Listening to Mondaire Jones, Jamaal Bowman and Summer Lee at the #nn20 keynote.
I should mention that I'm on two #nn20 panels back to back tomorrow.
First, moderating a panel on the post-Covid economy with Ro Khanna, Zephyr Teachout, Joe Sanberg, Holly Mitchell, & Riana Gunn-Wright at 2pm ET
Then at 4pm ET, on a panel on reviving regulation with Rob Weissman and Public Citizen.
Full day! If you're registered, check it out. #nn20
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This is the final day of our pricing series and we have two pieces for you.
First, @Bilalgwork of Groundwork looks at what policymakers can do about unfair, deceptive, and abusive pricing. Turns out there's a lot, some of which is already happening prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
One thing not brought up enough in the context of this pricing evolution, and corporate power more generally, is tax policy. Bilal does that: prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
A graduated corporate tax above a certain profit level could reduce the urge to surge on prices.
Public options are also a strategy, one we're seeing in real time with IRS Direct File ending the pricing power of TurboTax. There are other options: prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
We continue our series on how pricing really works with one of my favorite pieces: Joanna Marsh on subscription pricing, which relies on dark patterns and absent-mindedness to keep consumers paying. prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
It's the inattention economy: "A survey found that consumers estimated they were spending $86/month for their subscriptions. The total was actually $219."
Subscriptions are so out of hand that there are now subscription services to help you manage them. prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
The bigger problem is that companies have learned to protect their subscriptions with dark patterns, often tricking people into subscribing while locking customers in by making it nearly impossible to cancel: prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
So:
Judge Pittman (Trump judge in Texas) got the Chamber's challenge to CFPB credit card late fees.
He said it wasn't germane to Texas, sent it to DC
The 5th Circuit said no, sent it back to Pittman
And now Pittman put it on hold. accountable.us/wp-content/upl…
Pittman clearly seems mad about how the process went and mad at the Chamber. He even added this graph of the winding timeline of the case.
But that didn't stop him from ruling for big banks.
The preliminary injunction is entirely based on the 5th Circuit's ruling that CFPB is using unconstitutionally derived funds.
That's at the Supreme Court now & will likely be overturned, and then presumably Pittman and the Fightin' 5th will come up with another reason.
The $138 billion in student debt that's been relieved by Biden has nothing to do with his "Plan B" for debt relief after the Plan A was shot down by the courts. It's just about Biden's Education Department running existing forgiveness programs with a modicum of competence.
Today's announcement, for example, involves the speedy implementation of the updated income-driven repayment (SAVE) program, which promised that people paying 10 years with less than $12,000 in debt would get it forgiven. npr.org/2024/02/21/123…
$56.7bn in debt relief came from actually fulfilling Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which almost nobody successfully navigated before Biden.
Another $45.7bn came from fixing servicer errors on income-driven repayment to give debtors what they deserved ed.gov/news/press-rel…
The UAW's selective strike strategy is new for UAW, but it's been very successful for one other union. So much so that they trademarked the practice.
That would be @afa_cwa's CHAOS strategy. 🧵
CHAOS stands for Creating Havoc Around Our System. It began at Alaska Airlines in 1993. There was a protracted strike with the flight attendants, despite the airline earning record profits. Negotiations had dragged on for 3 years.
Under the Railway Labor Act, the flight attendants' union had the authority to devise intermittent surprise strikes, walking off flights at the last minute.
I read @FranklinFoer's Biden bio The Last Politician, and found this disconnect between a peripatetic presidency of action and the public perception that nothing's happening. What accounts for it? Maybe it's the White House's theory of politics. prospect.org/culture/books/…
Reading the accounts of Biden directing meetings and horse-trading with Congress—the work of politics—is so disconnected from this White House's extreme cloistering of the president that it called to mind the old SNL Reagan mastermind sketch:
No review has yet highlighted the bits about how much Biden dislikes Zelensky. At one point, CIA director Bill Burns had to give Zelensky “relationship-management tips.” prospect.org/culture/books/…