Elizabeth Wilkins

I have spent most of my life making government work for people. But the institutions I love have been losing faith with the public for a long time. If we love government, then when we rebuild it we’ll have to be willing to break some glass to make it deliver like FDR did.

Our families, our children, our childcare providers all need a better solution than the “system” we have now. We’re talking about the investment needed to truly enable the family life, the child rearing and the work that everyone deserves.

Just heard @pewilliams.bsky.social explaining that the grassroots YIMBY movement knows unleashing supply requires major zoning reform and cutting red tape, and also ensuring private actors act for public good. Nuance doesn’t get clicks but it does get stuff right.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Future of FTC noncompete ban in question under Trump Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has called his agency's rule banning noncompetes unconstitutional. Still, he says protecting workers against noncompetes remains a priority.

We cannot build shared prosperity while millions of workers are trapped by exploitative contracts.

CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social said it best:

"A clear and simple ban on noncompetes is, to my mind, the only way to truly protect workers." www.npr.org/2025/07/10/n...

This bill isn’t just an economic travesty, it’s a moral one. Forget trickle down economics; we’re now in a greed-first economy, one that will take great moral courage to overturn.

B/c child care has long been more expensive than a mortgage payment … many women feel that their choices are constrained. They’re not always working because they want to, or staying home because they want to — they’re trying to complete a financial puzzle that has several pieces missing.

And let us also search for the modern instantiations of market immorality, and root them out.

Juneteenth is about celebrating freedom and remembering the massive cruelty that came before. In contemplating the legacy of slavery, let us understand what obligations that history places on us today:

And that's just the tip of the spear. Self dealing and patent shenanigans in healthcare; extraction in housing; rampant union busting in workplaces. All acceptable, even rational behavior in a world that justifies unchecked self-interest as 'natural' market behavior.

We are watching the most regressive tax bill in history make its way through Congress. More to the wealthy on the backs of people who need help for food and essential healthcare. Somehow this inhumanity is normalized as 'good for economic growth.' How's that for profit eclipsing compassion.

What heinous behavior do we naturalize today, for the sake of a select few's huge rewards? What hollowing out of communities, degrading of jobs, impoverishing of peoples' health, do we tolerate because of the profits that accrue to some?

To be clear, lots of people were just racist. And the psychology of othering is certainly not just economic. But also, when an economic system showers huge rewards on those willing to engage in heinous behavior, its beneficiaries will do all they can to justify, even naturalize their work.

Seen this way, slavery is a particularly painful reminder that unshackled capitalism and profit motives run amok can drive us to justify even the most inhumane of practices. And that once we make those justifications, we are particularly invested in reifying them.

He goes through the evidence that slavery was in fact brutally profitable. I couldn't agree with this assessment more:

He argues that we should take a step back and understand slavery -- its practice and its legacy -- in economic terms. And that such an analysis throws the moral valence of the practice into sharper relief.

Opinion | The Economics of Slavery Probing the incentives and institutions that kept slavery alive can help us value what freedom means.

Look, the last thing I thought I'd be doing this Juneteenth is telling you to read Roland Fryer's oped in the @wsj.com about how to reflect on slavery. But you should - hear me out. A 🧵

www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

A look at the 'golden share' agreement in the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel partnership NPR speaks with Todd Tucker, director of industrial policy and trade at the Roosevelt Institute, about the Trump administration's role in the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel partnership.

⁦‪Todd Tucker on the 'golden share' agreement in the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel partnership - these are important tools we can use to drive pro social market outcomes, if we use them right.

www.npr.org/2025/06/18/n...

The scourge of the non-compete clause They may look employer friendly but can stifle labour force fluidity and competition

Calling a bill explicitly allowing for 4-year noncompete clauses in employment contracts the “Contracts Honoring Opportunity, Investment, Confidentiality, and Economic Growth (Choice) Act” puts the moron in oxymoronic. Way to go Florida.

www.ft.com/content/0c9e...

The Frenzied Pursuit of Wall Street’s Low-Profile All-Stars The world’s most elite hedge funds are in a pitched battle for talent. The price tag for a young stock picker can now top $100 million.

Imagine if we valued teachers even a little like we value stock pickers…

www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

Elizabeth Wilkins joins Tavis Smiley Podcast Episode · Tavis Smiley · 06/04/2025 · 20m

President & CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social joined Tavis Smiley to unpack how economic shocks affect Black Americans—and what real structural change would look like.

She explores the legacy of FDR & Eleanor and how policy can prioritize Black communities: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Americans are losing faith in democracy because our economy has concentrated power at the top, leaving the rest behind.

@chrismurphyct.bsky.social, @ositanwanevu.com, and @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social discuss how bold policy can restore economic democracy: rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/b...

Traditional economics wouldn’t predict how companies are reacting to tariffs - broadcasting their price hikes. We need to interrogate how much pricing power companies have and whether they’re using tariffs as a cover to gauge consumers.

💯 Ticketmaster, UnitedHealth, Kroger … the antitrust agenda of the last four years tells a compelling story.

When people lose power in the economy, they lose faith in democracy.

As @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social explains: FDR showed it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our discussion on our new essay collection explored how bold ideas can put people back at the center. rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/buildin...

Roosevelt Events

Going to be talking about economic democracy, community, and competition policy with Sen. Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) and Roosevelt Institute President & CEO Elizabeth Wilkins (@elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social) at 12:30 ET today. Tune in if you can!

Roosevelt Events

I’ll also be on with @chrismurphyct.bsky.social and @ositanwanevu.com tomorrow with @rooseveltforward.org talking about the path forward and how we make that promise real. Tune in and listen. events.zoom.us/ev/AtLxoobQQ...

We need a call-and-response relationship with our governing institutions. We need to hear the deep yearnings, desires and frustrations of our people, and we need some urgency and some fight in us to fix their problems. I talked about this on the Realignment. Take a listen. 1/2

Elon Musk's regulatory troubles have begun to melt away in Trump's second term The Trump administration has halted some regulatory matters involving Musk's companies and fired people from agencies investigating Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.

Deregulation allows companies to rig the economy unchecked. Deregulation for friends allows a level of crony capitalism and kleptocracy that deeply threatens our democracy. This is why market regulators must be able to enforce the law without fear or favor.

www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...

Mom: You taught me how to love: my children, my community, myself. You are, always have been, always will be, my guiding light. Ours is a vision of a world of shared power and prosperity. Your life is a testament that we can get there. Love you. 9/9

She is. Makes her a really annoying mom, at times. But also an amazing one. She said once, "I hope especially that my daughter will say when she is my age now that my mom was just the best guiding light in my life." 8/