Civic Action · [email protected]

November 19, 2024 at 10:45 PM

The Tapback: Two weeks notice

If you don’t win, it couldn't possibly be perfect.TWO WEEKS NOTICE It’s tough to digest an election loss. Throwing blame and pointing fingers may feel like a nice release, but it isn’t usually all that helpful — especially a time when it’s still too early for anyone to have really compiled and diges…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 5, 2024 at 9:18 PM

The Tapback: Miserable enough?

Wealthy financiers are not satisfied by just wielding the power that wealth brings — they want to be honored for the higher purpose and self-sacrifice involved in being rich. MISERABLE ENOUGH? “Thank you for your service” has become something of a stock phrase used by brands, politicians, and other …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 29, 2024 at 10:40 PM

The Tapback: Back to school

We’re collectively deciding to reduce opportunity for children and their parents… because we haven’t figured out how to make our government budgeting process account for the long-term economic benefits of public investments. BACK TO SCHOOL Our country’s childcare system is a mess — high-quality care…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 23, 2024 at 8:17 PM

The Tapback: Over the borderline

The more immigrants are included in the economy, the more growth we see, and the better off everyone is.OVER THE BORDERLINE The politicians who have made anti-immigrant backlash a central feature of this year’s election may not want you to know this, but the economic impact of immigration is actuall…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 10, 2024 at 11:47 PM

that’s not centrism, that’s defending the status quo

Centrism can mean a lot of different things, but as Civic Action founder Nick Hanauer argues in The New Republic, the neoliberal centrism that has long dominated our politics is fundamentally about balancing the interests of the very wealthy with the interests of everyone else.John —There’s a lot of…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 9, 2024 at 12:13 AM

The Tapback: Burning bright

If that is what our system thinks periodic chemical fires are worth… we’re going to keep on having chemical fires.BURNING BRIGHT When the BioLab chemical plant recently exploded in Georgia, prompting evacuation and shelter-in-place orders that disrupted thousands of lives, many wondered how somethin…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 1, 2024 at 10:11 PM

The Tapback: Power Play

The companies run by the CEOs who signed on to the new statement have actually performed worse on social responsibility.POWER PLAY Back in 2019, the Business Roundtable did something that sounded shockingly meaningful. After insisting for decades that the only purpose of the corporation is to make a…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

September 17, 2024 at 9:46 PM

The Tapback: In Your Dreams

What does it say about our system of corporate accountability that this is the most consequential of his actions?IN YOUR DREAMS The Norfolk Southern freight railroad company came under intense public pressure after their disastrous 38-car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, but non…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

September 10, 2024 at 9:34 PM

The Tapback: Money Talks

The claim is that simply using the word “gouging” is itself a threat to American prosperity.MONEY TALKS Nothing upsets the old of trickle-down cultists like the suggestion that perhaps markets are not always and forever perfect at solving every human problem. And thus the extensive hand-wringing by …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

August 20, 2024 at 11:15 PM

The Tapback: Along the same lines

"That’s the command. Boom, boom, boom, boom."ALONG THE SAME LINES It’s easy to imagine that tech CEOs are genius-level intellects who code by day, strategize by night, and dominate markets by sheer force of their big brains. But then you hear one talk, and it an be quite a bit different than you mig…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

August 6, 2024 at 10:51 PM

The Tapback: Show and Tell

A company that owns 21 hospitals and almost a thousand other healthcare facilities is getting into the entertainment business.   SHOW AND TELL This is so odd that it might take a couple of reads to register, but the largest hospital system in New York has announced it is launching a “studio” divisi…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

July 24, 2024 at 1:31 AM

The Tapback: Tip of the hat

These loan companies are out there hustling for tips, hoping customers get confused or think they don’t have a choice but to chip in something extra, and then claiming it’s all just voluntary. TIP OF THE HAT You may have thought tipping culture was already out of hand, but, well, you were wrong. Be…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

July 16, 2024 at 10:25 PM

The Tapback: How does it make you feel?

The whole thing would make you think that the cost of an overseas holiday is more important for people’s sense of economic well-being than the cost of a mortgage or credit card APRs. HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL? With inflation now coming under control, the Federal Reserve is reportedly finally prepar…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

July 9, 2024 at 10:25 PM

The Tapback: First impressions

How on earth did the federal government come to carry out a scam… and arrest people over it… as part of an effort to crack down on scams? Can we get the FTC involved in rooting out this form of fraud, too? FIRST IMPRESSIONS Several years ago, federal immigration authorities established a fake unive…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

July 2, 2024 at 9:15 PM

The Tapback: To a Degree

It was determined years ago that his most famous paper was based on serious Microsoft Excel calculation errors that altered his conclusions. He even admitted it! And yet, he’s still one of the most-quoted official voices on economic policy in our most important newspapers. TO A DEGREE Getting quote…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

June 25, 2024 at 9:45 PM

The Tapback: Don't be Coy

Somehow, the word “tax” never appears in this piece about how rich people want to spend their money to feel like heroes. DON'T BE COY Perhaps we’ll never know why New York Times columnist Peter Coy decided that last week was the time to muse about the glories of Effective Altruism, a philosophy of…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

June 18, 2024 at 8:15 PM

The Tapback: Low-hanging fruit

Is this corporate accountability, or is it just a convenience of corporate accounting? LOW HANGING FRUIT A landmark ruling last week found the Chiquita Banana company responsible for using corporate funds to support a right-wing paramilitary group in Colombia which killed and displaced thousands o…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

May 15, 2024 at 10:45 PM

The Tapback: Smell the coffee

A story about coffee prices increasing so fast they’re being removed from the CPI calculation… which was entirely false… may very well still leave the impression that inflation is higher than is being measured…. and that belief could then be tapped into by corporate CEOs to justify further additiona…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

May 7, 2024 at 11:47 PM

The Tapback: Calling card

Tie customers to a massive anchor, follow it with a tiny flotation device, and call yourself a hero. CALLING CARD It’s always amusing to see what happens when a coalition of big banks and their associates tries to pose as Friends of the Common Man. So it’s definitely worth scoffing when the headline…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

April 30, 2024 at 9:42 PM

The Tapback: Lesser evil

After claiming to take responsibility for working conditions at their contractors, Google was then forced to actually take responsibility for working conditions at their contractors… so they decided to stop taking responsibility for working conditions at their contractors. LESSER EVIL Back in the da…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

April 17, 2024 at 12:15 AM

The Tapback: Feather in their cap

If you’re opposed to a rational, thoughtful, popular policy, you think you’d at least have the wisdom to be quiet about it. FEATHER IN THEIR CAP When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a strict $8 cap on credit card late fees, which will save consumers $10 billion a year, the big ban…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

April 9, 2024 at 8:15 PM

The Tapback: Fool me once

How much longer will it take until reporters get around to adjusting their assumptions, recognizing that middle-out economic policies are creating growth, and acting less surprised about the good news that keeps on coming? Or, more to the point: how on earth is something still a surprise when it’s b…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

April 2, 2024 at 10:08 PM

The Tapback: Artificial Irrelevance

Things that are technically possible don’t simply happen because they would be nice — power is central in determining how technology is deployed. ARTIFICIAL IRRELEVANCE Everyone has something to say about AI lately, and very often these hot takes reveal less about how we can address the latest techn…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

March 26, 2024 at 9:15 PM

The Tapback: It's about time

Today, there’s apparently a silent shared conviction among the powers-that-be that work is just naturally supposed to be a long and painful punishment, that human flourishing isn’t worth talking about, and that there are some popular ideas that just shouldn’t be elevated to serious debate. IT'S ABO…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

March 19, 2024 at 9:49 PM

The Tapback: Take a cut

The argument is that the economy is booming… so we should cut back…. on the very things that are making the economy boom…. in order to expand Chipotle’s managerial hiring pool. TAKE A CUT While some consumer sentiment indicators have seen recent improvement, a sharp mismatch persists between the ex…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

March 12, 2024 at 10:38 PM

The Tapback: Fatal attraction

"A new way to open up conversations with the public on what needs to be done to bridge the gender gap" FATAL ATTRACTION It’s been fifteen years since the invention of cryptocurrency, and nobody has really figured out anything useful to do with it besides buying weapons and pharmaceuticals from slee…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

March 5, 2024 at 11:45 PM

The Tapback: Going grrrrrrreat

Despite the frosty reception, indulging in this kind of ridiculous announcement of a ridiculous tech initiative has long been a biggie at Wendy’s. GOING GRRRRRRRREAT By now, most Tapback readers have likely heard about Wendy’s now-aborted plan to invest in new video display boards and introduce sur…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

February 27, 2024 at 10:52 PM

The Tapback: They had one job

Literally: what is economic policy even about if it’s not about creating good jobs? THEY HAD ONE JOB For more than a year now, orthodox economists and the mainstream financial press have been struggling to process the idea that an intentional strategy of deploying thoughtful public investments in…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

February 21, 2024 at 12:45 AM

The Tapback: Live Long or Prosper?

Imagine the state of mind it takes to write — more than once! — about how the unemployment and general economic deprivation of a recession actually makes people healthier. LIVE LONG OR PROSPER? One of the most basic — and ridiculous — lines from trickle-downers is the idea that what’s good for rich…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

February 13, 2024 at 11:46 PM

The Tapback: Back to the Future

Just a few years after destroying billions of dollars of wealth on WeWork, there are still banks, hedge funds, and venture capitalists still willing to lend the guy a few hundred million, cross their fingers, and give it all another try.BACK TO THE FUTUREThere’s something both compelling and maddeni…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

February 7, 2024 at 1:14 AM

The Tapback: Give me one reason

Kroger’s “Chief Sustainability Officer” is now trying to make the case that Biden should ensure federal approval of their merger with Albertsons/Safeway because that would somehow result in lower prices. GIVE ME ONE REASONIt’s heartening to see President Biden publicly push big grocery chains to …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

January 30, 2024 at 11:18 PM

The Tapback: World of hurt

What we have here is an openly sadist approach to income inequality and consumer protection in the pages of one of the most influential newspapers in the country. WORLD OF HURTIt checks out that big banks are bitterly opposed to new regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that wo…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

January 23, 2024 at 10:15 PM

The Tapback: Where the heart is

This is like Walmart announcing they’re going to solve corporate concentration, DoorDash taking on the problem of high delivery fees, or Larry Summers working to address the impact of bank deregulation. WHERE THE HEART IS Airbnb has faced criticism for years over the way its short-term vacation ren…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

January 16, 2024 at 11:13 PM

The Tapback: Fly off the handle

Powerful companies tend, over time, to build the political power necessary to maintain a high degree of influence over their regulators. FLY OFF THE HANDLE When two Boeing jets crashed a few years ago, a wave of intense regulatory attention followed. Investigations were launched, approvals were del…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

January 9, 2024 at 11:18 PM

The Tapback: You deserve a break today

So apparently the whole thing here is that the guy gets a headline where he’s called an “analyst” because he just really likes to repeat the numbers 12 and 15. YOU DESERVE A BREAK TODAY When a new year rolls around, the minimum wage rises in cities and states across the country. And when the minimu…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

December 19, 2023 at 10:09 PM

The Tapback: No one is perfect

That remark from Larry Summers about what "no one should have thought" is a sharp rebuke to what one Larry Summers was thinking in June 2022 NO ONE IS PERFECT Last week, the notorious economist Larry Summers was interviewed by a Financial Times reporter about the state of the American economy. They…

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December 12, 2023 at 11:12 PM

The Tapback: Will power

They'd have us believe that consumers volunteering to throw some more money up the income distribution is a thing that happens, but raising prices to pad profits is not. WILL POWER For the last couple years, the public conversation about high inflation rates has provided corporate executives an ea…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

December 5, 2023 at 9:03 PM

The Tapback: The profit of doom

Apparently the idea now is that spending is supposed to be assessed based on the particular emotional state of each individual consumer when they put money into the economy? THE PROFIT OF DOOM Move over “quiet quitting," we have a new entrant in the competition for most ridiculous economic coinage …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 28, 2023 at 11:46 PM

The Tapback: Takes guts

So why on earth has the Wall Street Journal been trying so hard for so long to make the free market in kidneys into a thing? Perhaps it’s because of the point made in their most recent piece: that arguments about organ sales “go to the heart of the debate about capitalism.” TAKES GUTS This year, th…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 21, 2023 at 11:17 PM

The Tapback: Silver Spoons

So the Fed is trying to reduce inflation by increasing interest rates, which increases the cost of housing, which increases inflation. And along the way, they’re planning to increase unemployment, too. And this is the plan. SILVER SPOONS The Federal Reserve has been sharply raising interest rates si…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 14, 2023 at 10:15 PM

The Tapback: Give it Up

So apparently, two of the most damaging things a worker can do are 1) quit their job, and 2) not quit their job. GIVE IT UP A core belief of the trickle-down cult is that rich people are the center of the economy, shining their glory on the rest of us. So if things go sideways in the economy, it’s a…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 7, 2023 at 11:23 PM

The Tapback: Boo

Yup: the Club for Growth managed to suggest Reaganism has been killed, has no organic life to live, and consumes brains. BOO The pro trickle-down lobby group Club for Growth went in hard with the Halloween theme last week, which isn’t terribly unusual: people responsible for creating internet cont…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

November 2, 2023 at 9:51 PM

working overtime

Right now, employers have a simple trick to avoid paying overtime: they just have to call you a manager and pay you a salary as low as $35,000 a year. Then *poof*:  they can get away without paying you any overtime pay when you work over 40 hours a week. Hey John, If you work overtime, you should ge…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 31, 2023 at 9:18 PM

The Tapback: Surprise Twist

The deep thought of one of the most powerful CEOs in the country: “the biggest negative in my view is AI being used by bad people to do bad things.” SURPRISE TWIST Last October, the crack forecasters at Bloomberg Economics issued a remarkably confident prediction that the US economy faced a "100% ch…

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  Nick Hanauer · [email protected]

October 26, 2023 at 4:10 PM

Corporate Bullsh*t

Hey John, Nick Hanauer here, founder of Civic Action. I wanted to make sure you knew about my new book, Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America, which I co-wrote with Joan Walsh of The Nation and Donald Cohen of In the Public Interest.…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 10, 2023 at 7:35 PM

The Tapback: The emperor's wardrobe

The deep thought of one of the most powerful CEOs in the country: “the biggest negative in my view is AI being used by bad people to do bad things.” THE EMPEROR'S WARDROBE Chase Bank CEO Jamie Dimon further undermined the CEO worship at the core of neoliberal economics by once again opening his mou…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 5, 2023 at 5:15 PM

this will change the debate about minimum wage

Did the $15/hour minimum wage turn out to be "near insane"?Watch Civic Action founder Nick Hanauer break down the enormous implications of a first-of-its-kind study that shows raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour doesn't kill jobs — it creates them.   WATCH NOW  John  — When people like Nick Han…

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

October 3, 2023 at 8:15 PM

The Tapback: Pretty penny

Does offering gimmicky coupons indicate anything about economic policy choices? And if so, why doesn’t the Penny Saver issue influential candidate endorsements? PRETTY PENNY The trickle-down campaign group Americans for Prosperity has just completed a curious summer campaign tour, during which they …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

September 26, 2023 at 8:13 PM

The Tapback: The feels

It’s just the coded expression of an unhinged need to put workers in their place. But somehow, it gets treated as economic analysis. THE FEELS With numerous high-profile strikes and organizing drives over the past year, workers are fighting to rebalance the economy and ensure that when corporations …

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  Civic Action · [email protected]

September 19, 2023 at 6:10 PM

The Tapback: Rich dad, poor dad

Effectively, we conducted a real-time experiment on exactly what it takes to end child poverty, and it’s pretty much as obvious as it seems: give money to people with children, and poverty will go down. But then we simply stopped doing it. RICH DAD, POOR DAD One welcome outcome of the US COVID respo…

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