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PODCAST

Macro N Cheese

Steven D Grumbine

A podcast that critically examines the working-class struggle through the lens of MMT or Modern Monetary Theory. Host Steve Grumbine, founder of Real Progressives, provides incisive political commentary and showcases grassroots activism. Join us for a robust, unfiltered exploration of economic issues that impact the working class, as we challenge the status quo and prioritize collective well-being over profit. This is comfort food for the mind, fueling our fight for justice and equity!

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All Episodes

01:02:50

Ep 360 - Care Theory of Value with Emma Holten

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/12/27

Let’s face it, even “good” macro talk can fall into the trap of treating the economy like a tidy spreadsheet while real lives get crushed in the margins. To help us peer beneath the covers, Steve invited Emma Holten, a Copenhagen-based political economist to talk about her book Deficit: How Feminist Economics Can Change Our World. We often discuss deficits around here, but Emma is looking at a different kind. She reframes deficit as what societies rack up when they systematically undervalue care:

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01:08:04

Ep 359 - Epstein: Power, Corruption & Media...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/12/20

For a masterclass in true bipartisanship, look no further than the guest list of Jeffrey Epstein! We all love a good conspiracy story, but it’s often just business as usual for the class in power.Nolan Higdon – lecturer, media critic, and author of The Gaslight Gazette – is back for a deep analytical dive into the Epstein saga. Moving beyond true-crime sensationalism, Nolan and Steve frame the scandal as a stark case study in systemic class power, media complicity, and the mechanisms elite networks

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01:07:33

Ep 358 - Now Is the Time of Monsters: Gramsci on...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/12/13

Historian and journalist Vijay Prashad talks with Steve about why Antonio Gramsci still matters.Listeners to this podcast know that we havea pretty goodgrasp of the monetary system.Butwe’reconstantly working to expand our understanding of the systemic underpinnings of real power. How else will we be able to seize it?For help, we turn to Gramsci.According to Vijay,Gramsci was doing class forensics. His core puzzle was brutal and practical:why did big chunks of Italy’sworking-classbail on their own

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01:11:33

Ep 357 - Socialism with Chinese Characteristics with...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/12/06

In today’s world, anyone serious about anti-imperialism, globaldevelopment, and monetary sovereignty needs to break through the well-funded USpropaganda machine anddevelop a fact-based, nuanced understanding of China.To this end, Steve asked Yan Liang to come back to the podcast to look at China through the MMT lens, analyzing its economic management, global role, and response toWestern villainization.They discussChina’sdevelopment ethosanddescribeChina as a state that actively uses its monetary and

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01:07:01

Ep 356 - Scotland's Economic Suicide Pact? with Will...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/11/29

Steveand hisguest,Scottish political economistWilliam Thomson,usethe fight over Scotland’sindependence to dissect how class power hides inside “neutral” economic rules.Will, founder of SCOTONOMICS, talks about his journey from neoclassical training to a heterodox, political-economy perspective grounded in MMT, ecological economics, and class analysis.He recentlywrotea paper(with friend-of-the-podcast DirkEhnts)showing how the Scottish government’s plan to copy the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact and

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01:06:33

Ep 355 - Dialectics of Dominance with Aaron Good

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/11/22

“We’re at an inflection point – a civilizational crisis. Western imperial dominance is ending, and its dying spasms are only accelerating the collapse.” Aaron GoodAaron Good, author of American Exception: Empire and the Deep State, is back to talk with Steve about the crisis of the US-led imperial order and the manufactured “common sense” that keeps people trapped inside a rigged system.Centuries of Western imperial dominance are unraveling, and the US responds withflailing, genocidal actions in

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55:39

Ep 354 - The Fed As a Weapon of Class Power with L....

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/11/15

Randy:“We’resupposed to believe the central bank manages inflation by using interest rates?"Steve: “It’s ridiculous.”L. Randall Wray, one of the original MMT economists, recentlywrotea paper with Yeva Nersisyan entitled,No, the Fed is NOT Independent– It is a Creature of Congress.Steve invitedRandy for a conversationabouthow the Federal Reserve is, and always has been, a "creature of Congress," and itssupposed independenceis a smokescreen thatbenefitsthe wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.The

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01:00:01

Ep 353 - Dollars for Oligarchs, Austerity for...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/11/08

** Want to take a deeper dive into this podcast? Join us on Tuesday evenings for Macro ‘n Chill, where we listen to the most recentepisode together. Ask questions, shareyour insights, or just hang with us. 8pm ET/5pm PT. Find the registration link at realprogressives.org. And while you’re there, sign up forbook club. It’s not too late – there are still two more sessions in ourcurrent series. **Trump’s “$20B for Argentina” wasn’t aid – it was a heist. Economist Daniel Kostzer joins Steve to

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01:00:02

Ep 352 - Nothing to Hide with Heidi Boghosian

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/11/01

Heidi Boghosianis an attorney, author, and co-host of Law and Disorder podcast and radio show.Shejoins Steve to discuss how the USsurveillance state is a tool of class discipline and repression. From the Federalist Society pipeline to post-9/11 “safety” theater, both parties helped build a digital police state that criminalizes poverty, protest, and anyone messing with profits. And let’s not forget the copaganda about “crime” and “illegals” to keep folks scared while manufactured austerity

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59:54

Ep 351 - Born on Third Base with Steve Hall

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/10/25

"The self-made man is a lie that we have taught people to keep them from complaining, to keep them from whining, to keep them from asking for better from their government, to keep them from asking for better from their employer." The two Steves – Hall and Grumbine –get together to dismantle the myth of the self-made man, exposing it as a centuries-old political weapon designed to disempower the working class.Professor Hall traces the roots of this "possessive individualism" back centuries, sayingit

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01:00:29

Ep 350 - Naked Corruption with Bill Black

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/10/18

Do you know what kakistocracy means? You’ll find out in this episode with guest Bill Black. Because, yeah, this is an educational podcast. A lot of us learned the term ‘elite control fraud’ from Bill in past episodes and you’ll hear more about it here.Bill is a great storyteller. His experience as a regulator trying to enforce laws against the great crooks ofthe world gives him a lot of material.If you haven’t already heard our first episode with him, check it out: “Exposed: A Serial Whistleblowers

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57:59

Ep 349 - Cultural Syndromes of Capitalism with David...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/10/11

**This week’s Macro ‘n Chill gathering should be a lively one. Whenever we dive intothetopic of cultural hegemony,it sparks a thoughtful discussion. Join us on Tuesday, October 14, 8pm ET/5pm PT. Click here to register This is the 349th episode of our podcast. Just sayin’.Steve’s guest is David Fields, talking about his recent article, The Cultural Syndromes of Capitalism. David explainsthe rise of far-right figures like Donald Trump is not a random accident but a direct outcome of thecapitalist

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59:10

Ep 348 - Gaza: Digital Colonialism & Resistance with...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/10/04

The Palestinian liberation struggle is a fundamental class and anti-colonial issue. First-time guest to the podcast, Professor Omar Zahzah,talks with Steve about the active collaboration of Silicon Valley tech giants with the US and Israeli governments to censor and suppress anti-Zionist narratives."What these companies are doing is digitally amplifying a physical process of settler colonial dispossession."Omar goes beyond labeling digital censorship as simple political bias. He argues that Silicon

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56:26

Ep 347 - Libertarianism vs. Reality with Brett Scott

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/09/27

Economic anthropologist Brett Scott, the author of Cloud Money, talks with Steve about libertarianism’s big lie. Or lies – plural.From a class perspective, libertarianism is largely an ideological tool that protects elite power by promoting a false narrative of individualism and "free" markets. It serves as a smokescreen, concealing the mechanisms of power in a class society. What worse, it’s presented as neutral. As if all citizens are on an equal playing field. Market transactions replace the

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01:07:53

Ep 346 - MMT: Why Our Allies Ignore Us with Yeva...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/09/20

** You are invited to attend Macro ‘n Chill, our community building online gathering where we discuss the current episode of the podcast. Tuesday, September 23 at 8pm ET/5pm PT Click here to register.Our friend, MMT economist Yeva Nersisyan, joins Steve to discuss the struggle to communicate MMT's core principles in a media landscape filled with misinformation, including from those who should know better. They call some of them out by name and express disappointment whennatural allies on the left

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01:07:33

Ep 345 - Argentina: IMF, MMT, Class Warfare with...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/09/13

Our friend Daniel Conceição is back for his sixth(!) time on Macro N Cheese. He and Steve share their critique of "neutral" or academic MMT that avoids class analysis. Understanding a government's monetary capacity is meaningless without using that knowledge as a weapon for class struggle against an oppressive economic system.Danielshares his experiences in Buenos Aires, describing a city with grand public infrastructure (a legacy of Peronism) now filled with poverty due to austerity. He dismantles

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01:14:00

Ep 344 - The Unstable Genius Act with Bob Hockett

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/09/06

** Tuesday evening, Bob will join our weekly online gathering where we’ll listen to the podcasttogether and discuss. Bring your questions for him. September 9 at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/1HA3nd_5QFSFzBe_cGiHpwThis is Bob Hockett’s 12th visit to Macro N Cheese. Back in 2022, in an episode discussingthe collapse of the major crypto exchange platform FTX, Bob gave us a useful rule of thumb:“The irony is that in every one of these cases there is

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58:04

Ep 343 - Imports Are A Benefit, Exports Are A Cost?...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/08/30

In our 14th episode with Australian economist Bill Mitchell, the conversation focuses on the MMT perspective on international trade. Bill explains what is meant bythe statement“imports are a benefit, and exports are a cost,” where it fits into the history of economic thought, and some of its implications.A significant portion of the conversation is dedicated to explaining the crucial shift from the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system to the modern system of floating exchange rates after 1971

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01:13:02

Ep 342 - From Corbyn to Palestine: an MMT Analysis...

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/08/23

**Be sure to subscribe to our Substack.It costs you nothing to have all our new content delivered to straight to your inbox! https://realprogressives.substack.com/Remember Labour's stunning defeat in the 2019 UK general election? When, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, they won the lowest number of seats since 1935? Steve’s guest, Chris Williamson, brings aninsider’s view to the story. Chrisis a former MP and shadow minister for UK’s Labour Party.He’s currently deputy leader of the Workers Party of

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01:07:28

Ep 341 - AI's Hidden Thirst with Erald Kolasi

Macro N Cheese ·

2025/08/16

Our friend, physicist and economist Erald Kolasi, stops by the Macro N Cheese clubhouse to talk with Steve about the profound effectsof AI on the energy grid, water resources, and societal infrastructure. The discussion focuses primarily on large-scale corporate AI, such as generative AI. Erald’s work bridges physics, economics, and ecology, revealing how AI’s rapid expansion is not just a technological phenomenon but a biophysical crisis – one that’s easy to overlook. Cloud is such a gentle word

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361 results

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