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

What It Covers

Mike Konczal presents the Economic Security Project's affordability framework, diagnosing the crisis through broken markets and broken incomes, analyzing Trump and Biden administration responses, and proposing solutions beyond partisan divides.

Key Questions Answered

• •Dual Framework Approach: Affordability requires addressing both broken markets (concentration, supply barriers) and broken incomes (inequality, insufficient social insurance) simultaneously rather than choosing one tool or faction, as demonstrated by California passing both upzoning and algorithmic pricing limits together.
• •Inflation Reality Check: Post-pandemic prices rose approximately 20% above expectations, creating lasting sticker shock even as wages increased, while Trump's tariffs add an extra 0.5 percentage points to inflation and function as a $300 billion annual tax on consumers funding high-end tax cuts.
• •Wage Stagnation Pattern: Real wages genuinely increased only during years when unemployment dropped below 4.5% (late 1990s and late 2010s) over the past 45 years, demonstrating that full employment remains the primary mechanism for broad-based wage growth and affordability improvements.
• •FTC Non-Compete Success: The Federal Trade Commission's ban on non-compete agreements gained support across ideological spectrum, including centrist and tech-funded organizations, demonstrating that antitrust actions beyond tech acquisitions can build broad coalitions when focused on worker mobility and market concentration.