587 | Mike Konczal: What’s Actually Driving the Affordability Crisis + Announcing the Niskanen Summer Institute for Undergrads

Marshall here. Welcome back to The Realignment. You're probably wondering why this episode is out on a Friday instead of a Thursday. And the answer is that I spent way too much time on x, formerly known as Twitter, and got hopped up about the incorrect leaks that we'd be at war in Venezuela on Wednesday night. And I then thought you'd all wake up to an irrelevant episode on the affordability crisis and how to confront it. The good news ended up being that, a, we didn't end up going to war, and b, the actual thing that president Trump discussed during his address was the economy and affordability. Vice president JD Vance also discussed affordability during a trip to Pennsylvania earlier this week. So clearly, not only were 2024 and 2025 defined by the affordability crisis, but 2026 through the midterms and beyond will be as well. With this timeline, we see that two very different administrations, Biden and now Trump's, struggled with this topic at both a political level and a policy level. So today, I'm excited to interview the economic security projects. Mike Consol, who with Becky Chow, has put together a report called the affordability framework that diagnoses the affordability crisis as rooted in broken markets and broken incomes. You can find a link to the report in the show notes. One other thing, I'll put together a more dedicated episode on this later this month, but I'm excited to announce the twenty twenty six Niskanen Centre Summer Institute. The week long program runs from this upcoming June, and any undergraduates in the class of 2026 or later is eligible to apply. Your travel, lodging, and meals are covered, plus you get a 250 stipend. You expect daily seminars with the broader and organic cinematic universe, and the program focuses on political realignments, the challenges facing institutions and need for reform, and emerging policy debates and issues across the spectrum that we cover on this show. I'll just say that personally, think tank summer programs are actually high. I'll just say that personally that a think tank summer program was how I actually got my start in DC. And I genuinely think that aside from basically launching this podcast, coming to DC to do a week long program was, like, just the fundamentally most important thing I've done in my career. So I really hope any undergrads who are listening to this show or any parents, friends, cousins, whatever who wanna recommend any undergraduates as well for this program. So please forward, and you can find the link in the show notes. Hope you all enjoy the conversation. Mike, Consol, welcome to the Realignment. Thank you for having me on. Very excited to chat with you. So the timing of this recording could not be better because everyone and their cousin now knows they need to say affordability, affordability, affordability. So let's just start with, like, the broadest question, which is that why does affordability …