Our Blog
February 14, 2023
Secretary Buttigieg Must Overhaul Rail Safety Regulations, Reinstate Upgraded Brake Requirements For Freight Trains
“Corporations do not respect Buttigieg as a regulator.”
February 13, 2023 | The American Prospect
The Difference Between Expertise and Marketing
Attacks on aggressive antitrust enforcement from ‘fellow Democrats’ who work for monopolists should be seen for what they are.
February 10, 2023
Larry Summers, TV Star: Part 1
Uncovering what Summers argued, and how Westin framed it, offers a lot of insight into how the media trains us to think about the economy.
February 10, 2023
Journalists' Lack Of Understanding Distorts Economic Coverage
There’s a lot to gripe about when discussing the Beltway media class in the United States. Progressives at groups like FAIR and Media Matters have spent years rightfully criticizing the press for access journalism, the ever-present need to equate perspectives from both major parties, and corporate-sponsored PR published under the facade of a news article. But a recent study of biases present in the BBC’s coverage of UK politics may help us understand yet another major failing of our media. Journalists lack an understanding of basic economic principles, leading them to unwittingly flawed reporting.
February 09, 2023 | The Sling
In Competition and Consumer Protection, The FTC Needs More Funding To Give Economic Power Back To Americans
Congressional Democrats managed to pass a few crucial measures during December’s lame duck session. One tiny fraction of the omnibus bill to fund the government was the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, a measure for which anti-monopoly advocates have long been pushing. And beyond the DOJ Antitrust and FTC’s edict to enforce competition, the FTC has another underfunded but crucial mission: consumer protection.
February 09, 2023
"I Lost You The House. I Deserve A Promotion!" What?! No!
There’s no reason for Maloney to wield power or influence over federal politics for the foreseeable future, and certainly no reason to promote him to Labor Secretary.
February 08, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Will the White House Let Covid Vaccine Prices Skyrocket?
Since the early days of the pandemic, the federal government has been pre-purchasing Covid vaccines at an average cost of around $20 per dose (around $29 per dose for the bivalent boosters) to ensure public access to vaccination at no cost. However, with Congress no longer willing to fund Covid treatment, the Biden administration has indicated that it intends to end the Covid public health emergency in May, and more or less hand over control of Covid prevention to the healthcare industry.
February 08, 2023
Bankers’ Complaints About Junk Fee Crackdown Offer Biden an Opening
The President should remind Wall Street that hard-working Americans hate getting ripped off.
February 06, 2023 | The American Prospect
Whatever Happened To 'Helping The Sh*t' Out Of People?
In all, these look like the moves of a White House trying to endear itself to big business, now that the Democratic trifecta is gone.
February 03, 2023
Media Helps Corporate Landlords Spin Biden’s Watered-Down Renter Protection Plan
Mainstream outlets are failing to tell the full story on the White House’s new tenant protection actions.
February 03, 2023
Revolving Door Project Reading List: The Justice Department
The Justice Department was deliberately weaponized under Trump to advance and defend his corrupt agenda. How successfully has Biden’s Justice Department, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, replaced Trump appointees and policies, and charted a new course towards a more just interpretation and application of the law? Below, we’ve compiled a non-comprehensive reading list of some of our work from the past year plus on the Justice Department, and its all-important, uneven progress out of Trump’s long shadow.
February 03, 2023
The Never-Ending Inquiry Into Susan Davies’ DOJ Employment
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has a FOIA problem. It’s been a two year struggle for the Revolving Door Project to uncover the complete picture of Susan Davies and her employment with the DOJ, and we’ve hit yet another road block because apparently the Office of Legal Policy (OLP) does not maintain personnel records of its own employees. At least, not for Susan Davies. And apparently the Office of Information Policy’s FOIA office wasn’t aware of that.
February 02, 2023
Biden Appears to Heed Advocates’ Demands, Seek New Nominee for US Attorney in Eastern District of Tennessee
In a Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday, Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) seemed to assert that Casey T. Arrowood, President Biden’s initial pick for US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, would not be renominated in the new session of Congress.
February 01, 2023 | Talking Points Memo
Biden Should Wed His Cancer Moonshot To The Energy Transition
But succeeding at his Cancer Moonshot’s goals will require more than funding research into cancer treatments. As the first day of February marks the beginning of National Cancer Prevention Month, it’s worth acknowledging that cancer prevention requires different approaches than treatment, and must include a reckoning with the carcinogens that pervade our environment. If Biden really wants to fight cancer in America, he’s going to have to challenge the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries. Among other things, this means confronting an Achilles heel of the Democratic Party: domestic fracking.
February 01, 2023
The State Of The Union, And The Year That Followed
President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address is next Tuesday. Amid an uprising sparked by yet another horrific video of police violence, deep uncertainty about U.S. fiscal and monetary policy, and continuing wars and threats around the world, the nation — or at least, the politics junkies in the nation — will gather to hear the President lay out his agenda to a Congress absolutely no one reasonably expects will deliver on it, or likely even take it all that seriously.