A new booklet by @nickhanauer.bsky.social and Eric Beinhocker "Markets Built for Humans" is about replacing neoliberalism with an economics built on how the economy actually works, and what it's actually for. marketsbuiltforhumans.org

In 2011, economists, Hill Dems & progressive wonks all agreed: a $15 minimum wage was economic madness. Seattle did it anyway. Every prediction proved wrong. Since then, 138 state-level minimum wage increases have been studied. Researchers found zero evidence of job loss. None.

"If we want to have a world that all of us would like to live in, you better change the operating system that defines how that world works, by ripping economics down to the studs." Read @nickhanauer.bsky.social's TNR interview here 👇 newrepublic.com/article/211507/everything-know-economy-dead-wrong

$1.7 billion. That's what U.S. employers spend annually on consultants whose job is to keep workers from organizing. That asymmetry doesn't show up in wage negotiations—it shapes them. 🧵

@nickhanauer.bsky.social calls his project "comically ambitious"—and he means it. He wants to replace the economic ideas driving policy for 50 years with something that reflects how people and markets actually work. It's called Market Humanism. Start here. ⬇️

What if Everything We Know About the Economy Is Dead Wrong?

Entrepreneur and anti-inequality warrior Nick Hanauer has a vision of a fairer, more humanist system. All it takes to get there is to throw out everything that came before it.

newrepublic.com

A functioning economy requires functioning infrastructure—literal and human. Healthcare, housing, a safety net that works. These aren't radical asks. They're the preconditions for growth and the data backs that up.

What if the economic ideas shaping American policy for the past 50 years were never actually right? Not "could use some tweaks" but literally 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 at the foundation about how people behave, how markets work, and what makes an economy grow.

What if Everything We Know About the Economy Is Dead Wrong?

Entrepreneur and anti-inequality warrior Nick Hanauer has a vision of a fairer, more humanist system. All it takes to get there is to throw out everything that came before it.

newrepublic.com

76% of Americans now name the cost of living as their top economic worry, up from 58% a year ago (CNN/SSRS, May 2026). An 18-point jump in 12 months isn't people getting gloomier. It's people noticing that the rules governing prices, wages & housing aren't built to work *for* them.

Five programs designed to fix dangerously insufficient infrastructure in the communities that need it most. Cut. All of them. In one bill. That’s not fiscal responsibility. That’s a choice about whose safety counts.

Rachel I. Jacobson@rachelijacobson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Congress’s first go at a surface transportation deal – the Build America 250 Act – deauthorizes 5 programs designed to help states repair harm to low-income communities and communities of color from dangerous infrastructure & pollution. Congress should protect & grow these programs. ⬇️

“Although the neoliberal paradigm has taken heavy fire over the past decade from academics, activists & populist politicians, it has proved stubbornly hard to eradicate & its flawed assumptions still shape large swaths of economic policy making" www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Economic Experiment That Upended Reality

Minimum-wage increases were expected to kill jobs. The fact that they didn’t should make us rethink a lot of assumptions.

theatlantic.com

@nickhanauer.bsky.social has built companies, backed others & spent decades watching how the economy actually works from the inside. His conclusion: trickle-down economics isn't just ineffective—it's a story told to justify policy choices that have cost working families t r i l l i o n s.

A new @epi.org/@laborlab.bsky.social report puts a number on something economists have long argued shapes wage outcomes more than almost any other structural variable: employer spending on union avoidance.

U.S. employers spend more than $1.5 billion annually on union avoidance

Key takeaways Many U.S. employers hire union avoidance consultants to keep their workers from organizing and bargaining for better pay and working conditions. We estimate that employers spend roughly ...

epi.org

@nickhanauer.bsky.social & @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social on 50 years of progressive economics: When fairness fights growth, fairness loses. Every time. That wasn't a messaging problem—it was the wrong fight entirely. #EconSky

Market Humanism: A New Paradigm for a New Era

Progressives have been fighting on the neoliberals’ terms. Market Humanism flips that—and provides a winning and more humane narrative. Oh—and a far more prosperous country.

democracyjournal.org

“In some of the higher-cost locations of the country, you’re looking at more than 70% of households that aren’t earning enough to cover a basic [standard] of living. Our problems on affordability are even bigger than what people are talking about.”

Don’t Call It Upward Mobility If People Still Can’t Afford to Live

A living wage analyst challenges rosy claims about rising standard of living, and shows that for millions of Americans, their pay doesn’t cover the basics.

capitalandmain.com

“The iron law that said raising wages kills jobs is dead. The evidence killed it. What remains is to bury the paradigm that kept it alive—and to rebuild the country it broke,” Nick Hanauer and Eric Beinhocker write:

The Economic Experiment That Upended Reality

Minimum-wage increases were expected to kill jobs. The fact that they didn’t should make us rethink a lot of assumptions.

bit.ly

@nickhanauer.bsky.social and @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social argue that capitalism can be saved, provided there’s a radical makeover of what a capitalist economy should achieve. @anne-s-kim.bsky.social writes.

The Capitalists Trying to Fix Capitalism

Can capitalism be saved? Is it worth saving? Two ambitious reformers argue yes—provided we change what a capitalist economy should achieve.

washingtonmonthly.com

The economy isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed. The real question: can we design it better—and for whom? @nickhanauer.bsky.social & @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social joined @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social editor @anne-s-kim.bsky.social to discuss 🎧

The Capitalists Trying to Fix Capitalism

Can capitalism be saved? Is it worth saving? Two ambitious reformers argue yes—provided we change what a capitalist economy should achieve.

washingtonmonthly.com

For decades, the theory was: make rich people richer and economic growth follows. But businesses hire when customers are spending, not when CEOs are flush. A strong middle class doesn't result from a healthy economy. It produces one.

76% of Americans say cost of living is their top financial problem. But even working people earning $150K+ report their wages aren’t keeping pace. This isn’t a skills gap. It’s a structural one.

‘My life is not affordable. No one cares’: 76% of Americans call the cost of living their biggest financial problem | CNN Politics

CNN’s poll, conducted by SSRS, finds a surge in people naming high prices and the cost of living as the top economic problem facing their own family.

cnn.com

$79 trillion diverted from working Americans to the top 1% since 1975. That’s not a mystery. That’s not “the market.” That’s what happens when you spend decades writing the rules so more of the economy’s gains flow upward — then act surprised when they do.

Six American billionaires got nearly a trillion dollars richer in the past 18 months. The question isn’t whether that’s a lot. It is. It’s how the same handful of people keep grabbing this much of the gains, decade after decade.

$𝟳𝟵 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻. That's how much wealth would be in the hands of the vast majority of American households today if the gains from a half-century of economic growth had been broadly shared instead of concentrated at the top. A different distribution wasn't impossible. It was a policy choice.

@inetoxford.bsky.social ED and Oxford economist @ericbeinhocker.bsky.social + entrepreneur, investor and economic thinker @nickhanauer.bsky.social have been building a new framework for how markets work—and who they work for. Beinhocker just took it to @HalSinger.bsky.social's Slingshot podcast. 🧵

Trickle-down economics told us that keeping wages low was good for competitiveness. Fifty years of data say otherwise. When workers earn more, they spend more. When they spend more, businesses grow. May Day is a good day to ask: why did we ever believe otherwise?

New data: Americans are searching for mortgage help at rates higher than 2008. But this isn’t a repeat of the same crisis. It’s a different structural problem: In many communities, incomes haven’t kept pace with housing costs.

Google searches for ‘help with mortgage’ surge to the highest level on record

Americans aren’t missing mortgage payments en masse — but they are increasingly worried they will.

nypost.com

A new report from @ips-dc.org looks at the 20 largest low-wage employers in the U.S. Together, they employ ~6.7 million workers. 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘧 of them are paying less in real terms than they did five years ago.

America’s 20 Largest Low-Wage Employers and the Affordability Crisis

Low wages are a key driver of the affordability crisis. These 20 firms pay poverty wages while enriching CEOs.

ips-dc.org

New UC Berkeley research—the most methodologically rigorous yet on California's $20 fast food minimum wage—finds covered workers' average weekly wages rose ~11% with no significant employment reduction.

Study: California’s $20 minimum wage barely raised prices—and proved economists wrong about job loss | Fortune

“The results are nowhere as dire as predicted,” Berkeley’s Michael Reich told Fortune.

fortune.com

The bottom half of the world's population - about 4 billion people - is responsible for just 10% of global carbon emissions. Yet when climate change drives up food prices, floods farmland, and disrupts local economies, those same 4 billion people absorb 74% of the damage.

Since 1975, $79T in wealth shifted upward—away from the bottom 90% of Americans toward the top 1%. The result: an economy that's smaller and less productive, innovative AND competitive than it would be if prosperity had stayed broad. Trickle-down didn't just fail workers. It failed the economy.

Arizona, Florida, Missouri, and Nebraska nearly doubled their minimum wages over the past decade. These are not blue-state policy experiments—they're red & purple states where voters chose higher wages directly through ballot initiatives.