Roosevelt Institute
@rooseveltinstitute.org
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Advancing ideas that rebalance power in our economy and democracy. www.rooseveltinstitute.org
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In outlining his reason for a national program of social insurance, FDR stated:

"It is our plain duty to provide for that security upon which welfare depends."

We lay out why that goal is as essential today: #ProtectSocialSecurity 1/3 🧵
rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/what-do...
The goal of Social Security is to mitigate economic risk, particularly the risk of poverty when someone loses their ability to receive market-based income through employment. All people age, and no one can foresee with absolute certainty when death or disability may occur. Because these events are inevitable, yet the timing is unpredictable, it makes sense to protect against them.
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
sgp.bsky.social
Just out from the @rooseveltinstitute.org: a new report on Big Money’s current — and enormous — impact on U.S. politics. #inequality #billionaires rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
rooseveltinstitute.org
Corporations are rolling out new AI tech that may technically comply with data privacy laws, but opens up new ways to control and exploit workers.

Workers, researchers, and tech experts agree that we need a new generation of labor and tech protections: https://bit.ly/4oeGBKn
The “Privacy” Trap
Corporations are rolling out new technologies that may technically comply with data privacy laws, but actually create more ways to control and exploit workers. This brief offers concrete principles fo...
datasociety.net
rooseveltinstitute.org
As our Director of Industrial Policy and Trade points out, a government that builds smartly should be the goal (even when our positions differ on implementation or the problem/s to solve).

bsky.app/profile/todd...
toddntucker.com
The lessons Betony draws - that climate policy needs to be conceptualized with state capacity, bureaucratic, and legal hurdles in mind - are relevant whether your think the next generation of climate policy should be all about jobs, national security, affordability, or something else.
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
powerswitchaction.org
Corporations call it "privacy-preserving," but this new AI tech isn't all that it seems.

Our new brief w/@datasociety.bsky.social + CoWorker exposes how this tech harms + exploits workers and what we can do to strengthen worker protections + power in the digital age: datasociety.net/library/the-...
rooseveltinstitute.org
Pushing “market logic” into higher education has made the wealthy schools richer and the poorly resourced schools poorer.

@lookheron.bsky.social builds on his arguments and findings in his recent report for @lpeblog.bsky.social.

lpeproject.org/blog/the-neo...
rooseveltinstitute.org
Climate change is already impacting our economy, whether it is insurance fragility due to increasing climate disasters or the impact on labor participation across the globe.

Our #FedLit newsletter provides a good foundation for understanding the stakes.
fedlit.substack.com
Fed Lit | Substack
Fed Lit is a monthly newsletter from the Roosevelt Institute offering essential climate reading for Federal Reserve staff, leadership, and other interested parties. Click to read Fed Lit, a Substack p...
fedlit.substack.com
rooseveltinstitute.org
Our vision for the #GoodLife includes ensuring disabled Americans and their experiences are an integral part of economic policy.

Our partnership to co-launch the Disability Economic Policy Research Consortium is a part of this commitment. Learn more 👇
https://bit.ly/4q0NDDZ
Graphic from the Roosevelt Institute featuring the quote "People with disabilities are up close and personal with our fraying social safety nets, our lack of federal labor protections, and the indignities of means-tested and underfunded public programs that put undue administrative burden on people simply seeking economic freedom and a dignified life. For this reason, listening to the lived economic experience of disabled people can show us all where the cracks are throughout our public policy."
rooseveltinstitute.org
Deputy Director of Democratic Institutions lays out the cases to watch in this SCOTUS term.

With the influence this court has had on landmark decisions and precedent, the outcomes will have long-lasting impacts.
shahrzadshams.bsky.social
A new SCOTUS term begins today. What fresh hell awaits our flailing democracy this time around?🧵
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
shahrzadshams.bsky.social
Important piece by @lookheron.bsky.social tracing how the steady neoliberalization of higher education has sowed fertile ground for its takeover by authoritarians
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AI infrastructure is surging, but broader US manufacturing investment is slowing.

The risk: an AI boom that enriches tech firms more than people. A smart industrial policy will translate AI’s surge into quality jobs.

An 🎯 piece from @ianrharnett.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/c7b9453e-f...
The AI capex endgame is approaching
The rapid building of excess capacity both extends bubbles and ultimately bursts them
www.ft.com
rooseveltinstitute.org
Lost in last week’s shutdown news: The Department of Energy is undermining the well-established truth of the impacts of climate change.

Tackling climate change and building a resilient, sustainable, and worker-centered economy go hand in hand. www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-...
rooseveltinstitute.org
As media ownership consolidates into fewer hands, how to revive the public's trust in media is clear: Rebuilding a world-class public media system.

It is the only counterbalance to the consolidated media ecosystem and growing censorship. Read more ⬇️
https://bit.ly/4nDA5g4
Quote from Roosevelt Institute blog: "What the polling makes clear is that Americans still want a free and trustworthy press—but the collapse of public media leaves fewer places to find it. Commercial outlets are built to maximize profit, not to safeguard democratic accountability."
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State funding for universities has not decreased, yet tuition costs have skyrocketed.

@lookheron.bsky.social breaks down this relationship & the implications for the future of higher education governance.

As the political pressure on higher ed mounts, his findings are a crucial part of the story.
lookheron.bsky.social
OK let me do a little thread.

Contrary to popular belief, state funding for public colleges did NOT go down overall during the neoliberal era. That widely repeated result seems mostly be be an artifact of unusually low post-2008 levels.

But...

rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
graph of per-FTE student funding, 1980-2024. cycles around $10,500 until a big dip in 2008 and then a gradual recovery back to previous levels starting in 2012
rooseveltinstitute.org
Nearly half of Americans say groceries are more expensive than a year ago.

Over the last 5 years, grocery prices have increased by more than 30%.

Families judge the economy by what they pay—not by GDP. Costs, but not wages, are rising.
www.axios.com/2025/10/02/groc...
Bar chart titled "How Americans say grocery costs compare to a year ago," based on a Harris/Axios poll, showing percentages of the general public, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who find it harder to afford, about the same, or easier to afford groceries. Colors range from purple (harder to afford) to orange and light purple (easier to afford).
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
rooseveltinstitute.org
Since early 2024, women’s employment has declined relative to men, and rising costs—from groceries to childcare—have hit them hardest.

As Mike told the @nytimes.com, “women’s employment rates are down 2 percent from where men’s are,”—a worrying stat: 2/3 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...
Screenshot of quote from NYTimes article linked: "By any metric, America’s working women are doing poorly compared to men. Since January 2024, women’s employment rates are down about 2 percent from where men’s are, according to Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute. Put another way — as Time magazine did — 212,000 women left the work force between January and August of this year, while 44,000 men entered. The gender wage gap is widening, notes the economist Kathryn Anne Edwards, and, she said, “There is no racial group or educational class within the working population in which women outearn men.”
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
rooseveltinstitute.org
How are women faring in today’s economy?

Between rising costs from tariffs, lingering inflation, and uneven job growth, the picture isn’t promising.

Principal Economist @mikemadowitz.bsky.social breaks down what’s really happening: 🧵1/3
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
rooseveltinstitute.org
NEW📝: A flood of billionaire money in elections started after the SCOTUS #CitizensUnited decision.

Since 2010, billionaire 💰💰 in elections has grown 160x, giving the wealthy huge power over policy while regular voters lose influence. 🧵1/3
Graph showing billionaire spending in Presidential elections before and after Citizen's United.
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
rooseveltinstitute.org
The gender wage gap is widening again, and showing “worrying trends.”

Top of the list of reasons, to no one’s surprise: soaring child care costs.

Important read from @kedseconomist.com
Quote from article: 
The first is that the gender wage gap widened for the second year in a row. Women’s earnings as a share of men’s fell to 80.9% in 2024, from 84% in 2022. There is no racial group or educational class within the working population in which women outearn men. The second is that the gender working gap is also widening. Women are leaving the labor force: 383,000 since January, for a 0.6 percentage-point decline in their participation rate, compared to an addition of 690,000 men, an 0.1 point increase. The overall employment picture is even worse: There are 499,000 fewer women working now than at the start of the year, compared to 368,000 more men working.
Reposted by Roosevelt Institute
rooseveltinstitute.org
Even before the admin went after higher ed, public colleges faced 50 years of decline—hollowed out by privatization, financialization, and disinvestment.

@lookheron.bsky.social’s new report traces that history & shows how we can build a more equitable education system today:
https://bit.ly/3WlV9vv
Quote graphic for a new publication