I am pleased to present a NEW PAPER we’ve been working on for awhile: “An Antitrust Exemption for Collective Bargaining by Independent Contractors” coauthored w/Vince Mancini & Bob Stutchbury. Forthcoming from Antitrust Law Journal. Link to the paper: marshallsteinbaum.org/wp-content/u... /1

A special MLK day share of my piece about how MAGA was born from racial resentment. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this: America's problems are solved problems. Just not here. What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵

Kinda shocked how long it takes this article to mention @sbworkersunited.org (Apple News link) apple.news/ATQXDsSEIR1O...

Robert Rubin: business leaders’ silence is undermining America. www.wsj.com/opinion/why-...

Watch my address on the ongoing federal presence in Minnesota: youtu.be/fGTsYXBWQgU

Trump’s abuse of the pardon has no parallel in American history. Almost every president has used them for politics; a few as instruments of corruption. Trump’s pardons fall well below the subterranean ethical floor established even over the past 50 years. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/14/a...

Call for Submissions!! W&L Law’s Blue Mountain Writing Retreat!! Pls see below

I’m deeply proud of Minneapolis for protesting peacefully & in force. Some seem to be hoping for a repeat of 2020 to revive a narrative of urban chaos. The reality is that Minneapolis is one of the most functional, civically engaged, & livable cities in the country.

I regret to say, I told you so www.crisesnotes.com/powell-will-...

‘Inclined’

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Listen to Powell here. www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Again I apologize for belaboring this point, but I really haven't seen it mentioned by any mainstream source: if you go frame by frame, it is exceedingly clear the shooter recorded most or all of the encounter on his phone, and was likely recording at the exact moment he shot her.

Do you know who Willie Horton is? What about Laken Riley? How is it that you came to know these things? Ok, now. Without googling, how many Jan 6 rioters have recidivated? Been charged with violent or child-sex crimes? What are their names? Who were their victims? More on the disparity here.

I've watched thousands of videos from the Jan. 6 riot as part of NPR's reporting and archive project on that day. Here are some of the lesser known videos that have really stuck with me. 🧵

The speech I remember most from five years ago youtu.be/9Wo5F8GMdCA?...

One of most remarkable US presentations at UN Security Council I've ever seen. - No reference to UN Charter legal justification - Claims Panama as precedent (which the UN condemned) - Energy reserves ⤵️ as justification is illegal - Sharp contrast with US Ambassador Pickering presentation in 1989

You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to him.

Elon Musk chatbot repeatedly making CSAM on demand should be one of the single biggest stories right now and it's effectively a collective shrug instead

Thank you, @danielschulman.bsky.social . This truly is the January 6 administration. open.substack.com/pub/firstbra...

I have a new paper w Andrea Prat & Jake Spitz. We show that Republican appointed Supreme Court Justices vote in favor of the richer party by over 70% today, as compared to D’s at 30%. In the 1950s and both were at 50%. This strong trend may contribute to rising inequality. www.nber.org/papers/w34643

The most disturbing presidential press conference I have ever seen. fallows.substack.com/p/blind-into... (First 3/4ths before paywall.)

New Interview: www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Evergreen 😞 theonion.com/no-blood-for...

The media needs to recognize that there is a marked difference between the endemic problem of CSAM being posted to social media platforms and a platform giving users a tool to actively create CSAM.

It’s Almost Intelligence

Doing my part to help with the Streisand Effect. Also — there’s a book somewhere in the story of Matt Taibbi that could provide insights into why Gen Xers went for Trump more than any other age demo

Most of what I wrote this year was a book. And I can't share that yet. But I did write a handful of stories that I liked, and since this is the week many of us share our year's work, here are three. 1) An essay on Paul Reubens and the painful history of the closet. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/t... >

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate in whatever way you celebrate

Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name. "These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."

I wrote a little thing about "Fairytale of New York" and about hope for a better year, but mostly I wanted to share the rendition of the song played at Shane MacGowan's funeral in 2023 because it's so beautiful. Happy Christmas, I love ya baby. dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...

fascinating new birthright citizenship research from Amanda Frost and Emily Eason — in a reconstruction period rife with eligibility challenges, nobody challenged 12 members of Congress who would fail Trump’s citizenship clause test Paper here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

On a rough week for the Atlantic, it’s great to have Alexandra Petri.

I think bigotry has become a kind of loyalty ritual among young republicans, it’s how you show you’re one of them www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Surprised by Stefanik’s direct and frank quotes here about the reasons for dropping out — seems like stuff a staff member would say not for attribution.

I posted an earlier draft of this a couple of months ago, but got inspired today to post the nearly-final version. thesanjuktablog.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/p...

The most brutal way of telling someone they’re a few sandwiches short of a picnic that I’ve heard in French is t’es pas la truite la plus oxygénée de la rivière. It means “you’re not the most oxygenated trout in the river.” * read on for similar insults from around the world (a thread)…

I’ve seen three levels of spin on the Wiles interview: (1) The interview is bad for the Admin (2) The interview is actually not bad—Wiles has snuck through a softball normalizing piece (3) The interview is really bad for the admin and the admin is spinning that the interview is too soft to distract

A very special Shareholder Primacy podcast! Me and @activistinvestor.bsky.social close out the year with a crossover episode with our sister pod, Proxy Countdown, featuring Matt Moscardi and Damion Rallis of @freefloat.bsky.social. Here at Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2...

🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]

Honored to serve on the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

For the second year in a row, the wealth gains for the 100 richest Americans exceeded what ALL American households spent on groceries combined. ~$995B for billionaires vs ~$775B in total grocery spending. We have an oligarchy and inequality problem masquerading as an affordability crisis.

A rare disagreement with @adamserwer.bsky.social for me. I think such folks are rare, but the few excel at drawing attention from outsiders, especially the media.

🚨 Federal jobs data may have vastly overstated jobs creation, swinging US from net job creation to net job loss over past 6 months “The real number could be something more like a loss of 20,000 jobs a month” www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

I keep coming back to this: Notre Dame's two losses were by a combined four points. Their most recent loss was on September 14th. Alabama lost by 21 yesterday.