Author | Lightnews

Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · 1d

"Shadow student debts" is a much better term for what we've normally called institutional student debts or sundry debts. Nice contribution. @debtcollective.bsky.social @dalie.bsky.social ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcont...

ir.library.louisville.edu

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 28

President Trump just eliminated federal funding for Hispanic Serving Institutions in higher ed. Our new paper "White Flight in Higher Education?" has insights on the politics of racial avoidance behind Trump's assault on these schools.

Open access in: @soceducation.bsky.social.

White Flight in Public Higher Education? Racial Avoidance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions - Laura T. Hamilton, Charlie Eaton, Simon Cheng, 2025

Latine college students in the United States face increasing isolation in universities designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). We contend that this ...

journals.sagepub.com

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 7

This intra-elite power struggle has implications for efforts to save freedom and democracy in the US. I'm looking forward to thinking with this piece.

Silicon Valley Godzilla vs. Wall Street Mothra

The only two sectors thriving in Trump’s economy are increasingly sparring with each other.

prospect.org

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 4

"The sitting justices might well rule that a law limiting their service on the Supreme Court is unconstitutional. But that self-interested decision in favor of two unpopular ideas—gerontocracy and juristocracy—could help get the term-limits amendment ratified by the states." 4/4

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 4

"Under term-limits legislation... justices would... have lifetime appointments to the bench, but they would rotate off the Supreme Court to appellate courts after a fixed term of, say, 18 years. Each president would then have two Supreme Court appointments per four-year presidential term." 3/4

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 4

"Judicial reform is politically treacherous because it invites tit-for-tat changes in the Court, but Republican overreach on the Court has left Democrats little choice, and term limits provide the means of a settlement." 2/3

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Aug 4

"The size of the Supreme Court... has been changed in the past through ordinary legislation. Between 1863 and 1869, Republicans changed the Court’s size three times: first adding a tenth seat to give Abraham Lincoln an extra appointment." 1 /3

The Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

prospect.org

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jul 15

I don't see how democracy survives if the next Democratic president does not unpack the court.

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · Jul 14

let's take stock here:

(Democratic) Presidents, via the Dept of Education, can't cancel student debt because statutes don't clearly authorize it.

Republican Presidents can cancel/shut down the Dept of Education because, even though only Congress can shut down departments ..., ... 🤷‍♀️ YOLO?

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Jul 14

BREAKING: The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with the abolition of the Department of Education. It gives no explanation for its order. All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

From Sotomayor's dissent:

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 28

Has the parliamentarian ruled that making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent are allowed? Are any other parliamentarian decisions still pending?

Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 23

What could possibly go wrong?

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · Jun 23

President Donald Trump demanded that energy producers keep down oil prices following US military strikes on Iran, which drove prices higher amid fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East

Trump Warns Against Rising Oil Prices Following Iran Attack

President Donald Trump demanded that energy producers push down crude prices following US military strikes on Iran, amid fears that an escalating Middle East conflict and supply disruptions could extend the recent surge on oil markets.

bloom.bg

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 20

So a president who has military parades for his birthday is anti war?

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 17

I was Ruben Gallegos curious until he voted for this bill.

Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Passes Cryptocurrency Bill, a Win for Industry

www.nytimes.com

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 17

My latest: Trump's war on universities is not a bottom-up assault responding to working class resentment. It is driven by tensions between techno-financial elites, their professional workforce, and the elite universities that embedded the rise of both groups.

The Elite War on Universities

Video and notes from my University of Chicago lecture.

www.charlieeaton.net

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 12

Down is up. War is peace. Dictatorship is democracy.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · Jun 12

Kristi Noem: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city."

Sen. Alex Padilla is then forcibly removed!

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 10

I hope they televise this show trial.

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · Jun 9

Another prominent Democrat Pam Bondi arrested w/o presenting to a GJ.

Especially egregious here given that complaint just guesses what David Huerta is communicating on his phone.

This is literally, "he was texting on his phone so entered into a conspiracy."

www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

10. As I approached the vehicular gate from inside thepremises, I saw HUERTA, who was wearing a red and whitecheckered shirt, on the other side of the gate walking back andforth and yelling. The undercover officer also captured videosshowing HUERTA apparently typing text into his digital devicewhile present at the protest.11. HUERTA’s registered address with the Department ofMotor Vehicles is in Highland Park, California, which isapproximately nine miles from the location. His employer hasoffices in multiple locations, and while I do not yet knowexactly where HUERTA works, I do not believe his employer has anoffice within walking distance of the site of this protest. Itherefore believe that HUERTA received communications fromothers coordinating a protest at this location on his digitaldevice

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 6

This is truly something to behold.

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Reposted by Charlie Eaton

W. Carson Byrd @wcbyrdphd.bsky.social · Jun 6

Social scientists have called this out for a while. From my own work to Latrica Best, Aaron Panofsky, Evelyn Hammonds, Reanne Frank, Alondra Nelson, Jonathan Kahn, Oliver Rollins, Rina Bliss, Ruha Benjamin, Troy Duster, & many more. Race as proxy fails because racial groups are not a genetic reality

Anne Fausto-Sterling @birdlady.bsky.social · Jun 6

race does not equal genes
www.statnews.com/2025/06/05/n...

Massive NIH study challenges use of race as a proxy for genetic ancestry in research

A large government study shows that Americans’ self-reported race is a poor proxy for their genetic ancestry.

www.statnews.com

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 3

To my surprise, my book is on sale for just $3.99 on Kindle!

With big endowments under fire and elite universities fighting for their lives, the book tells part of the story for how we got here.

Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education

Buy Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Jun 2

I did an interview on Elite Embeddedness & why financiers like to be university trustees. @Chronicle.com also spoke to financier & Penn trustee Scott Bok who said we got it right: “[It's] a networking business. It’s useful... to be on a board that has people from all kinds of different industries.”

Francie Diep @franciediep.bsky.social · Jun 2

Does it feel like private-equity guys are suddenly everywhere talking about higher ed? Perhaps because they are: A paper out earlier this year found a big rise in the percentage of top-ranked university trustees who are private-equity and hedge-fund managers: www.chronicle.com/article/priv...

Private-Equity Wealth Is Growing on the Most Prestigious University Boards, Study Finds

“That’s become a political vulnerability,” one researcher said.

www.chronicle.com

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Reposted by Charlie Eaton

W. Carson Byrd @wcbyrdphd.bsky.social · Jun 2

Coverage of the important work by @charlieeaton.bsky.social & colleagues about private equity in higher ed 👇

Francie Diep @franciediep.bsky.social · Jun 2

Does it feel like private-equity guys are suddenly everywhere talking about higher ed? Perhaps because they are: A paper out earlier this year found a big rise in the percentage of top-ranked university trustees who are private-equity and hedge-fund managers: www.chronicle.com/article/priv...

Private-Equity Wealth Is Growing on the Most Prestigious University Boards, Study Finds

“That’s become a political vulnerability,” one researcher said.

www.chronicle.com

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Reposted by Charlie Eaton

Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · Jun 1

From a different angle, it gives you a peek at the dynamics @charlieeaton.bsky.social and Albina Gibadullina discuss in their recent paper on the rise of financiers on university boards.

Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · Feb 5

With billionaires on the march, we just published a paper about how the financiers among them are socially embedded through top university trustee positions. We find that these trustee ties to other elites help private equity firms to increase returns. academic.oup.com/ser/advance-...

Elite embeddedness: the rise of financiers on university boards as parallel social organizations

Abstract. We develop a theory of elite embeddedness in which social organizations parallel to the economy can provide advantages via private information an

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Charlie Eaton

Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · Jun 1

From an Odd Lots episode last month, here's the head of hedge funds at Blackstone discussing tapping the Brown alumni network when he was the CIO of the endowment there.

omny.fm/shows/odd-lo...

Why was that, Well, I think to put up really good returns, you have to figure out one what your competitive advantage is, and two you have to be an independent thinker and not follow the herd. And that's what we did at Brown. And I'll tell you how we created our competitive advantage because I owe it to the alumni. We we did a really good job was creating a network of alumni in each asset class. So we would work with our investment committee, but we would also reach out to some of the best investors on the planet by industry, and I would actually go and present our portfolio in that asset class and say, what do you think where can we do better? Who would you recommend we look at? How would you structure this? And so that was one of the secrets I think of us, which is using that network effect now, Joe, back to your comment. Most people don't like to do that because they're exposing themselves the same way that they feel pressure. They don't want people opining on what they were doing. But I was willing philosophically to have that kind of open transparency so that I could learn and benefit from the Brown ecosystem. And I always used to have this expression was I would go to people and I would say, what do you have to feed the bear? Because it's the brown bear, So feed the bear. Give us your best co investments. And I have an unbelievable all star alumni cast, and they carried Brown to greatness. I happened to shepherd the process with an incredible team.

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · May 30

Just say no.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · May 29

A lot of people are replying on the assumption that this is the Trump administration. This is an initiative of Governor Gavin Newsom. A $2K limit on assets in a state where that would not cover monthly rent for most.

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · May 30

I guess I should have seen this coming

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · May 30

Trump turns heel on the Federalist Society

The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real “sleazebag” named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own “thing.” I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country! In this case, it is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the U.S.A. from other Countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get. It is the difference between having a rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America, and quite the opposite. The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom “hustlers” must not be allowed to destroy our Nation! The horrific decisio…

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Charlie Eaton @charlieeaton.bsky.social · May 23

I increasingly struggle to imagine any way out the US authoritarian turn that doesn't involve the next Democratic President unpacking the Supreme Court.

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