JW Mason
@jwmason
Associate professor of economics, John Jay College-CUNY; senior fellow, Groundwork Collaborative. Writing at jwmason.org. Study economics with me: . Anti-war Keynesian, liberal socialist, Brooklyn dad. From the river to the sea.
Here is a new blog post, trying to make sense of stock prices. jwmason.org/slackwire/pr...
Very sorry to hear about the passing of Jane D'Arista. She was a big presence around the University of Massachusetts economics department when I was there in the '00s, and I learned a lot from her. peri.umass.edu/jane-darista/
With due respect to Matt Levine, "this transaction is positive sum because it lets people satisfy their unique idiosyncratic risk preferences" is only one of the possible explanations of what is going on here.
Turning risky debt into safe assets by putting it in a pot and then selling off different tranches of it. Now where have I heard that story before? www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
I’ve been thinking for a while that Slaughter and the preceding decisions are really attacks on the idea of law itself. So I’m very glad to see @nathantankus.bsky.social taking up this argument. www.crisesnotes.com/agency-indep...
A reminder: There's two weeks left to apply to the John Jay economics MA program for Fall 2026. If you want to study economics and to help build municipal socialism, it's a good place to be. jwmason.org/slackwire/at...
What do you suppose would be left of the American socialist tradition, if historically we'd limited immigration to what "our political culture can absorb"?
Some very smart observations from the very smart Michael Kinnucan in this week’s New York City primaries. (thread, all quotes from him)
Well that didn’t take long. Bondholders getting cold feet about SpaceX. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Among both Democrats and voters at large, there are seven times as many people who want less US support for Israel as who want more. poll.qu.edu
Nice roundup on NYC election results by @lizafeatherstone.bsky.social. Yes, socialist candidates were helped by Zohran’s popularity. But old-fashioned grassroots campaigning mattered a lot more. jacobin.com/2026/06/dsa-...
I feel like countries like Venezuela should be more willing to repudiate all their external debt. Yes creditors will shriek, but they can't impose any more consequences than they would for a smaller default. And the political transition makes this a perfect moment for it. www.ft.com/content/b7f2...
Kind of fascinating to watch Warsh struggle with the question of how to be a central banker when your vision of the world is one where central banks should not exist. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Even the Financial Times editorial board is clear about where the big obstacle to a peace settlement is. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
It’s not often that you have some general idea about a contemporary political development, and then read an article that exactly confirms it in the participants‘ own words. But this piece on the funding of the abundance movement really delivers. prospect.org/2026/06/12/n...
I appreciate this piece’s emphasis on the vast social machinery required to ensure that a dollar is exactly a dollar. Being both unit of account and means of payment is not just an interesting fact about money. It’s an integral part of a deliberate, almost utopian, project.
Of all the problems that Trump has caused or contributed to, I admit that I would not have had “violations of par” on my list. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Here's a good statement of the positive value of markets. dog-envier.bearblog.dev/the-fuck-you...
I just put up a new post on some early responses to Against Money. Including this very nice one: jwmason.org/slackwire/re...
On the other hand: When some 22nd century Jared Diamond writes a new version of Collapse, they will point to things like this.
I think this is an important part of the economic picture. AI investment *is* generating big profits. They're just not at the AI companies, or at companies trying to use AI. They're at the businesses upstream from the hyperscalers, selling them picks and shovels. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...