Shoppers know the deck is stacked in favor of corporations, and they’re tired of being spied on and ripped off. A reckoning is long overdue. In "Gouged", @lindsayowens.bsky.social lays out the path forward: the Shoppers’ Bill of Rights.

Commentary: Corporations keep finding new ways to gouge us. Our laws must catch up. • Nevada Current

Every day, companies find better, and sneakier, ways to reach deeper into our wallets. They trap us in subscriptions, bury fees until checkout, use algorithms to collude with competitors, and mine our...

nevadacurrent.com

Best 3 things about writing a book I didn’t expect. 1. People send you pics of their cute kids reading your book. 2. Lengthy but brilliant goodreads reviews. 3. People send you pics of your book on shelves in bookstores across the country. Thanks guys! bit.ly/GougedPRH

Gouged by Lindsay Owens: 9798217058785 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

“A thrilling true crime story about how the largest corporate monopolies in America have hatched a scheme to pick our pockets. Gouged is the book corporate America does not want you to read.”—Robert.....

bit.ly

Neiman Marcus closed its downtown Dallas flagship on Wednesday. The store played a notable role in the history of desegregation in Dallas. Previously, Black shoppers across the US could enter department stores, but they weren't allowed to try on clothes without adhering to certain conditions. 🧵

Calling all NYC artists — painters, filmmakers, poets, musicians and more! Did you know our city provides grants to support your work every year? And this year, we're DOUBLING the amount — from $5,000 up to $10,000 per artist! Deadlines are approaching fast — apply today at nyc.gov/artistgrants.

Casual reminder that the myth of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel hoax designed to convince poor people from all walks of life that the injustices they face are a result of their own actions, rather than an oppressive system rigged against them.

"The Treasury Department has seen a dramatic exodus of President Donald Trump’s own appointees, outpacing the turnover of any other recent administration." Bessent "has had at least three different chiefs of staff since the beginning of the administration.”

The EPA said if power plants used only for data centers are not be subject to the federal Clean Air ​Act's Acid Rain Program, which has been key to the ​dramatic reduction of smog and soot pollution from industrial ⁠facilities. Per @reuters.com

EPA says power for data centers can sidestep pollution laws

Power sources providing electricity only to data centers and not the public grid may not be subject to ​federal pollution laws, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on ‌Monday.

reuters.com

NEW @us.theguardian.com investigation into allegations that Amazon pushed smaller companies into raising prices: “They’d say, ‘You need to go to Target. You need to go talk to Walmart to get them to raise their price.’” www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

‘We were at their mercy’: inside the Amazon tactics that hiked prices across the internet

Internal emails revealed in court and interviews with ex-employees describe how Amazon’s practices drove up prices for competitors like Walmart and Target. Amazon denies price-fixing claims and says i...

theguardian.com

Before your rent even goes up, Wall Street has already promised it would. New from me in @time.com on how critics across the country overlook Wall Street’s role in the housing crisis: time.com/article/2026...

Why Rent Keeps Rising Because of Wall Street

“Apartment buildings are bought, sold, and borrowed against on the expectation that rents will keep rising,” writes Anisha Steephen.

time.com

Why does the rent keep going up? It's not just the housing shortage. In @time.com, our Fellow @asteephen.bsky.social argues that today's housing market is increasingly organized around Wall Street's expectation that rents will keep rising, making higher rents part of the business model.

Why Rent Keeps Rising Because of Wall Street

“Apartment buildings are bought, sold, and borrowed against on the expectation that rents will keep rising,” writes Anisha Steephen.

time.com

Look, I'm all for the CFTC cracking down on people like the teleprompter guy doing obvious prediction market insider trading, but there's another sense in which those cases are just the smallest of potatoes compared to the scope and scale of financial crimes happening in this administration.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3mo ago

This is nuts: "Trump Media has unveiled a paid-for, licensed data feed that will give banks ​& trading firms 'the fastest' access to posts from influential Truth Social ‌accounts Trump’s posts on the platform regularly move markets. High speed access to these could be very valuable to traders"

1/ In June 2025 I wrote about the impending authoritarian capture of the IRS for @crisesnotes.bsky.social. I named IRC § 7217, enacted after Nixon audited his enemies, and warned the firewall between the White House and taxpayer audits was under siege. Thirteen months later here we are.🧵

The Fiscal State Under Siege: Why People Hate the IRS, and Why You Should Care

How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a l...

crisesnotes.com

That same financial pressure is reshaping rental housing. Our Fellow @asteephen.bsky.social shows how treating housing as an asset class that must continually appreciate fuels rent increases, tenant displacement, and instability.

Rent Regulation as Financial Regulation

Housing affordability is often framed as a supply problem. This brief examines the role of speculative finance in rental housing and argues that rent regulation is a powerful tool for promoting financ...

rooseveltinstitute.org

I don’t think people really understand how bad the OMB proposed rule is going to be for state and local govt. We’re talking about putting a full third of state budgets under the explicit control of Russ Vought. (1/2) www.bondbuyer.com/news/cities-...

Cities, states warn of credit impact from proposed federal grant rule

Discretionary termination of grants allowed under the rule would pose a particular risk, issuer advocates said.

bondbuyer.com

🧵1/6 Rent regulation is getting national attention right now, and the conventional debate is too narrow. In my new paper with the @rooseveltinstitute.org I argue that rent regulation should be understood as macroprudential policy and one of the most powerful tools state and local governments have.

Rent Regulation as Financial Regulation

Housing affordability is often framed as a supply problem. This brief examines the role of speculative finance in rental housing and argues that rent regulation is a powerful tool for promoting financ...

rooseveltinstitute.org

NEW 📰: Our fellow @asteephen.bsky.social connects housing affordability, financial stability, inflation, and economic justice to make the case that rent regulation is not just a tenant protection but a tool for managing systemic risk in housing finance. Read: rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Economists call this diminishing marginal utility. The first dollars change your life. The billionth doesn't. So the argument stops being about consumption and starts being about power.

"One study found that increasing the number of people who receive SNAP benefits by 5 percent could have prevented nearly 32,000 suicides over 15 years. And a $1 increase in minimum wage has been linked to roughly 8,000 fewer suicide deaths over a decade."

How minimum wage hikes and food stamps fit in to suicide prevention

Studies show income, debt and access to basic needs shape mental health outcomes, but U.S. strategies have largely focused on clinical care.

washingtonpost.com

🚨🚨 Today, we’re launching “Stop Greed Build Green,” a strategic framework and agenda to confront the affordability crisis and the climate crisis together by putting working people in charge of the economy and the climate transition. (1/10)

Stop Greed, Build Green | Climate and Community Institute

A new framework to put the working class in charge of climate and economic transformation.

stopgreedbuildgreen.org

The Trump administration's gutting of the IRS is delaying tax refunds, harming Americans who rely on that return to pay bills or plan ahead. “Having a delay by 10 weeks or more, for close to a million people, is unacceptable,” said @asteephen.bsky.social. federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2...

IRS phase-out of paper checks leaves some taxpayers waiting months for refunds | Federal News Network

The National Taxpayer Advocate estimates that over 10 million taxpayers previously received their IRS refund as a paper check.

federalnewsnetwork.com

Tax filing season is here — and the Trump administration has left the IRS in chaos. I joined @scrippsnews.bsky.social to break down what that actually means for taxpayers trying to navigate the mess.

Economic Speakers Bureau@econspeakers.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The Trump administration inherited a better-functioning IRS with better customer service and faster refunds. In one year, it has been dramatically hollowed out. @asteephen.bsky.social warns taxpayers may face longer delays and more mistakes that will cost working families the most.

🧵 1/6 Hochul still won't tax the wealthy because she's worried they'll leave. So we govern a city of 8 million based on the feelings of a few thousand. Here's how we got here:

Spectrum News NY1@spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Asked if she would reconsider taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers if the mayor came to her with a new plan, Gov. Kathy Hochul said "I'm very firm in this," saying she instead prefers to "broaden the pool" and "have more money from more jobs created by more businesses coming here."

🧵 1/ New Cato white paper (yes, Cato) finds immigrants paid more in taxes than they received in benefits every year from 1994–2023 across federal, state, and local budgets:

Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994–2023

Our analysis in this paper shows that immigrants generated a fiscal surplus of about $14.5 trillion from 1994 to 2023, that the average immigrant is much less costly than the average US-born American,...

cato.org

@mayor.nyc.gov @governor.ny.gov NYC faces a $12B budget hole for FY26-27. Undocumented NYers contribute ~$3.1B/yr in NY state & local taxes. Trump’s cruel ICE tactics will shrink revenue by pushing immigrants into the shadows & off the books. We must #TaxTheRich now to pay their share. My op-ed:

Op-Ed | ICE is coming for our people and our budget – amNewYork

New York faces a projected $34.3 billion cumulative budget gap through 2029, and federal funding, nearly 39% of the state budget, is shrinking. Every dollar

amny.com

ta-nehisi on renee good, alex pretti, and the "culture war"

“The Homeland” Is War on America: The Blood-and-Soil Nationalism That Killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti

In the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Trump has clarified an inconvenient fact: The culture war is an actual war.

vanityfair.com

Thrilled to join Roosevelt Institute’s 2026 Think Tank Fellows cohort to help build an economy that delivers shared prosperity, real power for working people, and rules that rein in extraction. Very excited to be alongside my former Treasury colleagues Chastity Murphy and @samarthgupta.bsky.social!

Roosevelt Institute@rooseveltinstitute.org · 9mo ago

🎊 Exciting news: We’re proud to introduce our 2026 cohort of think tank fellows! This inspiring group will help advance our #GoodLife vision of shared prosperity and power for working people. Meet the new Roosevelters ⬇️

Congress is fast-tracking crypto — not fixing the real economy. New op-ed in Fast Company: www.fastcompany.com/91474218/cry...

Crypto won’t fix America’s affordability crisis

An economy that already feels precarious does not need more ways for households to absorb financial risk

fastcompany.com

Great work from @groundwork.bsky.social. what it immediately brings to mind is whether a SNAP card on an instacart account impacts prices shown and if so how

Groundwork Collaborative@groundwork.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Our study, using over 400 volunteer shoppers, found that Instacart offered different prices to different shoppers on 74% of the grocery items tested.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | ‘Trump accounts’ will save kids? Republicans can’t be serious.

Baby bonds are a wealth-building tool that’s inclusive, equitable and grounded in solid economics.

washingtonpost.com