings, Resistance Lab, Indivisible, Seed the Vote, Deep Canvass Institute, Justice Power, Immigration Advocates, Movement Voter Project, and May Day Strong if you're part of an organization like a union.

Panel: Narrator in the No Kings march.

Caption: But I’m not writing this to repeat their work. Rather, I’ll look at a different question: What happens if we win?
Narrator: We know what we’re marching against, but what are we marching for?

Panel: A bunch of people, including Narrator, partying wildly in a city park, with champagne bottles popping.

Caption: It might seem like we can leave that discussion for later. It seemed like that in 2020, too.
Arrow to scene: Americans really did celebrate like this when the election was called.
SFX (from cars if visible): Beeeeep
Beeeeep
SFX (from a person banging a pan if visible): Bongbongbongbong

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 12

Panel: A bunch of people are pushing over a big, rectangular slab. It’s not too big for them. We also see, in the background, a big slab with an image of Trump on it, way too big for the people to push over.

Caption: It’s practical, and it’s small enough to be achievable, even in today’s crap situation, even with resistance from both parties.

Panel: A table.

Caption: Speaking of our crap situation: Bunkeddeko, Warshaw, and Goyle don’t just want to get better returns. They want to exert the fund’s power.
Table:
Bunkeddeko Warshaw Goyle
Divest from fossil fuels (which have underperformed the market anyway) [Check] [Check]
Divest from Palantir and firms that enable ICE [Check] [Check] [Check]
Force corporations to stop predatory practices [Check] [Check]
Invest in local affordable housing [Check] [Check] [Check]
Invest in local sports teams (keeping them here) and cultural institutions [Check]
Invest in sustainable power and high-speed rail in New York [Check]
Small text below: (Taken from websites and public statements; no doubt there’s more overlap than this chart shows.)

Panel: The three challengers speak.

Caption: And the comptroller has other powers as well; powers that have been mostly dormant but that the upstarts want to use.

Word balloon pointing to Bunkeddeko: Protect workers!
Word balloon pointing to Bunkeddeko and Warshaw: Protect immigrants!
Word balloon pointing to Warshaw and Goyle: Bring down utility prices!

Panel: The people pushing the slab again. The small slab is falling onto a bigger one, and then a bigger one still, like dominos of increasing sizes. We don’t see the dominos down the line; we only see three.

Caption: All these measures would hurt rich people’s ability to extract our money, which in turn would hurt their ability to corrupt our politics.

Panel: The giant-brained Wall Streeter from before; he’s dumping money on Trump.

Caption: Heck, simply not handing billions to Wall Street would improve our politics.

Panel: Two fully kitted-out ICE agents; they’re the same agent (like, cut and pasted) except one has a QR code on his uniform. This could maybe be the scene of Alex Pretti getting killed (the right side of this image, just show Pretti and the agent with the gun, not the whole scene):

Caption: So while I said this is a small reform, that’s true. But while some small reforms (like Democrats’ dipshit demand that ICE agents wear QR codes) are just band-aids. . . .
Label on first ICE agent or scene: Before
Label on second (with the QR code): After
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ice-agents-to-be-forced-to-wear-clearly-visible-qr-code-under-new-plan/ar-AA1UTHvG?apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1 bright idea

Panel: The people pushing the slab, from another angle. Again, the small slab is falling onto a bigger one, and then a bigger one still, like dominos of increasing sizes. The slabs continue, getting bigger and bigger and circling around, until the last one is the one with Trump on it (that is, the falling slabs will eventually knock over the Trump one).

Caption: Others can turn out to be not small at all.

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 12

Title: The New York State Comptroller’s Race

Panel: We see Thomas DiNapoli.

Caption: Thomas DiNapoli has been New York State comptroller for 18 years. He’s running again this year.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/state-comptroller-dinapoli-faces-rare-primary-challengers/

Panel: Two people talk. They barely care what they’re talking about.

Caption: So why rock the boat? Most people barely know that New York has a comptroller. Nobody even agrees how to say it.
People:
“Komp-troller?”
“Controller?”
Whatevs.

Panel: A list, the people from last panel have been bored to sleep by it.

Caption: And the duties sound like the sort of dull technical details we can safely not pay attention to.
List:
Manage the state pension fund
Administer the state retirement system
Return unclaimed funds
Provide independent fiscal oversight on state, New York City, and local finances
Review state contracts and payments
Uncover waste, fraud, and abuse
Bla bla bla
Person: zzzzzzzz
Source: https://www.osc.ny.gov/about/about-comptrollers-office

Panel: Narrator speaks.

Caption: But we’ve been not paying attention.
Narrator: And it’s been a disaster.

Panel: Narrator speaks.

Caption: But that 39% isn’t compared to the stock market. It’s compared to index funds of the same asset classes (stocks, government bonds, and so on) in the same proportions that DiNapoli invested in.
Narrator: So there’s really no excuse.

Warshaw, ibid, p3.

Panel: Narrator is doing math on an easel or blackboard.

Caption: The state still has to pay the same pensions, so the difference—plus Wall Street’s fees—came out of taxpayers’ pockets, to the tune of $59.1 billion.
Narrator’s math:
~$60 billion
 ~20 million New Yorkers
----------------
= ~$3,000 for every man, woman, and child in New York State.
Narrator: Holy crap.
Source: Warshaw, ibid. p29

Panel: We see Adem Bunkeddeko, Drew Warshaw, and Raj Goyle.

Caption: And here’s the thing: DiNapoli has always run unopposed in the Democratic primary (which is usually the election that matters in New York). But this year, he has three Democratic challengers.
Adem Bunkeddeko
Drew Warshaw, who figured out the numbers in the previous 4 panels.
Raj Goyle

Source: Unopposed: https://www.cityandstateny.com/personality/2025/09/drew-warshaw-wants-cut-out-wall-street-middlemen-managing-state-pensions/408294/

Panel: Narrator speaks.

Caption: What changed this cycle? Maybe the fact that challengers could qualify for the matching funds. (All 3 did.)

Panel: The giant-brained guy hands DiNapoli some money, but not as much as DiNapoli handed him.

Caption: And if one of them wins, the new matching funds will be a big reason; DiNapoli is well funded.
Source: DiNapoli has $1.4 million in his war chest as of late January, https://nypost.com/2026/01/25/us-news/long-shot-comptroller-candidate-puzzlingly-blames-letitia-james-for-late-campaign-filings/
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2026/02/dinapoli-fundraise-republicans-day-dem-convention/411179/

Panel: The “How will you pay for it” silly beings (but not the My Little Pony) speak cheerfully. Maybe the teddy bear from before is actually finding pirate treasure.

Caption: If the new comptroller gets just average returns for the pension fund, the state could make back the entire cost of the matching fund program within weeks.
Silly being: Yay!
Silly being: See?
Source: The 39% underperformance over DiNapoli’s tenure comes down to an average difference of 1.14% a year; getting 1.14% more on $280 billion would be more than $3 billion extra, or around $61 million per week. That could pay for the entire program so far rather quickly (I’m not sure exactly how quickly, because I don’t know how much the entire program has cost so far, but weeks seems reasonable—I doubt the whole program has cost $300 million yet).

Panel: A calendar with June 23rd circled.

Caption: So: If you’re a New Yorker, the primary is on June 23rd. And remember, donations up to $250 are matched 6 to 1.

https://www.vote.nyc/elections

Panel: Bunkeddeko, Warshaw, Goyle, and DiNapoli stand in a line. DiNapoli looks happy.

Caption: Alas, New York State (unlike New York City) primaries don’t use ranked-choice voting, which means this could happen.
Label by each of the three challengers: 24%
Label by DiNapoli: 27%

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A560 (point being, the bill hasn’t passed).

Panel: Narrator is jumping on a wagon labeled “Bandwagon.” There are already other people in the wagon.

Caption: So if any of the challengers starts to get real momentum, consider going with that one.
Narrator: They all look pretty good!

Panel: We see California (like, the outline of the state).

Caption: But I’m getting away from my point, which is: If you’re not from New York state (and are somehow still reading), push for matching funds in your state. Or even in your town.
Arrow to California: In California, for instance, matching funds like New York’s are illegal. But voters have a chanc…

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 12

A comic about New York's election matching funds, and the comptroller's race (they're connected, I swear):

Text along bottom of first page (but there doesn’t have to be a specific space for it; this is just for when it’s a separate piece): ©2026 by Michael Goodwin. Art by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. No affiliation with any campaign.

Title: One Solution

Panel: Narrator looks at his laptop. We see his face and the laptop from behind. He’s shocked and upset. A whirlwind is going on outside; we can see it in the window (it takes up the whole window, it’s not in the distance).

Caption: Now it’s early February of 2026, and, well, things haven’t let up.
From laptop: “It’s okay, I’m not mad at you.”
SFX from laptop: BANGBANGBANG
From laptop, in another word balloon: “Fucking bitch!”
Arrow to the balloons coming from laptop: ICE killing Renee Good, January 7.

Source: A decent description of the exchange is here: https://www.wired.com/story/the-campaign-to-destroy-renee-good/

Panel: A caption box.

Caption: So let’s take a break and look at a real cause for hope: New York State has found a way to fight big money in elections.

Panel: The big donors from before, dropping money on all the institutions. We don’t see the Congress.

Caption: Big money in elections isn’t our only problem.
Caption by all the institutions that aren’t politicians: Heck, it’s not our only problem with big money. . . .

Panel: This chart, but the x-axis labels change; “1” is 2000, “2” is 2004, and so on up to 2024. The data labels shouldn’t cross the line either. My Excel skills are poop.

Caption: But it is a big problem.
Small text below chart: Data presentation courtesy of Nathan Kalmoe. Reproduced in modified form.

Source: from https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-buying-elections-theyve-come-to-collect/. This is actually just Federal election spending.

Panel: Some regular people speak. They look unimpressed.

Caption: New York’s solution: matching funds for donations up to $250* in state and local elections.
Person 1: Okay?
Person 2: That’s nice, I guess?
Footnote text: *Per cand…

Panel: A person, an outline of New York State, and a candidate (like, maybe she has a “Vote for me” sign?). One $10 bill is going from the person to the state, and then seven $10 bills (or a stack marked $70) to the candidate.

Caption: That sounds lame, but it’s not—the match is crazy generous.
In the NY state outline: 6 to 1 match

Source: https://pcfb.ny.gov/candidate-committee-services; https://pcfb.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2026/01/pcfb-handbook-revised-2025-final_5.pdf

Panel: A chart showing these data, except that the bars are labeled 2020, 2022, and 2024 (I think it would look better if the legend labels (“From PACs” and so on) are to the right of the last bar, next to the part they refer to, instead of in a legend, but I can’t make Excel do that).

Chart title: Sources of donations in New York State legislative races
Caption: The new funds were first available in the 2024 election cycle.
Caption by or arrow to first 2 bars (maybe the yellow and grey parts are circled somehow?): And while 2020 and 2022 were the usual story—big money buying our elections. . . .
Caption by or arrow to last bar: 2024 was different.
Source: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/new-york-states-public-campaign-financing-program-empowers-constituent

Panel: Mamdani looks happy. A crowd of billionaires are on the left, looking at him angrily. We don’t need to see each one, just a crowd. If we do see any, then Bill Ackman, Ronald and William Lauder, Barry Diller, Dan Loeb, and/or Alice Walton.

Caption: In 2025, the usual New York City power brokers poured crazy money on Andrew Cuomo, their toady mayoral candidate, and they lost anyway.
Arrow: Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor. Even with matching funds (in NYC the match is 8 to 1) he raised less than Cuomo, but the money he did raise was enough.

Source: Crazy money: more than $40 million according to this: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/30/mamdani-cuomo-nyc-mayor-bid-billionaire-spending.html. Toady: In the…

Panel: Jeffries and Schumer, looking like Droopy Dog again. Some protesters are yelling at them.

Caption: The same machine that gave us these saps, who (deliberately or not) block real opposition to Trump.
People: Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!
Jeffries: We hear you. You want us to give ICE more money.
Schumer: Don’t forget to donate.

Source: The more money would be for training, as if that would help; see, e.g., here: https://therealnews.com/renee-good-killing-dems-ice-reforms

Panel: Uncle Sam is sitting on a toilet, looking relieved. We don’t need to see his bare ass—maybe just the top of the tank behind him—but it should be clear what he’s doing (that is, he’s been constipated but he’s just taken a massive dump.)

Caption: If the state matching funds applied to federal races, we could be confident of clearing these blockages this year (Jeffries) and in 2028 (Schumer).
Sam: Aah.

Panel: Schumer and Jeffries again, in the same low-energy positions, but now they have grins on their faces. Money is raining down on them.

Caption: But they don’t, so we’ll have to fight the full power of big money in both cases.

https://pcfb.ny.gov/program-overview

Panel: Mamdani and Kathy Hochul looking all buddy buddy.

Caption: By contrast, the funds do apply to the governor’s race, which may be why Governor Kathy Hochul has suddenly been a lot more responsive (in some ways at least).
Mamdani: Child care for all!
Hochul: Yes!

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/01/mayor-mamdani---governor-hochul-to-launch-free-child-care-for-tw; includes the phrase “The Governor is committing to fully fund the first two years of the city’s implementation.”

Panel: Some rich people yell or wail; maybe one is clutching her pearls. The word balloon and text should be prominent in some way (like, drawn instead of lettered).

Caption: Now: you’ve already probably thought of the big objection to generous matching funds like these:
Rich people: How will you pay for it?

Panel: Narrator speaks. He looks a bit unnaturally happy.

Caption: The answer is simple:
Narrator: By making politicians more responsive to voters!

Panel: Silly beings like unicorns, puppies, teddy bears, and so on frolic in a land of rainbows and candy canes and so on. One of the teddy bears is starting to dig with one of those kiddy beach shovels.

Caption: And okay, that sounds silly.
Unicorn or whatever: With better politicians, money will appear out of nowhere!
Teddy bear that’s digging: And we’ll find pirate treasure!
Puppy or whatever: And everyone will get a pony!
A My Little Pony, responding to the puppy: Wait, what?

Panel: One of the silly beings from the previous panel speaks.

Caption: But it’s not.
Being: Read on!

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Mar 5

From a pandemic-era piece I never finished:

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Feb 18

And the next panel, a point that can never be stressed enough:

Panel 4: Workers lay cables in the middle of nowhere, under supervision of a manager (a corporate manager, not a foreman).

Text: And telecommunications companies had built infrastructure, not to accommodate real demand (which was slowing), but to live up to Wall Street’s disordered hype.
Worker: Why are we doing this?
Manager: To keep our stock price high!

REF: The Wisdom of Crowds p71

Panel 5: Narrator points at a text box.

Narrator: The result was nearly unbelievable.
Text in the box: “Wall Street raised $1.3 trillion of telecom debt and sparked a $1.7 trillion merger spree, bagging $15 billion in fees for the effort. Then, the accumulation party ended. The industry collapsed amidst a $230 billion pile of bankruptcies and fraud, wiping out $2 trillion in market value and defaulting on $110 billion of debt (half of all defaults). Telecom execs pocketed $18 billion before they cut 560,000 jobs, And in 2003, over 96% of the capacity built lies dormant” –Doug Henwood, After the New Economy.

REF: Quote: After the New Economy p196

Panel 6: Narrator stands by a drunk commissar with a bottle of vodka.

Text: People forget such fiascos when they praise the “magic of the market." But If we’d handed our telecom industry to the most hamfisted Soviet commissar we could find, I doubt he could have done worse.
Commissar: I would have done better, comrade!

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Feb 18

Just a reminder that the dynamics behind the AI bubble aren't new (from Economix, 2012):

Panel 1: Workers lay cables in the middle of nowhere, under supervision of a manager (a corporate manager, not a foreman).

Text: During the internet bubble, Wall Street had rewarded telecommunications companies that build capacity to match the hype, not the reality.
Worker: Why are we doing this?
Manager: To keep our stock price high!

Panel 2: Narrator points at a text box.

Narrator: The result was nearly unbelievable.
Text in the box: “Wall Street raised $1.3 trillion of telecom debt and sparked a $1.7 trillion merger spree, bagging $15 billion in fees for the effort. Then, the accumulation party ended. The industry collapsed amidst a $230 billion pile of bankruptcies and fraud, wiping out $2 trillion in market value and defaulting on $110 billion of debt (half of all defaults). Telecom execs pocketed $18 billion before they cut 560,000 jobs, And in 2003, over 96% of the capacity built lies dormant” –Nomi Prins, former investment banker

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Feb 11

Probably good that I never used this app:

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Jan 27

This is the most infuriating fundraising pitch I've seen. No, @democrats.org, if we chipped in you wouldn't create an opposition movement. *We* are doing that, largely *without your help.* You would, as usual, give the $ to loser insider consultants to keep a slice and light the rest on fire.

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Jan 25

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Jan 16

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Jan 15

Michael Goodwin@economixcomix· Dec 25

It's just not that hard. I wrote a comic about Obamacare 11 years ago now and this page doesn't need any changes. Yes, there are specifics to be worked out. None of them are all that difficult. None of them are more of a problem than doing nothing--than sticking with our broken system--is.