Noam Scheiber

Top Labor Regulator Dismisses Charges Against SpaceX

In 2022, a group of SpaceX employees wrote an open letter asking the co to distance itself from Elon Musk's online behavior. They were fired and the NLRB opened an investigation.

Then Musk funded Trump's election win. Now, the Trump NLRB has dismissed the case.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/b...

Top Labor Regulator Dismisses Charges Against SpaceX

The country's top labor regulator has dismissed a case against SpaceX for firing 8 workers who criticized Elon Musk. Regulators “seem to have lost their independence and mission to protect workers rights," said the Biden prosecutor who brought the case www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/b...

Despite Crackdown on Activism, Tech Employees Are Still Picking Fights

Apropos of today's big layoff announcement at Amazon, I have a piece about why tech workers at Amazon and other big companies continue to challenge their employers even as the companies aggressively cut jobs. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b...

How Did Tucker Carlson Get This Way? How Did America?

Great review today of Jason Zengerle's essential new book on Tucker Carlson www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/b...

Seems like a consequential appointment by Mamdani www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/n...

The firm said that “All decisions regarding the work force reduction were driven by business considerations that started long before the unionization effort.”

Prominent Architecture Firm Is Accused of Illegally Ousting Employees

"Now it’s up to me to design some prophylaxis against any such future efforts.” An email from a manager at Snohetta, a prominent architecture firm accused by the NLRB of laying off 8 employees in retaliation for trying to unionize www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/b...

The firm said that “All decisions regarding the work force reduction were driven by business considerations that started long before the unionization effort.”

In a discussion of the union campaign not long before the layoffs, a senior manager wrote in an email: “Now it’s up to me to design some prophylaxis against any such future efforts.”

Prominent Architecture Firm Is Accused of Illegally Ousting Employees

Some news: One of the country's highest-profile architecture firms, Snohetta, has been accused by the NLRB of ousting eight workers in retaliation for union organizing. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/b...

One thing that would improve a lot of people's quality of life: an all-you-can-eat option for Substack. Or even a micro-payment option where you can just pay by the article. At any given time there are probably 15-20 Substacks I want to read, but I'm not going to pay for 15-20 subscriptions.

Washington Commanders and HKS unveil initial renderings of new world-class stadium The roofed stadium will be a dynamic, year-round destination for sports, entertainment and community engagement, integrating sustainable design practices and reimagining the fan experience through imm...

Behold, the new RFK stadium complex. I have fond memories of going to the old RFK in the early 2000s. This version gives off some Empire Strikes Back vibes but still look forward to seeing it in person www.commanders.com/news/washing...

Trump Vows to Make Venezuela Rich. It Will Take More Than U.S. Cash.

Even if Trump persuades American oil companies to invest tens of billions in Venezuela, it's not clear how much that will help long-term. Venezuela and the oil companies tried that approach in the 1990s and it gave them ... Hugo Chavez www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/b...

Where Did All the American-Born Roofers Go?

You often hear that Americans don't want to do back-breaking jobs like roofing. Ronda Kaysen and Rob Gebeloff have a great piece explaining how the jobs actually became lousy and low-paying first, *then* Americans no longer wanted to do them. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/u...

Despite Crackdown on Activism, Tech Employees Are Still Picking Fights

Since 2022, tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of people and many tech execs have embraced the ruthless management style of Elon Musk. Yet tech workers keep picking fights with their bosses, including a recent strike at Kickstarter. Here's why www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b...

I asked my publisher’s R&D dept to come up with alternative uses for my forthcoming book, and this was their best idea

A key development is that many in the tech industry now see themselves as regular workers, not co-owners or sought-after professionals or future executives and founders.

Despite Crackdown on Activism, Tech Employees Are Still Picking Fights

Over the past few years, tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands while many tech executives have embraced the ruthless management style of CEOs like Elon Musk. Yet tech workers keep standing up to their bosses. What gives? I try to explain here www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b...

How Labor Scored a Surprising Win in the GOP-Controlled House Who knew so many Republicans would support union rights—in defiance of Trump, no less?

Very interesting piece from @timothynoah.bsky.social on why so many House Republicans voted to restore federal workers' bargaining rights. Worth keeping an eye on how it plays out in the Senate newrepublic.com/article/2045...

"Blue Owl primarily funded the project through a bond offering from Pimco, an asset management firm. Pimco sold the so-called 'Beignet bonds,' which mature in 2049, to its clients that include insurers, pension funds, endowments, financial advisers, BlackRock."

How Tech’s Biggest Companies Are Offloading the Risks of the A.I. Boom

"Meta built the data center, but Blue Owl was on the hook for 80% of the financing. Meta agreed to 'rent' the data center from Beignet with a series of 4-year leases, allowing it to categorize the funding as operating cost, not debt." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/t...

Starbucks to Pay $39 Million in Landmark N.Y.C. Labor Law Settlement

Starbucks settles with NYC over violations of the city's fair scheduling law. Presumably the deal wasn't going to get better for Sbux under the administration of Zohran Mamdani, who has joined striking Starbucks union members on their picket lines www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/n...

Young Workers, Eyeing Their Careers, Learn to Embrace the Office

An alarming new data point in the return-to-office debate: Remote work seems to be raising unemployment for recent college grads www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/b...

The Writer Who Dared Criticize Silicon Valley

Interesting story from David Streitfeld about a writer whose critique of Silicon Valley came a few decades too early but is now landing www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/t...

The 'Great Flattening': White Collar Workers Hit by Historic Wave of Layoffs | KQED We talk to experts and hear from you: have you been navigating a layoff?

Great conversation today on @kqedforum.bsky.social with @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social, Aki Ito and Alisia Gill about what's going on with white-collar layoffs www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

So Chip-maker A has turned a relatively small amount of its own money into a relatively large amount of demand for its own chips.

One example: Chip-maker A invests money in Chip-buyer B. Chip-buyer B levers up on that money, and uses the borrowed money to buy chips from Chip-maker A.

What the rise of CoreWeave tells us about the AI bubble The Nvidia-backed data center company that transitioned from crypto to AI is at the precarious center of the industry’s necessary infrastructure expansion.

Very interesting episode of the Decoder podcast, drilling down on the mechanics of circular AI-industry financing and what it looks bubble-like www.theverge.com/podcast/8196...

"In sharp contrast to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton & Biden, the Mamdani campaign was an intraparty insurrection seeking to displace what a dysfunctional and failed old guard. This semi-revolutionary element gave the Mamdani campaign its moral legitimacy: the reform of a moribund institution."

"Mamdani built an insurgency within the Dem Party primary electorate first by mobilizing traditionally quiescent young voters--many of whom have found that their B.A.s do not guarantee a good job or any job at all--and then drawing in nonwhite voters and more of the college-educated middle class."