Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters

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Mike talks with Leah Downey,  a junior research fellow at St. John’s College, Cambridge. They discuss her book, Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.

Topics Mike & Leah Cover Include:
– fiscal vs monetary policy
– the Federal Reserve’s legal mandate
– the money neutrality myth
– Fed dominance as legitimate, but harmful to democracy
– iterative governance at the Fed
– auditing or otherwise constraining the Fed’s independence
– why the Fed should be regularly rechartered

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Epstein Files, Rescissions Bill, Education Firings

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Mike and Sam open with a discussion of the ongoing controversy in MAGAworld about the Epstein files. Mike thought it wouldn’t have the staying power that it has, while Sam isn’t at all surprised that the poor handling of the matter and lack of transparency by the Trump administration have resulted in plenty of anger on the right.

Next, they turn to a rarity in Congress – a successful rescissions bill. Mike points out that the $9.4 billion cut is a drop in the bucket and that NPR, in particular, might be better off without the small amount of government funding that this will deny them. Sam feels that while it might not be much,  it’s a step in the right direction.

They close with a look at a recent Supreme Court decision that allowed mass firings and reorganization at the Department of Education to go forward. Mike believes that the administration ignored a clear legal provision in carrying out the firings, though Sam doesn’t see things that way. He does agree with Mike that at some point, an ostensible restructuring/efficiency measure becomes a de facto illegal agency closure, but that we’re not there yet.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

America Party, Epstein, Birthright Citizenship, Tariffs

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Trey and Justin are joined by Mike! In this episode, the trio start by asking if Musk is serious about the America Party. Then they discuss the newest no-client list from the Epstein files along with a longer conversation about conspiracy culture. After that, it is a look at the legal limbo of birthright citizenship, refiled as a class-action lawsuit. Finally, the question of tariffs and trade and the newest extension and rhetoric from Trump’s tariff letters.

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support atpatreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

The 4th Of July, The Big Beautiful Bill Act

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Happy 4th of July: Trey and Ken are back! They open the show by reading a portion of the Declaration of Independence and commenting on the past and future of the United States on its 249th anniversary. After that, they turn to the biggest news item this week: the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act. Because of the complexity of the law, the hosts take this on in two sections. First, they look at the politics of the Big Beautiful Bill, including the end of the Republican Party as the party of deficit reduction. Second, they turn to the actual policies of the bill, including a deep rundown of most of its provisions and possible effects

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support atpatreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

The War on Words

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Mike talks with Greg Lukianoff, attorney, New York Times bestselling author, and President and CEO of FIRE: the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. They discuss Greg’s latest book,  The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech – And Why They Fail, with Nadine Strossen.

Topics Mike & Greg discuss include:
– Why calling words “violence” leads to actual violence
– The case against hate speech laws
– Free speech lessons from Nazi Germany and Rwanda
– Shoutdowns as mob censorship on campus
– Whether the internet makes speech protections obsolete
– Mill’s trident and the case for truth through debate
– Who really benefits from free speech protections
– The limits of regulating misinformation and disinformation

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo, we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.