Just got back from overseas and @davidgriscom.bsky.social brilliant new book, The Myth of Red Texas, was here waiting for me. Congrats, David, can’t wait to read it!
Shawn Fremstad
@shawnfremstad.bsky.social
For the many, not the few. Class, labor, family. Born in Fargo.
NLRB General Counsel sent a memo to staff stating that the NLRB should not go after employers simply because their labor policies are illegal, as long as they are not actually enforced. So it's fine to threaten workers, as long as you don't carry out the threats. www.nlrb.gov/news-outreac...
NLRB General Counsel Issues Case Handling Guidance
Today, NLRB General Counsel Crystal S. Carey issued GC Memorandum 26-03. The memorandum instructs the Regional Offices to focus their efforts on investigating priority cases and protecting the right of free association. “As we move forward with this new guidance, my office is committed to providing clear and actionable direction for Regional offices to judiciously securing the rights of all American workers,” said General Counsel Carey.
nlrb.gov
A lot of Dems supported Opportunity Zones but: -84% of job gains offset by ⬇️ in low-income communities & evidence of even larger negative spillover -gains likely benefited more-advantaged new residents not original ones -⬆️ in white pop share; ⬇️ in Hispanic share www.nber.org/digest/20260...
Employment Outcomes in Opportunity Zones
nber.org
Recent Humanities PhD grad? Heard about this opportunity for you from @equitablegrowth.bsky.social www.acls.org/competitions...
Do you know how bad you have to fuck up to radicalize St. Cloud?
Minnesota Star Tribune@startribune.com · 9mo agoA crowd of hundreds gathered at a St. Cloud strip mall parking lot to observe more than two dozen ICE officers near some Somali-owned businesses. 📷️: Jenny Berg
Today, a call to join the next era of LPE: a democratic, independent, member-led organization that will serve as a home for a broad array of LPE work.
LPE 2.0: A New Association to Meet the Times
As the Trump administration attempts to suppress critical inquiry and operate outside of conventional legal boundaries, the work of LPE scholars, organizers, and practitioners has never been more…
lpeproject.org
extremely sad news that Asad Haider has passed away. i didn't know him personally but it'd be impossible to overstate how important his writing and editing in Viewpoint was to my trajectory. as I said last night, we are losing too many comrades.
What is the care economy? It is $4b/day in developmental care, $12b/day in activities that support daily living, and another $4b/day on time caring for a loved ones' health. The equivalent of $20 billion/day of effort is invested in caregiving in the U.S. Check out the details.👇👇👇 #thecareboard
The Care Economy | The Care Board
The Care Board: Visualizing care connections across the U.S. economy. Using data, we reveal the essential role of care in sustaining families, communities, workers, and the broader economy.
thecareboard.org
This is a new piece from me on the increasing significance of class in arrests and incarceration. 1/ cepr.net/publications...
The Increasing Significance of Class in American Hyperincarceration
The discussion on incarceration and class is crucial. Discover how class disparities influence the criminal justice landscape today.
cepr.net
“what do you do when the pursuit of middle-range theory feels no more useful than trying to determine how many angels can fit on the head of a pin? My own response has been to zoom out, to shift my research toward the big political economy questions: …” lpeproject.org/blog/in-this...
In This Brave New World, Does Scholarship Still Matter?
If the recent past is no longer a useful guide to seeking change in the present, what good is policy-adjacent scholarship?
lpeproject.org
"Grossman and Hopkins note that today there are more nonprofit employees in the US than there are manufacturing workers, around three million as of 2023." jacobin.com/2024/11/libe...
Liberal Dominance of Cultural Institutions Hurt the Left
A new book, Polarized by Degrees, argues that college-educated voters have come to dominate the Democratic Party and cultural institutions while Americans without a college degree feel increasingly al...
jacobin.com
Erik Olin Wright's "Understanding Class" (both the 2009 New Left Review piece and the 2015 collection with the same title) is notable for bringing together three of the main approaches (stratification, Weberian, and Marxist) to class. See also his lecture here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmii...
David Kaib@davidkaib.bsky.social · 2y agoWhat are your favorite pieces on the concept of ‘class’?
Resistance 1.0 didn't fail because it was too reflexively anti-Trump. Resistance 1.0 did not build sustainable power because it was too formalistic. It was focused on what was aberrant and abhorrent about Trump, rather than the impact of his corruption and incompetence on actual people.
"Soviet computing was–ironically–severely undermined by a lack of cohesive, collectivist planning...whereas electronics development in Massachusetts and California was lavishly state-funded, leisurely and cooperative. The Bulgarians were fully aware of this..." newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Owen Hatherley, Bulgarian Dreams — Sidecar
On Victor Petrov’s ‘Balkan Cyberia’.
newleftreview.org
Such a telling and important figure illustrating how childcare costs impact inequality!
Pilar Gonalons-Pons@pgonalon.bsky.social · 2y agoHere's one key finding. It shows that having children has a negative impact on family income and that childcare costs exacerbate this "birth penalty" for women wo college but not for women w college. As childcare prices go up, inequality between the two groups increases ⬆️
After not showing up to votes since Thanksgiving, Senator Sinema finally showed up today only to vote against a nominee she had voted to confirm for the same position just four years ago. Why show up now? Sinema is currently auditioning for the role of corporate sell-out
More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 2y agoBREAKING: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have cast decisive votes against Biden's NLRB nominee. This means the Democrats will not secure control of the national labor regulator through 2026. These two Senators effectively handed Trump control of the board when his term begins.
"Gamoneda is not a poet of the establishment. Self-taught, working-class, insurgent, an extraordinary voice in post-Civil War Spain. His work is defiant: hermetic, elliptical, fragmented; words have no fixed meaning; readers must accept being cocreators" www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
On Translating Antonio Gamoneda
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.
poetryfoundation.org
NEWS: Sen. Schumer filed cloture on Lauren McFerran for another term on the National Labor Relations Board. If she's confirmed Democrats will maintain a majority on the board until 2026.
Evidence has demonstrated this effect in numerous cities now. I understand why it sounds weird to say, 'building a bunch of fancy new townhouses and skyscrapers will make housing more affordable!' but it simply appears to be true.
Tina Smith@smith.senate.gov · 2y agoSo proud of the great work happening in Minneapolis, which shows that boosting housing supply helps make homes more affordable.
People in poor health — especially in non-government plans — in large fractions do hate their plans. You have to actually use it in a meaningful way to have a view on its quality. And, quite obviously insurers work, via a range of burdens (denials, pre auths)to restrict access to care b/c profits.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 2y ago“Everyone hates their health insurer” isn’t even close to true, is the thing.
Like I keep saying, Minnesota social democracy is happening and going national next.
Ken Martin@kenmartin.bsky.social · 2y agoDemocrats have always been the party of the working class. But for the first time, most Americans believe we're the party of the wealthy and the elite. It's a damning indictment of our brand—and we've got to change it.
Yes, 100%. (Also underrated: UMass economics.)
Paul Novosad@novosad.bsky.social · 2y agoLast, this is why descriptive work is underrated. No preposterous IV, no incomprehensible structural black box, there is just a new fact about the world. If the descriptive work is done well — and it is not easy — the fact permanently enters everyone's headspace and must be contended with.
"Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that a culture of aggressive egalitarianism may have thwarted the emergence of enduring wealth inequality until the Late Neolithic...." www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
The Origins of Enduring Economic Inequality
(December 2024) - We survey archaeological evidence suggesting that among hunter-gatherers and farmers in Neolithic western Eurasia (11,700 to 5,300 years ago) elevated levels of wealth inequality occ...
aeaweb.org
my book, "Good Company: Economic Policy after Shareholder Primacy," is officially out today 📚 a brief thread on what it's about 🧵 press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Good Company
On the faulty intellectual origins of shareholder primacy—and how policy can win back what’s been lost. In an era of shareholder primacy, share price is king. Businesses operate with short-term goals ...
press.uchicago.edu
Co-sign, also Reclaim Idaho's website has great merch with their green camper van on it.
Jennifer Berkshire@jenniferberkshire.bsky.social · 2y agoThis is such a great Know Your Enemy episode on the power of rural organizing with Luke Mayville, founder of Reclaim Idaho. Fans of @haveyouheard.bsky.social will remember him from our episode on why vouchers flopped in Idaho. know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/org...
To make up for all the Best Books of the Year end-of-year lists that inevitably omit poetry:
Lit Hub@literaryhub.bsky.social · 2y ago.@davidwoo.bsky.social looks back on 2024’s best poetry collections (and shares new poetry recommendations for December).
Finally read it. It's great. Read it now before you formulate your next post-election take.
Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 2y agoNEW: my very long election take is here. The key is to understand how beneficial the pandemic era programs were and how painful their expiration was www.crisesnotes.com/one-election...