Pacific Time: The "What if...?" of West Coast Independence

What if everything we’ve been told about the economy — about housing, inflation, and government debt — was upside down?

What if the problem isn’t that we’re spending too much, but that we’re letting the wrong people decide what we can spend on?

What if you feel rich when you leave the West Coast and poor when you live in or visit one of our big cities like LA, SF, or Seattle?

In this episode of Pacific Time, host Greg Amrofell talks with David “Goldy” Goldstein, a sharp-tongued political strategist at Civic Ventures, co-founder of the legendary blog HorsesAss.org, and co-host of the Pitchfork Economics podcast with billionaire provocateur Nick Hanauer.

Goldy pulls back the curtain on America’s economic myths—how fear of debt and obsession with austerity keep us from solving the real problems. He argues that public options aren’t just safety nets for the poor, but infrastructure for prosperity that give everyone stability and the opportunity to thrive.

Together, Greg and Goldy explore how fiscal sovereignty and economic imagination could transform life on the West Coast, and why it’s time for the public to assert their power and for states to act on behalf of their people, not just the most affluent interest groups.

David Goldstein, known widely as Goldy, is a senior fellow at Civic Ventures, a Seattle-based public policy incubator dedicated to progressive economic reform. A former satirist and founder of HorsesAss.org, Goldy became one of the West Coast's sharpest voices for tax fairness and economic justice. He co-hosts Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer, where he translates complex economic theory into bold, practical ideas for shared prosperity.

A Spicy Question: What if economic independence began with the courage to invest in ourselves—yes, to protect the poor, and also to stabilize the middle and boost the ambitious?

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