A grassroots movement to make an economy that works for everyone, not just the ultra-rich.

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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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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 …
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
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…
  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 …
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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…
  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.…
  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…
  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…
  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 …
  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 …
  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…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
September 12, 2023 at 7:15 PM

The Tapback: Consequences

OK, sure, there’s certainly a neoliberal economic model or two that assumes lowering corporate taxes or reducing marginal rates for the richest people leads to lower consumer prices, but is there any evidence of that happening in the real world? CONSEQUENCES In the face of the remarkable early succe…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
September 5, 2023 at 10:48 PM

The Tapback: Time after time

Last week, the US Department of Labor proposed new rules which would restore overtime protections to 3.6 million salaried workers by raising the salary threshold for overtime exemption to about $55,000 a year. TIME AFTER TIME Last week, the US Department of Labor proposed new rules which would resto…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
August 30, 2023 at 3:18 PM

The Tapback: While the Iron is Hot

Every time a group of workers threatens to go out on strike, the media is quick to trumpet the potential “economic impact” of the job action — which impact always seems to be a big scary negative number. So over the past year we’ve read that the potential rail strike was going to cost $1 billion a w…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
August 23, 2023 at 4:30 PM

The Tapback: Two Sides of the Same Coin

You might have expected that the collapse of the major cryptocurrency exchanges, the arrest of crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried, and various other scandals and crashes of the past year would have killed the market for lengthy features on bizarre crypto schemes… but maybe that’s why you’re not an edi…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
August 15, 2023 at 7:55 PM

Your comment needed

John, if you’ve ever bought a plane ticket, eaten a burger, or paid a cell phone bill, you’ve been negatively impacted by corporate mergers. Now, the FTC and DOJ are seeking public comment about new guidelines for corporate mergers.John If you’ve ever bought a plane ticket, eaten a burger, or paid a…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
August 1, 2023 at 7:44 PM

The Tapback: Something's Up

A who’s who of economists have spent the last year arguing that in order to reduce inflation, millions of people had to be thrown out of work. To cite just two: former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers insisted last June that “we need five years of unemployment above 5% to contain inflation—in other …
  Civic Action · [email protected]
July 25, 2023 at 7:37 PM

The Tapback: Spoiler Alert

The Biden Administration has proposed new rules which would apply more stringent standards to the review of corporate mega-mergers by requiring regulators to consider all of the various ways that buyouts can impact workers and communities. It’s an overdue but straightforward application of the basic…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
July 18, 2023 at 6:56 PM

The Tapback: Beat the Heat

The political survival of trickle-down economics depends on maintaining the fiction that it's plausible to believe that tax cuts, deregulation, and low wages are good for people. But last week, the trickle-down boosters at the American Enterprise Institute lost their discipline, writing in response …
  Civic Action · [email protected]
July 11, 2023 at 3:52 PM

The Tapback: But Seriously

If the recent New York Times editorial calling on Serious People to treat the national debt as a Serious Problem requiring Painful Choices seemed familiar to you, that’s because they’ve been writing the same piece for the past 40 years or so. BUT SERIOUSLY  If the recent New York Times editorial cal…
  Team Civic Action · [email protected]
July 6, 2023 at 6:13 PM

Get a sneak preview of our new YouTube channel

John, we’re taking our economic news and information to YouTube and we wanted to make sure top supporters like you were the first to hear about it. As a supporter of Civic Action, you count on us for up-to-date news & information about what’s happening with the economy — and opportunities to tak…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
June 27, 2023 at 9:19 PM

The Tapback: Award season

Rail freight giant Norfolk Southern suddenly became a household name this past February after the disastrous derailment of a massive 149-car train in Palestine, Ohio. The company grew even more notorious when reporters revealed that prior to the accident, they had spent millions lobbying against saf…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
June 14, 2023 at 8:01 PM

The Tapback: Feel no pain

Strong consumer spending is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs each month, workers’ wages are rising, and unemployment is near record lows. But some economists and journalists remain so committed to their faith that a recession is imminent that they can conjure visions of economic contractio…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
June 7, 2023 at 8:01 PM

The Tapback: That's life

Several hundred AI researchers, executives, investors, and other promoters signed on to an extremely well-publicized statement last week urging the public to reckon with the "risk of extinction" they claimed was posed by the development of the same AI technology the signers are currently researching…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
May 30, 2023 at 6:46 PM

The Tapback: Good job

Some members of Congress have been trying to score political points by pushing stringent work requirements for people who rely on food stamps to feed their families. GOOD JOB Some members of Congress have been trying to score political points by pushing stringent work requirements for people who rel…
  Team Civic Action · [email protected]
May 26, 2023 at 6:53 PM

We respond to your biggest economics questions 💡

Earlier this month, we asked you to share your most pressing questions about the economy and you delivered! Here, we're sharing responses from Paul Constant, a team member whose job it is to debunk trickle-down myths in mainstream economics. Earlier this month, we asked you to share your most pressi…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
May 23, 2023 at 5:48 PM

The Tapback: Child’s play

CHILD'S PLAY Ever since President Biden signed the CHIPS Act last year to help rebuild American prosperity by stimulating the domestic computer chip industry, various economic commentators and editorial boards have been fretting about the implications of the fact that the law requires companies rece…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
May 17, 2023 at 5:05 PM

The Tapback: Highs & lows

  Hey John, we're excited to introduce you to The Tapback, a new newsletter from Civic Action. Our scheme: keep you updated on the economic news you might have missed — and call out the B.S. Let us know what you think and what you'd like to see in future editions by replying to this email, or share …
  Team Civic Action · [email protected]
May 12, 2023 at 5:46 PM

Your economics questions = answered

Ask us anything! Our team member Paul will be answering your economics questions in a future email. We’re building a movement to grow the economy from the middle out – and we’re glad to have you on board. Since you're an essential part of this movement, John, we want to mak…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
April 27, 2023 at 4:31 PM

Why have some Democratic senators declined to support Julie Su for Labor Secretary?

Dear John, President Biden nominated Julie Su to serve in his cabinet as the next US Secretary of Labor because she is a civil rights attorney with a long record of support for workers rights.  Will you take two minutes to send a quick message to your Senators urging them to confirm Julie Su for Sec…
  Civic Action · [email protected]
April 21, 2023 at 2:11 PM

Asking for your opinion

We want to get to know you better, John. Can you take a few minutes to complete our 12-question survey on how we can do better at making that change happen? ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ …
  Paul Constant · [email protected]
March 25, 2023 at 5:00 PM

Deadline extended: Tell the FTC to ban noncompetes >

Tell the FTC: Ban exploitative noncompete agreements! ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ …
  Civic Action · [email protected]
March 13, 2023 at 11:31 PM

Biden proposal: Quadruple the stock buyback tax

Stock buybacks allow the super-rich to hoard money ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ …
  Civic Action · [email protected]
February 21, 2023 at 5:31 PM

This sci-fi book is a cautionary tale for the near future

Listen now: Nick Hanauer talks to sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ …