Our Blog

November 18, 2024
Neal Katyal: Corporate America’s Staunchest Defender
Neal Katyal, former Solicitor General under President Obama, has spent his post-public sector career defending any corporation willing to pay his exorbitant hourly rate.

November 18, 2024 | The American Prospect
The Department of Government Efficiency Is Inefficient
DOGE is a new weapon in Trump’s ongoing war against the administrative state. But it’s important to remain clear-eyed about the value federal civil servants provide. These individuals help ensure the safety of our food, medicine, transportation, air, and water. They are also the backbone of our education, health care, and financial regulatory systems. There is no doubt that many Americans feel burned by their recent interactions with these systems, but federal employees are the wrong targets of their ire.

November 15, 2024
Hackwatch 2024 Election/TransitionCongressional OversightEconomic MediaEconomic PolicyExecutive BranchIndependent Agencies
Picket Lines, Battle Lines, Applause Lines
As the Biden Administration Enters Its Twilight, Let’s Face Facts
November 13, 2024 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Seeking Alternatives To A Sledgehammer
With anger, fear, and determination, we’re with you in this unsettled moment a week out from the election. It’s hard to predict or overstate how much may be on the brink of changing; hard to measure how much we’ve already lost, like the ‘functionally extinct’ goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2.7°F, or 1.5°C. And it’s hard to know how much we may stand to gain from new visions and forms of solidarity and resistance that grow in the years to come.

November 12, 2024
Watchdog Group Will Closely Monitor The Harmful Material Impacts Of The Trump Administration’s Likely Mismanagement Of The Federal Executive Branch
The initial series served as a reminder of the first Trump administration’s utter indifference to the public interest. This time around, the Revolving Door Project will be on hand to provide real time, clear-eyed analyses of the President-elect’s approach towards governance, staffing, ethics and critically, the material impact of his pro-corporate attitudes.
November 12, 2024
Immediate Action Must Be Taken On Independent Agency Nominations
Democrats have resoundingly lost the White House, the Senate, and may soon lose the House. The Party has 68 days to ensure the presence of public advocates on numerous important governing bodies before the incoming Trump administration fully delivers on its promised systematic attack on governance, accountability and regulation.

November 08, 2024
Hackwatch 2024 ElectionAnti-MonopolyCorporate CrackdownCryptocurrencyEconomic MediaEconomic PolicyRevolving DoorTech
Hot (Takes) To Go
Some Notes on Centrists Blaming Everyone but Themselves
November 07, 2024
Two Plutocrats Shifted Harris’ Earned Media Message. It Didn’t End Well.
In October, billionaire Mark Cuban bragged about his role in exiling a Harris surrogate and former Elizabeth Warren staffer for the sin of supporting a wealth tax during a television appearance….

November 05, 2024 | The Sling
The Federal Reserve Isn’t Responsible for the Soft Landing—Though to Understand Why, We Need More Than Econ 101
Particularly given the stink that neoclassical economists made about evidence for sellers’ inflation, they should be held to a similar standard for their crediting of the Fed for lower inflation and implicitly putting the blame on consumers and workers. The data just don’t fit their model.

November 04, 2024 | The American Prospect
The Climate Crisis Is a Cost-of-Living Crisis
The right’s climate denial means higher prices.
November 04, 2024
RDP Suspicion of Crypto-Connected Betting Websites Proves Correct
Who would’ve guessed that an offshore political betting market relying upon cryptocurrency deposits is riddled with issues?
November 01, 2024
Being Ethical Can Pay Off
Why it’s smart for power-hungry politicians to embrace common sense ethics reforms

October 31, 2024
Memo: Remembering Bush v. Gore
We cannot forget the fundamental wrongheadedness of the Court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore, which was possible only with the votes of at least two justices whose conflicts of interest merited recusal, one of whom reportedly “provided the early framework” for the decision before oral arguments were even presented to the Court.

October 31, 2024
In New White Paper, Revolving Door Project Provides Recommendations to Reform Government Ethics and Win Back Trust of Americans
Today, the Revolving Door Project published a new white paper, “Rebuilding Public Trust: Six Principles to Guide Reform,” which provides a blueprint for strengthening the federal government’s ethics programs across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

October 31, 2024
Successful Biden-Harris Efforts Toward A Corporate Crackdown: A Pre-Election Week Review
We reviewed efforts at five agencies (DOL, NLRB, SEC, CFPB, and FTC) toward using existing enforcement powers to crack down on corporate wrongdoing, highlighting successful enforcement actions with real impact on our daily lives. Over the past four years, these critical (if not always public-facing) executive branch agencies have made significant strides toward reversing the deregulatory efforts of the Trump administration, while pushing protections for workers and consumers further.