Ep 48 [2/2]: Ramona Massachi: Introducing dozens of federal candidates to MMT (and the too many who don’t move on)

Welcome to episode 48 of Activist #MMT. Today is part two of my two-part conversation with second year MMT-activist Ramona Massachi. Ramona is a New Jersey resident, mother of two, and an artist who creates handmade jewelry, chandeliers, and metal sculptures that light up. In this second part, Ramona and I talk about how we worked together for several months to coordinate and schedule dozens of federal candidates for private introductions to MMT with PhD economists. Before we met, Ramona helped create a community of hundreds of progressive candidates, which became a network to promote their campaigns. She discovered MMT in early 2019, and vetted these candidates for an openness to learning it, and a platform that reflects its knowledge. (Here's part one.) Between October 2019 and March 2020, several dozens of federal candidates joined our introduction sessions. This includes Cori Bush of MO-01, who just had a stunning upset victory against a twenty-year incumbent – an incumbent whose father was in that same position since 1969. Some others were Lauren Ashcraft of NY-12, Xavier Carrigan of OH-05, and Amanda Siebe of OR-01. Ramona ends with a story of how she owned a jewelry store at the age of 23 and how she felt pressured to selling online, on the then-fledgling internet. She knew instinctually that doing this would have instantly made her store into an international company, and made it more difficult to focus on her local customers and treat her workers well. It's also a statement on our so-called free market and the devastating effects of getting products and services needed for daily survival, from very far away. Note that this two-part conversation is not a discussion of MMT concepts but rather how MMT has affected our lives and political views.