Gotcha. Sorry if that came out terse. I am pretty baked from my day online working and my Masters.
I have a number of people that I would love to pick their brains.
Thomas Frank is right up there. Historian. Journalist. Author. He has a deep understanding of populism and what's worked. You might be familiar with "What's the Matter with Kansas".
Another great thinker from economist side which is a lateral move from the typical Ayn Rand followers was Karl Polanyi. Fascinating different take on things.
Another place I looked at for different ways to consider a modern world, and I think Alex would be fascinated in this, , as a tech-fan I think he'd appreciate the Venus Project
https://www.thevenusproject.com/
We need a series of thinkers who aren't so much married to their own distinct ideologies but rather who can find clever and innovative ways of bringing different ideas to the table.
For example, I often cite social-democracies because there's a good opportunity to look for what works best in a public and private relationship. Some things are much better handled by the free market, other things better handled through government.
Matt Taibbi is one of the best folks who has understood the corruption of Wall Street (and it looks like this author has done a deep dive in that area as well)
David Sirota is another great resource for all things political (he was also an Executive Producer for "Don't looked up" which was Netflix's biggest winner in the history of its ratings.)
Who else? Hell, I'd be interested in what Professor Richard Wollfe for alternative worker-driven legislation, Chris Hedges for international directions for politics, Steven Donzinger could give incredible advice on cleaning up the court system, Jordan Chariton for journalistic ethics and direction of the press, Ken Klippenstein for inside baseball on media and politics, Briahna Joy Gray for how you have strong interviews with people you don't agree with but still build respect and understanding and coalition building, Hell Julian Assange and Ed Snowden for Deep State reform and personal privacy issues. Dan Carlin could certainly bring a historical perspective as well...
I could go on and on. But we'd need a series of groups that would come together, and brainstorm from their particular area of expertise
Then you go about bringing in structural experts and start looking at how you can take a broken system, fix it for now, and find a way to provide a 20-50 year plan to create a system that's much more effective. Doesn't just end up creating Gilded Age 2.0 but rather more like something that had America running as effectively as they did in the 50's where middle class wealth was way up, and that was the engine of the economy and not massive corporations or billionaires.
The more money can be engendered in the hands of Americans, and goods and services are produced in local economies, the better it is for everyone, for the environment, for sustainable small business growth.
The Fed is a monster that has to be slain or brought to bay at one point, and now that process will cause enormous pain to everyone involved, except those at the very top.
So, I guess what I would prefer to "who" is "how".
When we use questions like "how" and "what" we are operating on solutions.
In my opinion at least,
J
P.S. The forum is buggy right now. I click on the link notice I get and it just hangs.