Tonantzin Carmona
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tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
Tonantzin Carmona
@tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
200 followers 120 following 7 posts
Brookings Fellow. Coffee. Books. Formerly: National Economic Council, Treasury, Sen. Warren, City of Chicago. Opinions mine.
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tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
Tonantzin Carmona @tonantzin-lc.bsky.social · Jun 2
You don’t need to buy crypto to be harmed by it. My latest report shows how crypto is creeping into pensions, banks, public infrastructure—and putting working families at risk.

We need guardrails, accountability & policy that protects the public. Read it here: www.brookings.edu/articles/pro...
Protecting the American public from crypto risks and harms
www.brookings.edu
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
miamiherald.com
“Support your local businesses because they contribute to the community as well as give back to the community.”
How ICE raids and tariffs can hurt Hispanic business in South Florida
“Support your local businesses because they contribute to the community as well as give back to the community.”
bit.ly
December 13, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
consumerfed.bsky.social
🪙 With the recent adoption of a federal #stablecoin law and more #crypto regulations on the horizon, what does this all mean for consumers?

Hear our panel of experts dig into the future of these financial markets.
#CryptoRegulation #CFAFSC
December 11, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
consumerfed.bsky.social
“Just because the status quo isn’t working, doesn’t mean that #crypto is the solution” #GeniusAct #CFAFSC

- Tonantzin Carmona, @brookings.edu
December 11, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
bencollins.bsky.social
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago.
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
Latino entrepreneurs are driving America’s small-business boom—but facing “policy-made crises” from tariffs, raids, and program cuts.

New @brookings.edu report out today: Stabilizing Latino entrepreneurs amid federal policy volatility
www.brookings.edu/articles/sta...
Stabilizing Latino entrepreneurs amid federal policy volatility | Brookings
This report traces how policy volatility erodes stability, how geography shapes exposure to these shocks, and what states, cities, philanthropy, and the private sector can do to respond.
www.brookings.edu
October 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
rooseveltinstitute.org
NEW 📰: Building a more effective government that moves beyond the status quo requires honest reflection.

Drawing on interviews with more than 45 former senior Biden officials, our latest report offers 161 practical recommendations for better governance.
https://bit.ly/4312Zid
Image featuring a classical architecture building with columns, overlaid with a text quote from Elizabeth Wilkins of the Roosevelt Institute, "In Building a More Effective, Responsive Government: Lessons Learned from the Biden-Harris Administration, former Biden-Harris senior officials Hannah Garden-Monheit and Tresa Joseph draw from the insights, recommendations, and candor of more than 45 former public servants and tell a broader story we can’t forget: The problems with these institutions did not start with Donald Trump or Elon Musk, worse as they now are. These problems are, in part, what results from decades of bipartisan neglect, disinvestment, and deference to markets."
October 28, 2025 at 1:02 PM
tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
The real scandal of the Argentina bailout
open.substack.com/pub/bharatra...
The real scandal of the Argentina bailout
The biggest economic news story right now is the Trump Administration’s bailout of the right-wing Milei government in Argentina.
open.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
cnn.com
"I was struck by the detail that CNN documented at least a dozen potential fraud cases tied to a single ATM. That’s an indication not just that one ATM has a problem, but that these cases of fraud are rampant in the US," writes Zachary B. Wolf. | Analysis https://cnn.it/475HHko
October 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
prospect.org
Crypto cowboys have taken over Wyoming, and “the regulators are so happy to be captured.” Workers have gotten nothing, while crypto advocates ramble about how the real value of crypto is “potentially its uselessness.” From @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social: trib.al/AhD93ZM
Down and Out on the Crypto Frontier
In Wyoming, the Delaware of cryptocurrency, industry players celebrated their fortunes and said everyone will benefit. But workers haven’t seen it.
trib.al
September 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
nathantankus.bsky.social
NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: With the attempted firing of Lisa Cook by Donald Trump, the first Black woman appointed to the Federal Reserve Board, I think its important to examine the @federalreserve.gov's history of Racial Segregation. This is a long one

www.crisesnotes.com/the-federal-...
The Federal Reserve’s Neglected History of Racial segregation
Recent events regarding Lisa Cook’s attempted firing by Donald Trump have convinced me to do a premium series on the history of racial segregation and the Federal Reserve. This is for a few reasons. F...
www.crisesnotes.com
September 9, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Justice Sotomayor, not mincing words, also says that today's decision will lead to the "creation of [] a second-class citizenship status" for Latinos, who now will have the burden to "carry enough documentation to prove that they deserve to walk freely."
The concurrence relegates the interests of U. S. citizens and individuals with legal status to a single sentence, positing that the Government will free these individuals as soon as they show they are legally in the United States. Ante, at 8 (opinion of KAVANAUGH, J.). That blinks reality. Two plaintiffs in this very case tried to explain that they are U. S. citizens; one was then pushed against a fence with his arms twisted behind his back, and the other was taken away from his job to a warehouse for further questioning. More fundamentally, it is the Government’s burden to prove that it has reasonable suspicion to stop someone. The concurrence improperly shifts the burden onto an entire class of citizens to carry enough documentation to prove that they deserve to walk freely. The Constitution does not permit the creation of such a second-class citizenship status.
September 8, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
🚨The Supreme Court today gives Trump a license to engage in racial profiling, with Justice Kavanaugh writing in concurrence to expressly endorse ICE and Border Patrol targeting any Latinos they observe in Los Angeles speaking Spanish and then demanding their papers.
Here, those circumstances include: that there is an extremely high number and percentage of illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area; that those individuals tend to gather in certain locations to seek daily work; that those individuals often work in certain kinds of jobs, such as day labor, landscaping, agriculture, and construction, that do not require paperwork and are therefore especially attractive to illegal immigrants; and that many of those illegally in the Los Angeles area come from Mexico or Central America and do not speak much English. Cf. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S., at 884-885 (listing "[a]ny number of factors" that contribute to reasonable suspicion of illegal presence). To be clear, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this Court's case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a KAVANAUGH, J., concurring "relevant factor" when considered along with other salient factors. Id., at 887. Under this Court's precedents, not to mention common sense, those circumstances taken together can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States. Importantly, reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status. If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter. Only if the person is illegally in the United States may the stop lead to further immigration proceedings.
September 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
"Let's Get Skeptical," the final chapter of Fintech Dystopia, has dropped
fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
Covering
- How much the abundance agenda and VC output suck
- Silicon Valley subsidies we can take away
- How to laugh our way into Silicon Valley skepticism
- A plan to actually fix finance
A picture of Olivia Newton-John with the caption "Let's Get Skeptical"
August 29, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
If you'd like to know the many, many reasons why this is not fine, I wrote a book chapter about the many ways in which blockchains are terrible:

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...
Just like beauty, efficiency, competition, and security are all in the eye of the beholder. For example, one person’s “efficiency” may be another person’s “dismantling critical government infrastructure.” And yet technological solutions designed to make things more efficient, more competitive, or more secure are often presented by Silicon Valley as neutral and universally desirable. That veneer of neutrality and universality can be dangerous if it disguises the fact that Silicon Valley is solving (or creating and then solving) problems in ways that are antithetical to our values. To illustrate those dangers, we’ll use a particular technological solution: the blockchain. A blockchain is a clunky type of database, and it really is the perfect example to demonstrate the hollowness of techno-solutionism: it promises to do everything but really isn’t very good at doing much of anything (anything other than helping some unscrupulous folks make money, that is).
August 27, 2025 at 5:09 PM
tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
The guardrails are coming off — and crypto is heading straight into the financial system. Quoted in this week’s Barron’s cover story. www.barrons.com/articles/bit...
Crypto: Everyone Is Along for the Ride, Even if It Ends Badly
The Trump administration has taken the guardrails off crypto, and Bitcoin prices are soaring. The next crash will hurt the economy and wider financial system.
www.barrons.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
pkrugman.bsky.social
I usually stay cool even when writing about outrages. But for some reason the story of how crypto bought the government really makes me angry paulkrugman.substack.com/p/inequality...
Inequality, Part VII: Crypto
A perfect merger of predation and corruption
paulkrugman.substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
profhilaryallen.bsky.social
Chapter 2 of Fintech Dystopia has dropped, wherein I explain that lots of fintech is about exploiting legal loopholes and vulnerable people.

Here's the link: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

And here's your gif of the week:
a cartoon of a unicorn with a rainbow coming out of its tail
Alt: a cartoon of a unicorn pooping glitter manure, because the fintech industry's promises to democratize finance are often very glitter manure-y
media.tenor.com
July 11, 2025 at 1:11 PM
tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
Just did a podcast on crypto—not the shiny stuff, the risky stuff. Scams, shadow deposits, and why it matters for real people. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...
Understanding and regulating crypto harms
Podcast Episode · TechTank · 06/30/2025 · 46m
podcasts.apple.com
June 30, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
politico.com
‘Forest fire’: Corporate America’s bitcoin buying spree fuels concern

Critics warn that hoovering up digital assets could backfire whenever the volatile crypto markets take a turn for the worse.
‘Forest fire’: Corporate America’s bitcoin buying spree fuels concern
Critics warn that hoovering up digital assets could backfire whenever the volatile crypto markets take a turn for the worse.
www.politico.com
June 27, 2025 at 2:52 PM
tonantzin-lc.bsky.social
🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️
June 25, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
tonytassell.bsky.social
The BIS really does not like stablecoins, warning they perform pooly as money - rpt by Martin Arnold www.ft.com/content/0beb...
June 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
newyorker.com
The Stablecoin GENIUS Act may bring crypto into the mainstream financial system. “Since the Trump family is now a player in stablecoins, it potentially stands to benefit greatly from an expansion in their use,” @johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.
Why Passing the Stablecoin GENIUS Act Might Not Be So Smart
Critics say enacting the pro-crypto legislation will make the financial system less safe and less stable—and further enrich Donald Trump.
www.newyorker.com
June 23, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
perrybaconjr.bsky.social
"Most of today’s superrich owe their wealth to their ownership stakes in companies that are de facto monopolies thanks to network effects," writes @pkrugman.bsky.social. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/inequality...
Inequality, Part IV: Oligarchs
The rise of mega-fortunes
paulkrugman.substack.com
June 22, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
molly.wiki
Newsletter: Coinbase’s sponsorship of Trump’s military parade angered some in the crypto world, who described the move as “an insult to everything our industry stands for”. But this is only the latest example of crypto companies aligning with state power.

www.citationneeded.news/issue-86/
In the White House Trump held his $40 million birthday boy military parade on June 14, and apparently offset the cost at least somewhat with contributions from the likes of Coinbase. This didn’t exactly sit well with some of the increasingly rare breed of crypto believers who still champion the technology’s early anti-establishment values. “What Coinbase did by sponsoring this army parade feels like an insult to everything our industry stands for. Crypto emerged from ideals of decentralization, individual sovereignty, and freedom from oppressive state control—not to funnel resources into institutions whose core purpose involves violence and ending lives,” wrote one crypto enthusiast.10 Another wrote, “I entered the crypto world in 2017 to stand against late stage capitalism...not help crypto bros fund it.”11 Megan Knab, CEO of a crypto payroll company, responded to the sponsorship by eulogizing the industry’s cypherpunk roots in a CoinDesk op-ed, where she wrote: “The ethos of crypto—the cypherpunk values that got us here—is being diluted, co-opted, and in some cases, directly betrayed.”12 A large stage for the military parade, with “US Army” at the top, and banners showing the Coinbase logo behind
June 19, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Tonantzin Carmona
lizzieohreally.bsky.social
The GENIUS act has passed the senate. Here’s our recent show on it, with @profhilaryallen.bsky.social slate.com/podcasts/wha...
Crypto’s Big Legislative Win
A reasonable “stablecoin” bill—or a Trojan Horse of industry wishes?
slate.com
June 17, 2025 at 9:51 PM