Brian Callaci
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Articles by Brian Callaci
Rethinking State Capacity
State capacity is in vogue. For decades, scholars theorized and debated the concept in academic obscurity; now, talk of state capacity saturates popular policy and political discourse. And whereas the scholarship focused on states’ ability to pursue official goals autonomously from powerful social groups, today’s purported state capacity liberals in the popular press—including Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, and Matthew Yglesias—diagnose a slightly different problem.
Rethinking State Capacity
State capacity is in vogue. For decades, scholars theorized and debated the concept in academic obscurity; now, talk of state capacity saturates popular policy and political discourse. And whereas the scholarship focused on states’ ability to pursue official goals autonomously from powerful social groups, today’s purported state capacity liberals in the popular press—including Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson, and Matthew Yglesias—diagnose a slightly different problem.
Chains of Command
A surprising look at the big business of owning small businesses and what America’s franchise economy means for its workers. Walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in the United States, and it will be identical to every other McDonald’s in the country. Yet, that particular store is almost certainly owned and operated by an “independent” franchisee.
Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy
Description A surprising look at the big business of owning small businesses and what America's franchise economy means for its workers. Walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the United States, and it will be identical to every other McDonald's in the country. Yet, that particular store is almost certainly owned and operated by an "independent" franchisee.
Jacobin - Rent Controls Work — but They Aren’t a Silver Bullet — Open Markets Institute
Following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, Harvard economist, former Treasury secretary, and serial policymaking failure Larry Summers took to Twitter/X to denounce Mamdani’s campaign pledge to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants: “Rent control is the second-best way to destroy a city, after bombing,” he said.
Rent Controls Work - but They Aren’t a Silver Bullet
Following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, Harvard economist, former Treasury secretary, and serial policymaking failure Larry Summers took to Twitter/X to denounce Mamdani’s campaign pledge to freeze the rent for rent-stabilized tenants: “Rent control is the second-best way to destroy a city, after bombing,” he said.
To Get Abundance, We Need to Discipline Capital
Amid the mutual recriminations inside the Democratic Party about how Americans could have elected Donald Trump to a second term, one theory has risen to prominence: President Joe Biden’s industrial policy, codified in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS Act, failed to go far or move fast enough to bring tangible improvements in the lives of the electorate.
Big fast-food squeezes workers and franchisees alike - Capitol Weekly
Opinion by BRIAN CALLACI posted 03.28.2025 OPINION – April 1 marks the first anniversary of a historic victory for California’s fast-food workers, the establishment of a $20/hr minimum wage for the industry. The higher wage has sparked debate across the state — and deepened fault lines between global fast-food corporations and their franchisees that could define the industry’s future.
Tenants on the March: An Interview With Cea Weaver
Tenants on the March: An Interview With Cea Weaver “Organizing tenants has the potential to shape the political landscape for decades to come.” ▪ Winter 2025 In many parts of the country, rising rents have hit a political limit, as politicians, unions, and community organizations increasingly recognize the centrality of housing to the cost-of-living crisis.
Supply and the Housing Crisis: A Debate
Supply and the Housing Crisis: A Debate How do we achieve housing for all? , and ▪ Winter 2025 After decades of relative stagnation, American housing policy is now several years into a period of radical change and experimentation. In California, where I am policy director for the state-level organization California YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard), city planners will often gripe (with, I have to admit, some justification) that state housing law is changing too quickly for them to keep up.
Open Markets Lauds the Justice Department for Ramping Up RealPage Lawsuit to Include Landlords Engaged in Price-Fixing — Open Markets Institute
Washington, DC – In response the Department of Justice and state co-plaintiffs filing an amended complaint in its lawsuit against real estate software provider RealPage for orchestrating a price-fixing cartel via algorithm, Open Markets Institute Chief Economist Brian Callaci issued the following statement: “Yesterday, the Department of Justice took a major step towards protecting renters from price-gouging by landlords using RealPage to jointly set rents by amending its complaint to bring...
Rent control is inflation control, and Atlanta is ground zero
Inflation brought Donald Trump back to the White House, or at least aided his reelection chances. In the United States, consumer price inflation was, in part, rent inflation. Smart rent control laws could have kept growth in housing costs in check and curbed overall inflation. Corporate power is an important contributor to exploding rents. In Atlanta and many other cities across the country, software firm RealPage operates as a cartel manager for property managers and owners.
The Market Alone Can’t Fix the U.S. Housing Crisis Original
Unaffordable housing is a drag on regional and national economies. In areas where housing costs are high, employers end up effectively transferring significant sums to landlords as the cost of attracting talent. But what will it take to fix this problem? Will market-based solutions suffice? If not, what kinds of interventions are necessary? Recent research shows that the market itself needs to be fixed.
Joseph Stiglitz and the Limits of Liberal Freedom
The economist Joseph Stiglitz has always occupied an odd position within the mainstream of his discipline.
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United And The Fight For $15
Above photo: McDonald’s workers protest outside a store in Oakland in 2014. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. The National Labor Relations Act still functions, just barely, for Starbucks workers. Employees at fast-food franchises face even worse odds under federal labor law.
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15 Published April 30, 2024 On February 27, after over two years of gutsy and strategic organizing, Starbucks Workers United forced Starbucks to surrender to its workers’ wishes and recognize their legal right to a union under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The baristas’ union and the company have agreed to a national framework for contract bargaining and for recognizing the wishes of workers at non-union stores to join the union.
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United And The Fight For $15
The National Labor Relations Act still functions, just barely, for Starbucks workers. Employees at fast-food franchises face even worse odds under federal labor law. by Brian Callaci, Dissent On February 27, after over two years of gutsy and strategic organizing, Starbucks Workers United forced Starbucks to surrender to its workers’ wishes and recognize their legal right to a union under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Lessons from Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15
Lessons from Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15 The National Labor Relations Act still functions, just barely, for Starbucks workers. Employees at fast-food franchises face even worse odds under federal labor law. ▪ April 29, 2024 On February 27, after over two years of gutsy and strategic organizing, Starbucks Workers United forced Starbucks to surrender to its workers’ wishes and recognize their legal right to a union under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The Limits of Anti-Monopsony Antitrust
The Biden administration has taken welcome steps to reform antitrust policy, including a long overdue abandonment of the dominant pro-corporate “consumer welfare” approach to antitrust. In particular, the antitrust agencies have raised the hopes of the labor movement and labor advocates by stating repeatedly that harms to labor from restraints of trade, mergers, and monopolistic practices will, at long last, be taken as seriously as harms to consumers when bringing cases and setting policy.
The Antitrust Lessons of the OpenAI Saga
Coverage of the widespread adoption of AI software has made it seem as though it represents the latest Wild West frontier of tech innovation. That impression was reinforced in the recent corporate melodrama surrounding the abrupt dismissal, and later rehiring, of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; surely this must be another example of nimble startups and brash entrepreneurs moving fast and breaking things.
Workers Are an Untapped Resource for Antitrust Enforcers
America’s working people and their elected representatives in the labor movement have been an untapped resource for antitrust enforcers. That should change. Not only are workers an underutilized source of information about the likely effects of a merger, but their labor organizations also offer an effective counter to employer power.
Commentary: Noncompete clauses hurt workers and the economy
Recently, the Business Council of New York State’s think tank arm, the Public Policy Institute, blanketed New York with seven figures’ worth of ads attacking legislation to ban noncompete clauses in labor contracts. These clauses prevent workers from changing jobs to work for the employer of their choice or to start their own business, trapping them in their current jobs. New York fall foliage tracker - Oct.
The Most Overlooked Element of the Biden Agenda
If there’s one thing the White House and its critics seem to agree on, it’s that the Biden administration’s approach to economic policy—which it has branded “Bidenomics”—is a sharp break from how things have been done for the past several decades. “Forty years ago, we chose the wrong path, in my view,” Joe Biden said at an event in July 2021. But what exactly was that wrong path—and what is Biden’s economic team trying to do differently? In the 1970s, policy makers faced a conundrum.
Workers Are an Untapped Resource for Antitrust Enforcers
America’s working people and their elected representatives in the labor movement have been an untapped resource for antitrust enforcers. That should change. Not only are workers an underutilized source of information about the likely effects of a merger, but their labor organizations also offer an effective counter to employer power. As signaled with the Executive Order on Promoting Competition issued in July 2021, the Biden administration has adopted a new approach to competition policy.
How Antitrust Can Help Tame Capital and Empower Labor
antitrust, fissured workplace, Labor, law, policy By Brian Callaci and Sandeep Vaheesan After decades of operating in distinct silos, the antitrust and labor movements have lately intersected in powerful ways.[1] Progressive policymakers have taken up the cause as well.
No, Sky-High Drug Prices Aren’t Funding Crucial New Medical Research Original
On August 29, the Biden administration announced the list of ten drugs over whose price Medicare would, for the first time, negotiate, under new authority granted by the Inflation Reduction Act last year. According to the government, people on Medicare who took the ten drugs paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2022 alone, while the cost to Medicare totaled $50 billion. The new prices will be announced by September of 2024, but will not take effect until 2026.
Biden Trustbusters Display Timidity in Proposed Merger Crackdown Original
The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recently announced a major shift in thinking on corporate mergers. The permissive approach that has prevailed since the early 1980s will be replaced with a much more vigorous anti-merger program going forward. The agencies stated that a merger between two rivals in which the firms have a combined market share of greater than 30% would likely invite a legal challenge.
Biden’s Best Path to a Pro-Worker Economy Runs Through the Federal Trade Commission
With Labor Day approaching, President Joe Biden and his administration will no doubt be out in force, touting their pro-worker bona fides. Among the executive and administrative agencies trumpeting themselves as a friend to working people will be the Federal Trade Commission. This is something of a sea change: For decades, the FTC ignored the domination of workers by employers and even thwarted organizing by independent contractors.
How Antitrust Can Help Tame Capital and Empower Labor
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When Socialists Put an End to Pasta Inflation
Pasta prices are surging in Italy, up 17.5 percent in March and 16.5 percent in April. Sellers say that this is simply a reflection of higher costs due to the war in Ukraine, but Italian consumer rights groups aren’t buying it. The Italian National Association of Public Service Users, Assoutenti, blames corporate profiteering, and has called for a consumer “pasta strike” for fifteen days, or until companies lower prices.
The Classical Theory of Albert O. Hirschman Argues Against the US Chamber’s Case for Non-Competes
Drawing on the theory of Albert O. Hirschman’s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Brian Callaci argues non-compete clauses stifle the important channels of communication between employees and businesses necessary for improving firm competitiveness. The evidence also shows that, despite claims from businesses, non-competes harm rather than reward employees for their loyalty.
Curbing Merger Mania Original
By Brian Callaci WASHINGTON, DC – In late February, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its attempt to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual-reality company Within. The decision followed a US federal district court decision rejecting the FTC’s claim that, by depriving the market for VR fitness-apps of a potential entrant, the merger would be likely to reduce competition substantially.
Curbing Merger Mania
zh Chinese ru Russian es Spanish Innovation The United States is in the midst of a historic wave of corporate mergers that threatens to stifle innovation. US competition agencies would do well to remember the spirit of 1968 and put corporations on the path to investing in new products, processes, and marketing techniques. WASHINGTON, DC – In late February, the US Federal Trade Commission dropped its attempt to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual-reality company Within.
Baseball Players Defeated Non-Competes To Build Union
Above Photo: St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood’s resistance to the reserve clause paved the way for union victories in baseball. Wikipedia. Banning non-compete clauses is a complement to, not a substitute for, union power. Just ask trailblazing baseball star Curt Flood. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to ban the non-compete clause—a type of coercive labor contract that prevents workers from leaving their employer to work for a competitor.
Baseball Players Defeated Non-Competes to Build Union
Banning non-compete clauses is a complement to, not a substitute for, union power. Just ask trailblazing baseball star Curt Flood. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to ban the non-compete clause—a type of coercive labor contract that prevents workers from leaving their employer to work for a competitor. One in five workers labors under a non-compete agreement, costing workers $300 billion annually.
Baseball Players Defeated Non-Competes to Build Union
Banning non-compete clauses is a complement to, not a substitute for, union power. Just ask trailblazing baseball star Curt Flood. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed to ban the non-compete clause—a type of coercive labor contract that prevents workers from leaving their employer to work for a competitor. One in five workers labors under a non-compete agreement, costing workers $300 billion annually.
Can the Consumer Welfare Standard Accommodate Labor Harms? A Reply to Hovenkamp
On November 1, Judge Florence Pan blocked the Penguin-Random House/Simon & Schuster merger. The Department of Justice’s primary theory of harm was that the merger would harm book authors by reducing advances.
Brian Callaci: Reining in UPMC’s monopsony power key to addressing workforce crisis in Pittsburgh hospitals
What do self-proclaimed freelance writer Stephen King and UPMC registered nurse Jodi Faltin have in common? They’re both fighting back against corporate monopsony power that eliminates competition in the labor market and allows employers to dictate terms to workers. Whether you’re selling horror stories or expertise in providing patient care, when an employer holds outsized dominance in a labor market you lose pay and the power to negotiate in a fair and open market.
Another Voice: Big Tech global monopolies are hurting everyone
Americans agree on one thing: the United States has a monopoly problem. A full 57% of Americans believe politicians should do more to regulate Big Tech firms, according to Gallup.
Cyborg Trucking | Steven Rolf & Wei Wei
The supply and demand whiplashes of the Covid-19 pandemic snarled global supply chains, shaking up labor markets and well-established migration patterns in the process. Existing cracks in logistics and infrastructure systems widened, thereby making them newly visible. In the US and Europe, a dramatic shortage in the supply of long haul truck drivers sparked panic among businesses and policymakers in 2021.
The FTC and NLRB can crack down on gig-economy companies like Uber and others that offload responsibility for employees.
Moneybox They’re both under the thumb of corporations trying to minimize their responsibilities. By Brian Callaci and Sandeep Vaheesan Sept 13, 20225:45 AM You wouldn’t normally put Uber drivers, poultry growers, and the owners of fast-food franchises in the same economic category, but they actually operate under similar work arrangements.
Inflation Is No Excuse for Squeezing Workers
Inflation Is No Excuse for Squeezing Workers The Fed’s decision to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year threatens to loosen the tightest U.S. labor market in decades. What would it look like if policymakers consolidated workers’ recent gains instead? Brian Callaci and Sandeep Vaheesan ▪ July 28, 2022 With the unemployment rate at a historic low of 3.6 percent, American workers have enjoyed a rare moment of increased bargaining power.
Inflation Is No Excuse for Squeezing Workers
Inflation Is No Excuse for Squeezing Workers The Fed’s decision to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year threatens to loosen the tightest U.S. labor market in decades. What would it look like if policymakers consolidated workers’ recent gains instead?
Antitrust And Labor Movements Return to Their Roots
Arguments While modern antitrust reformers are preoccupied with the amount of competition, Progressive-Era activists argued that the quality of competition mattered too. Two new bills harken back to that time. By Brian Callaci from April 18, 2022, 4:23 pm – 10 MIN READ Tagged AntitrustCongressprogressivismUnions With Congress gridlocked, hopes for progressive legislation has turned to state and local governments.
How an Old U.S. Antitrust Law Could Foster Retail Competition
Gaddy/University of Maryland via AP) Targeting abuses of purchasing power helped usher in a golden age of retail in the United States — and it could again. Read Full Article » Show comments Hide Comments Related Articles
How an Old U.S. Antitrust Law Could Foster a Fairer Retail Sector
In the 1930s, the U.S. was facing a situation much like the one it’s dealing with today: Major corporations were using their size to demand concessions from suppliers. While their size gave them advantages of scale and efficiency, U.S. lawmakers decided that extorting concessions that smaller companies couldn’t get created an unfair competitive advantage, and passed the Robinson-Patman Act to crack down on the practice.
Class & Inequality
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Competition Is Not the Cure
How Antitrust Failed Workers Eric A. Posner Oxford University Press, $29.96 (cloth) A little less than a decade ago, after spending several years as a union staffer helping workers organize in low-wage industries, I was assigned to conduct research in support of fast food workers on strike for a $15 minimum wage and a union.
Entrepreneurship, Amazon Style
Earlier this year, Amazon reportedly started developing an incubator program to set up hundreds of new trucking companies managing fleets of Amazon-branded tractor-trailers. Targeted at budding entrepreneurs with no industry experience, the new freight companies would work exclusively for Amazon, on routes chosen by Amazon, with rates set by Amazon.
It’s Time for Labor to Embrace Antimonopoly
In the United States, it is nearly impossible for workers to win a union contract against an employer that is determined to remain non-union. How much harder, then, to beat an employer that can hire $10,000-a-day anti-union consultants, get the United States Postal Service to place a mailbox in front of the plant for mail-in voting, and even change the pattern of stoplights to keep organizers from talking to workers at shift changes?
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