The Era of Marketcrafting

Shaping Markets for the Public Good

The last two years have seen a sea change in policymaking, with the passage of three large-scale economic policy programs—the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—primed to organize markets for better outcomes.

“[W]hat we are seeing now is not so much a return to ‘interventionist’ economic policy as it is a recognition that policymakers can and should put important policy goals first and avoid treating markets as exogenous, sacrosanct spaces,” Roosevelt senior advisor Chris Hughes and Peter Spiegler write for Democracy Journal.

It’s a marketcrafting approach, as they describe in a new report.

“This shift reaffirms the autonomy and power of policymakers to shape markets toward public ends,” said Hughes.

“It is a move from an ideology that fosters resignation to one of autonomy and direction.”

Learn more in Marketcrafting: A 21st-Century Industrial Policy.

The Stakes of Student Debt Relief

Last month, analysis from Roosevelt and the Debt Collective showed that the case against student debt relief in Biden v. Nebraska—currently before the Supreme Court—didn’t add up.

Looking at the latest data, authors Thomas Gokey, Eleni Schirmer, Braxton Brewington, and Louise Seamster find that the case is even weaker than previously understood.

In a New York Times op-ed, Schirmer and Seamster lay out the facts—and the stakes.

“Should the justices affirm this claim, they would effectively be confirming a fake plaintiff, false facts, and an unjust claim,” they write.

“Falsehoods about falsehoods would be a hard way to lose the debt relief the president promised to 43 million Americans and their families.”

Read more.

Jobs Day Takeaways

My new favorite graphic: employment and labor force participation vs two CBO predictions, one right before covid and one right before the American Rescue Plan.

We’re beating a no-ARP scenario. But that the recovery has more participation than no-covid is wild, a big achievement. pic.twitter.com/ojYmQXQm4A

— Mike Konczal (@mtkonczal) June 2, 2023

What We’re Reading and Listening to

Industrial Transformations [by Roosevelt’s Isabel Estevez] – Phenomenal World

The New Climate Law Is Working. Clean Energy Investments Are Soaring. – New York Times

In Pursuit of the Climate-Proof City [podcast] – The New Republic’s The Politics of Everything

Historic Gains: Low-Income Workers Scored in the COVID Economy – Politico