Ben Zipperer

A reminder, because it is almost that time of year: More children are killed by cars on Halloween than any other day of the year, by far. www.vox.com/future-perfe... If you're a parent, I hope you'll do what you can to keep kids safe. If you're driving on Saturday, PLEASE exercise extra caution.

The four year old explained this sign says "No pies, no milkshakes, no walkie talkies"

whomst among us were able to buy a $244k house with mid-1980s incomes and interest rates

My brain cannot process this level of corruption. She was being paid $50 million to engineer a pardon from Trump *while working at the Justice Department* as a "Special Government Employee." And it worked. He got the pardon, and she got the money. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/u...

Kind of astounding how Trump single-handedly knocked the average worker back to where they started

On this day in 1859, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry begins. Although ultimately defeated, the uprising is considered an important cause of the Civil War and thus did help lead to the abolition of the institution of slavery. anticolonialhistory.com/event/124/

found an NYC Teamster whose tiktoks are just skate tricks he dedicates to other unions.

I have a NEW WEBSITE to provide media, advocates and policymakers a summary of what's known about the economic impacts of ICE activity in the second Trump administration! Please check it out, share widely, and lmk what else would be helpful here. theiceeffect.org

No one thought it could be done!

Thanks to Trump's war, a complete reversal of wage gains

kebab night

This is how the U.S. is choosing to treat vulnerable children

a livestreamed execution is just a lynching

No AI for kids. Full stop.

AI-in-law case study from Matt Bruenig who used an AI harness to draft a winning arbitration brief. The win came from a strong case, not a brilliant brief, backed by routine legal writing that software can apparently handle with a lawyer steering www.nlrbedge.com/p/can-ai-wri...

If you're in these states, *TODAY* is deadline to register to vote. Arizona, Arkansas Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas. Even if you think you've registered: doesn't hurt to check! And there's a lot happening across them. A thread with stakes on each. ⬇️

Apropos of claims being made on the other site about minimum wage effects on jobs. I encourage you to look at our work on the own-wage elasticity (OWE). Most studies suggest effects that are either positive or small negative, where magnitudes are economically interpretable. 1/

apple cake

In streamed an army of cops...and, trotting after them, Nate Cavanaugh, along with more DOGE people. “They are ordering the D.C. cops around like their own private army,” said Colin. “I didn’t see that coming. I didn’t see the police taking sides.” www.wsj.com/politics/mic...

Just a public service announcement: some of the tastiest pastries in the southeast are at USA Bakelava in Manassas, VA

Even if you've never been a union member, the attacks on unions have cost you money. The typical worker would be earning $5,000 more a year if unions were as strong today as they were five decades ago

dinnertime biscuits with some local flour

Art of the Deal, Chapter 8: Once they have the canopy and bay door, the rest of the plane sells itself

10 years! Our babysitter was only *kinda* high, so everyone is having a good time

I knew but still am amazed at how bad these numbers are, 10th percentile having a worse time of it than peak 10% inflation in 2022.

Did AI increase unemployment among recent college grads this summer? Probably not. Summer of 2026 was pretty normal compared to earlier years. new research from Robert Fairlie and Jane Wu

"Prioritizing high-pressure labor markets—those identified by extended periods of low unemployment—is key to providing lower- and middle-wage workers the leverage to bid up their wages."

Huge finding. ICE activity was NOT correlated with immigrant density. It WAS correlated with Black and brown neighborhoods. Shocked, shocked.

Quite a thing to hear from someone who oversaw massive Medicare fraud during his time running a company.

New data alert 🚨 - CEO pay surged in 2025, rising 14% to an average $27.9 million - CEOs are paid 325 times as much as the typical worker in their industry - Between 1978 and 2025, top CEO pay rose 1,316% compared to only a 28% increase for typical workers www.epi.org/blog/ceo-pay... #EconSky

The 2025 American Community Survey should have come out today. But it has been delayed because of unusual political encroachment at Census. ACS drives business and policy decisions, especially in local communities, and is the primary input to Census’s immigration estimates.

This morning, the Census Bureau is releasing the latest data on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance! Note: these data are for 2025 and will not reflect changes in the labor market, rising inflation, and attacks on vital safety net policies, hitting families in 2026. www.epi.org/blog/2025-ce...

Thanks to Trump's war, workers' pay buys less than it did a year ago. Five months and counting...

the new city playground is pretty sweet #publicparksrule

Unionization reduces deaths of despair. "Right to work" laws kill. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

first biscuits in the new kitchen