Mike Konczal
@mtkonczal.bsky.social
Econ person. Director of Policy and Research, @economicsecurityproject.org. Former NEC. #Rstats, dad, Chicago Guy. mikekonczal.com
Pinned
Mike Konczal
@mtkonczal.bsky.social
· Feb 27
ESP is growing! We’re proud to announce two new team members who previously served in the Biden-Harris Admin: Adriane Brown as Senior Communications Director and Mike Konczal (@mtkonczal.bsky.social) as Senior Director of Policy & Research. Seen first today in @politico.com Playbook.
Playbook
This is Trump’s first in-person meeting with Starmer since his return to the White House.
www.politico.com
Very excited to start a new role with the Economic Security Project, helping direct their research and policy.
In this chaotic moment, the essentials - fighting economic insecurity and corporate abuse, building social insurance and competitive markets - are more important than ever.
In this chaotic moment, the essentials - fighting economic insecurity and corporate abuse, building social insurance and competitive markets - are more important than ever.
My co-author Becky Chao crushed it on her first (!) podcast appearance, discussing affordability across all the things, ideas, paradigms, and policies.
Neon Liberalism (entering its second season) #53: Join Samantha and guest Becky Chao, Director of Policy and Research at the Economic Security Project, as they talk about the never-ending conflict between YIMBYs and anti-YIMBYs—and how we can get beyond it. www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...
Neon Liberalism #53: Beyond Abundance?
Join Samantha and guest Becky Chao, Director of Policy and Research at the Economic Security Project, as they talk about the never-ending conflict between YIMBYs and anti-YIMBYs—and how we can get bey...
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:38 PM
My co-author Becky Chao crushed it on her first (!) podcast appearance, discussing affordability across all the things, ideas, paradigms, and policies.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
November 21, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Smart, nuanced piece by @nealemahoney.bsky.social and @bharatramamurti.bsky.social that centers the essential trade-offs of price controls in this affordability moment (rather than assumes them away in either direction), as well as the politics of tackling them.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...
Opinion | Economists Hate This Idea. It Could Be a Way Out of the Affordability Crisis.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Smart, nuanced piece by @nealemahoney.bsky.social and @bharatramamurti.bsky.social that centers the essential trade-offs of price controls in this affordability moment (rather than assumes them away in either direction), as well as the politics of tackling them.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/o...
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Anxiety about *change* to health care has been a key factor in several consequential elections: 1994 (Clinton plan), 2010 (ACA), and (to some degree) 2018 . Even if people are unhappy w/ health care costs and choices, change is terrifying. GOP setting itself up on the wrong side of this dynamic. 1/3
November 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Anxiety about *change* to health care has been a key factor in several consequential elections: 1994 (Clinton plan), 2010 (ACA), and (to some degree) 2018 . Even if people are unhappy w/ health care costs and choices, change is terrifying. GOP setting itself up on the wrong side of this dynamic. 1/3
Reposted by Mike Konczal
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
I wonder if the United States can learn anything from the last time a major industrialized country decided to isolate itself from the rest of the world?
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
Almost a decade after the Brexit vote, GDP in the UK is around 6-8% lower relative to peer countries. (Source: www.nber.org/papers/w34459)
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The thing to understand about this is that this catastrophe in the UK has redounded to the political benefit of the very same people and political movement that pushed for it! Extremely perverse.
It seems that basically nobody likes this idea? It is a bad one, but usually there's some case. I wonder if they go through with it.
November 8, 2025 at 10:25 PM
It seems that basically nobody likes this idea? It is a bad one, but usually there's some case. I wonder if they go through with it.
Why, in this age of AI-enchanced code translation, is Dynare not available for Python?
November 8, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Why, in this age of AI-enchanced code translation, is Dynare not available for Python?
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Also, no point arguing with obvious bad faith but I feel obliged to note that YIMBYs advocate for consistent, non-arbitrary, rule-bound development standards. Not for public servants to knock down whatever buildings they want with impunity to build a Bribe Cathedral.
October 25, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Also, no point arguing with obvious bad faith but I feel obliged to note that YIMBYs advocate for consistent, non-arbitrary, rule-bound development standards. Not for public servants to knock down whatever buildings they want with impunity to build a Bribe Cathedral.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Just curious, how many units of housing are going to be in this ballroom?
I can’t believe there are not one but two articles, in major papers, with this dumb framing. It is not NIMBY to express dismay when a big part of the White House is suddenly rubbled
October 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Just curious, how many units of housing are going to be in this ballroom?
Reposted by Mike Konczal
I've been arguing for a while that YIMBYism and anti-monopolism should be complementary, but until now I haven't seen a systemic effort to synthesize them. Hard to think of a better person to do it than @mtkonczal.bsky.social economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
The Affordability Framework - Economic Security Project
This report introduces a two-part framework, identifying 1) broken markets and 2) broken incomes as dual drivers of the affordability crisis. This framework assesses the forces driving up costs for Am...
economicsecurityproject.org
October 24, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I've been arguing for a while that YIMBYism and anti-monopolism should be complementary, but until now I haven't seen a systemic effort to synthesize them. Hard to think of a better person to do it than @mtkonczal.bsky.social economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
Today @economicsecurityproject.org released its Affordability Framework by Becky Chao and myself.
As affordability remains central to economic debates, it's helpful to step back to see the key drivers of the crisis and build a theory of the case. /1 economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
As affordability remains central to economic debates, it's helpful to step back to see the key drivers of the crisis and build a theory of the case. /1 economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
The Affordability Framework - Economic Security Project
This report introduces a two-part framework, identifying 1) broken markets and 2) broken incomes as dual drivers of the affordability crisis. This framework assesses the forces driving up costs for Am...
economicsecurityproject.org
October 22, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Today @economicsecurityproject.org released its Affordability Framework by Becky Chao and myself.
As affordability remains central to economic debates, it's helpful to step back to see the key drivers of the crisis and build a theory of the case. /1 economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
As affordability remains central to economic debates, it's helpful to step back to see the key drivers of the crisis and build a theory of the case. /1 economicsecurityproject.org/resource/aff...
Reposted by Mike Konczal
also, what an image. the president demolishing a portion of a humble people’s house to make room for his royalist monstrosity
October 20, 2025 at 6:54 PM
also, what an image. the president demolishing a portion of a humble people’s house to make room for his royalist monstrosity
Reposted by Mike Konczal
shocked to learn that the president lied about this and also this is a horrible defacing of a building that belongs to the people of the United States, not donald trump
Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU
White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom
The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.
wapo.st
October 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
shocked to learn that the president lied about this and also this is a horrible defacing of a building that belongs to the people of the United States, not donald trump
Reposted by Mike Konczal
This is what solidarity looks like. Together, we will win.
October 19, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This is what solidarity looks like. Together, we will win.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.
October 14, 2025 at 2:32 AM
The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fined Rueben Antonio Cruz $130 for not having his papers with him.
www.chicagotribune.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Truly can’t believe they took this quote
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...
October 13, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Truly can’t believe they took this quote
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...
www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...
Last week California passed a big upzoning law, as well as laws pushing back on pharmacy PBMs and surveillance pricing.
The former is a YIMBY priority and the latter populist priorities. Often carried by the same legislators. The policy conflict between the two is overstated.
The former is a YIMBY priority and the latter populist priorities. Often carried by the same legislators. The policy conflict between the two is overstated.
October 12, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Last week California passed a big upzoning law, as well as laws pushing back on pharmacy PBMs and surveillance pricing.
The former is a YIMBY priority and the latter populist priorities. Often carried by the same legislators. The policy conflict between the two is overstated.
The former is a YIMBY priority and the latter populist priorities. Often carried by the same legislators. The policy conflict between the two is overstated.
Reposted by Mike Konczal
thank you brett kavanaugh!
Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.
Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race
southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race
southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...
Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children
Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.
southsideweekly.com
October 8, 2025 at 12:47 AM
thank you brett kavanaugh!
New from @nataliefoster.bsky.social on how the pending health care premium spikes are going to really impact young people, already feeling intense economic stress with a weak labor market and sky high housing costs.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...
Opinion | G.O.P. to Gen Z: Pay Double for Health Insurance or Go Without
www.nytimes.com
October 5, 2025 at 4:45 PM
New from @nataliefoster.bsky.social on how the pending health care premium spikes are going to really impact young people, already feeling intense economic stress with a weak labor market and sky high housing costs.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...
Brutal from Larry Summers. I got a deeper dive below.
October 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Brutal from Larry Summers. I got a deeper dive below.
Folks we are live. Still very initial version, but the first thing I actually got around to pushing to CRAN.
pkgdown website coming eventually (I know I know).
pkgdown website coming eventually (I know I know).
October 1, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Folks we are live. Still very initial version, but the first thing I actually got around to pushing to CRAN.
pkgdown website coming eventually (I know I know).
pkgdown website coming eventually (I know I know).
Reposted by Mike Konczal
Horrifying— Barbara Gomes Marques went with her US citizen husband and lawyer on 9/16 to a green card appointment at USCIS office in downtown LA where she was tricked into walking down a hallway away from them, was snatched by ICE and never came back. She now faces imminent deportation in Louisiana.
Los Angeles man demands answers after wife was detained at scheduled green card meeting
A man is speaking out and asking for help after his wife was detained by federal agents at the end of a scheduled green card hearing in downtown Los Angeles in early September.
www.cbsnews.com
September 30, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Horrifying— Barbara Gomes Marques went with her US citizen husband and lawyer on 9/16 to a green card appointment at USCIS office in downtown LA where she was tricked into walking down a hallway away from them, was snatched by ICE and never came back. She now faces imminent deportation in Louisiana.