UChicago has aggressively courted funds for special institutes, earmarked for specific, donor-influenced projects. The “Institute for the Formation of Knowledge,” run by the prolific classicist Shadi Bartsch, wife of the late president of the university, is a cautionary tale. 1/ These initiatives bypass faculty oversight, allowing the university to chase academic trends, poach talent, and make prize appointments. Easier to create and destroy than new departments, they also come with strings attached.
chicagomaroon.com/27469/news/res…

NEW: In Texas, labor supply can hardly keep up with the booming demand for solar.

Yet despite the hot labor market, most solar construction workers are exploited temps: paid unpredictably, forced to front travel expenses, and laid off without notice.
prospect.org/labor/workers-… I visited the largest solar facility to date in Texas, which is (surprisingly!) staffed by a union construction company.

Their CEO told me it’s good business. “In right-to-work states, being union is an advantage, especially in a market where labor is short all around.”

New: To build its plant in Normal, IL, @Rivian used an elaborate subcontracting scheme denying overtime pay to 100+ Mexican workers.

Now, assembly line workers are pushing to unionize the plant. I interviewed them on disorderly and unsafe work conditions:
prospect.org/labor/industri… The bigger picture: Biden promises “good-paying union jobs.” But as local and federal govts make an unprecedented wealth transfer to the next generation of clean energy companies, Democrats are missing the moment to make sure green jobs use union labor.

prospect.org/labor/industri…

Fertilizer is another sector where turmoil in supply—driven by conflict and extreme weather—provides cover for dominant firms to sell at extraordinary prices.

For @TheProspect I looked at the roots of the fertilizer price runup:

prospect.org/power/rollups-… China + Russia shielded their farmers from price surge by halting fertilizer exports. U.S. did the opposite, barring major fertilizer IMPORTS by slapping tariffs on Russia, Morocco, Trinidad.

@JLinvilleFert says top phosphate producer Mosaic has their hand in ~88% of U.S. supply

NEW: A manufacturing bill moving through Congress includes half a billion dollars for negative news coverage of China.

prospect.org/politics/congr… The industrial policy and competition bill, COMPETES, just passed the House. It would put $500m toward “supporting independent media and countering disinformation.”

China’s foreign ministry released this new white paper, “The State of Democracy in the United States”:

mfa.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_6… “Unprecedented wave of mergers and a crippling erosion of the diversity and independence of the US media”

Green banks say they’re trying to push private capital into climate-friendly markets by eating some of the risk.

But BlocPower, a startup for low-income buildings, got financing from Goldman Sachs before NY Green Bank agreed to fund it.

For @FT:

ft.com/content/23996b… It’s hard to believe but Solyndra still looms large for green public finance — making lenders cautious.

Some funders are more willing to experiment. But it’s an uphill battle to get financing for building upgrades, especially in low-income neighborhoods.

ft.com/content/23996b…

“It’s ironic that we have been beating up on big banks for years but today they may be the relative good guys.”

Capital has spread out from banks, becoming more concentrated and more capillary.

How will regulators who came of age in 2008 respond?

prospect.org/economy/what-t… Rohit Chopra at the CFPB is attempting a delicate pincer movement: crack down on fintech insurgents while also addressing problems that have long plagued conventional banking.

Chopra aims to “restore relationship banking in an era of big data.”

prospect.org/economy/what-t…

Media on COP26:
-Progress, but there’s more to be done!
-India and China are spoilers on coal
-Shortfall on $100b climate finance

Diverts attention from:
-U.S. is the world’s biggest oil and gas producer
-Biden agenda is Wall Street-led climate finance

prospect.org/environment/at… Unlike coal, the final deal text of COP26 does not mention oil and gas.

The United States plans to kick off by far the biggest increase in oil and gas production of any country over the next decade.

ht @_aploy, @SEI_Erickson, @brandoncwu

cdn.sei.org/wp-content/upl…

The bank industry has run an aggressive red-baiting campaign against Saule Omarova.

But the Marxist smear is a red herring.

What are banks really worried about? Conventional finreg, like Omarova’s power to restrict derivatives trading.

w/ @ddayen:

prospect.org/economy/wall-s… Omarova is testifying before the Senate Banking Committee this morning, where under pressure she gave this debased opening statement

(Swear I hate the reds and love free enterprise 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸)

banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

A new rule to disclose details about animal waste was supposed to apply to ~250 large dairies in New York.

Instead of complying, farmers switched to a different permit, which is not subject to the federal Clean Water Act.

prospect.org/environment/ne… We know extraordinarily little about factory farms.

In years of legal battles, NRDC has compiled the best data. It's not much.

EPA says 17,000+ farms exist, but 1) enviros suspect that's a lowball and 2) NRDC could only obtain data on 7,595 facilities.

nrdc.org/sites/default/…