Ben Zipperer
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benzipperer.org
Ben Zipperer
@benzipperer.org
7.7K followers 680 following 620 posts
Economist at @epi.org

https://www.epi.org/people/ben-zipperer/
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Reposted by Ben Zipperer
donmoyn.bsky.social
Trump's campaign to kill an industry where America runs a massive trade surplus is succeeding
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
mikesacks.bsky.social
This whole piece is all the actual horribles on parade, and this one is just infuriating
April 7 Brian McEntire, Civil Rights Division: My goal was always to become an attorney in the Civil Rights Division. That was my dream. I ended up working a lot on fire department cases. In Cobb County, Ga., we got information that even though African Americans and whites were applying for positions at about an equal rate over the previous decade, 90 percent of the hires had been white and 10 percent had been African American. And we didn't quite understand why that was. So we did an investigation and found out that there was a credit check that was disproportionately knocking out African Americans, particularly for student loan debt. And when we asked them why they were doing that, their response was essentially, Well, if a firefighter is deeply in debt and he's fighting a fire, he might steal grandma's pearls. So we brought suit. In February, we got a note saying that the attorney general wanted us to withdraw the case. The next day, division leadership insisted that we put additional language in the notice of dismissal that implied it was all about reverse discrimination. I didn't know, quite frankly, if I could sign it. If I have to say what I argued before was illegal, then I could have been accused of misleading the court, which could have ended up with me being disciplined, sanctioned and my bar license revoked. So I did not sign it. My colleagues didn't sign it. They pulled us all into a room, and we were all prepared to get fired because none of us were going to sign. My boss signed a modified version of the notice of withdrawal on our behalf. We also had a racial-discrimination case involving the sole African American attorney working for the Mississippi State Senate, who, during the years she worked there, was paid less than half of what her similarly situated white colleagues were making. It was as clear-cut a case of disparate racial treatment you could find. The Senate stalled the case until Trump's appointees could come in and order our section to drop it. When you talk about the rule of law and treating people fairly and equally, that's obviously a slap in the face.
November 17, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
brianpjcronin.bsky.social
It’s wild that you can just openly bribe the President of the United States with chunks of gold to get
whatever you want, it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it, just say “I am bribing the President with gold,” zero consequences.
mims.bsky.social Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 2d
"It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it." said one administration official.

How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.

www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab
How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.
www.axios.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
kalimurray.bsky.social
I will say it again; the Democrats need openly create a list of civil servants called the Dirty Dozen that will be subject to impeachment in 2026, The Constitution provides that “… all civil Officers of the United States” are subject to removal from office upon impeachment.”
November 15, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Basically saying "if you do crime for me, I won't only pardon you--I'll give you millions of dollars of public money." Truly unprecedented level of corruption

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Michael Flynn, DOJ in Settlement Talks Over $50 Million Claim
The Justice Department has been discussing settlements with two former officials from Donald Trump’s first term who — like the president — claim they’re owed major payouts from the US government as vi...
www.bloomberg.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
arindube.bsky.social
If you want more on wage boards and how they can achieve what Dani was referring to, check out my book The Wage Standard - now available for pre-order.

www.thewagestandard.com
The Wage Standard by Arindrajit Dube: 9780593471418 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
“The go-to guy on minimum wage” (Nobel Laureate and New York Times bestselling author Paul Krugman) tackles one of the thorniest social issues of our times—income inequality—from...
www.thewagestandard.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
benzipperer.org
Deportations actually _increase_ housing prices because they shrink the construction industry.

The reduction in new houses being built swamps effects from lower demand
Figure 9 from a paper by Troup Howard, Mengqi Wang, and Dayin Zhang showing the house price response to the Secure Communities immigration enforcement policy
November 13, 2025 at 10:52 PM
benzipperer.org
Deportations actually _increase_ housing prices because they shrink the construction industry.

The reduction in new houses being built swamps effects from lower demand
Figure 9 from a paper by Troup Howard, Mengqi Wang, and Dayin Zhang showing the house price response to the Secure Communities immigration enforcement policy
November 13, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
paulgp.com
For folks (and journalists) who want to search the Oversight Committee email texts, I made a database for searching the 20k text files:

splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
Epstein Document Search
splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app
November 13, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
erikamcentarfer.bsky.social
The statistical agencies all sustained damage from DOGE but they are strong institutions and can recover if they are supported instead of further sabotaged
November 12, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
erikamcentarfer.bsky.social
All of BLS has been furloughed since October 1st. That means no one was collecting data in Oct. You can’t just walk into a Costco in mid-November and find out what the price of a good was in October. That’s why an October CPI isn’t possible.
November 12, 2025 at 8:25 PM
benzipperer.org
This is false. The shutdown is the reason October employment data wasn't collected -- that's why it's not going to be released.
utopia-defer.red utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 5d
3-4 months ago, people were getting high and mighty about how employment data wouldn't be doctored and withheld and we are now at the point where the latter issue is now occurring. I don't think government shutdown is a good excuse, either lol.
November 12, 2025 at 8:10 PM
benzipperer.org
There is no pathway to upward wage mobility as an Amazon driver, as opposed to drivers at a unionized workplace like UPS

Stark figure from @dschneider.bsky.social @profsheenalives.bsky.social @juliesulabor.bsky.social Kevin Bruey
Line plot of average wages by tenure and a bar plot of distribution of workers by tenure at Amazon, UPS, and FedEx from a recent Shit Project report. The figure title is "Wage Returns to Job Tenure and the Distribution of Job Tenure for Delivery Workers by Firm"
November 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
benzipperer.org
Actually Trump's firings disproportionately harm veterans and their families, since the federal government is their single largest employer.
Table from the Economic Policy Institute showing the number of civilian federal government employees who are veterans and spouses of veterans. The title of the table is "The federal government employs 900,000 veterans and veteran spouses and military spouses"
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
benzipperer.org
here's hoping this unwinds gradually and sooner rather than later
Line plot of the historical monthly S&P price to earnings ratio. The title of the plot is "Stock valuations are approaching 2000 bubble peaks".
November 11, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
donmoyn.bsky.social
*Women receive substantially lower "potential" ratings despite receiving higher performance ratings
*Differences in potential ratings account for half of the gender promotion gap
*Women’s lower potential ratings do not reflect future performance: women subsequently outperform male colleagues
November 10, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
royalpratt.bsky.social
Here’s video of federal agents doing a drive by pepper spraying that hit a father and his one-year old on Saturday when the Feds were hitting Little Village and Cicero
November 9, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
jacobsoboroff.bsky.social
"When I picked up my granddaughter from the federal agents, she had a dirty diaper, a bruise on her face, and was developing a rash. She was exhausted and cried… My heart aches knowing this could happen to others, to my kids, or even me, despite being U.S. citizens.”
November 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
ericumansky.bsky.social
So immigration agents drove off in a citizen’s car with a toddler in the back.

**Then DHS refused to answer questions about it.**

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...
Ms. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about the agents driving away in Mr. Quiñonez's car with the child inside. Nor did she respond to questions about how the child was cared for while she was in the custody of federal agents, including where she was kept and whether she was fed, given water or had her diaper changed.
November 8, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
adamjst.bsky.social
"With ICE inmates, you can see that I’m making a profit."
- Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott

www.ky3.com/2025/09/17/g...
Arnott says there’s an average of 240 ICE detainees in the jail each day. The federal government picks up the tab, creating a new revenue stream for the county. “With ICE inmates, you can see that I’m making a profit. Those beds would go totally unused, so that’s $8 million more that supplements the local taxpayers’ funding to run the jail. I’ve got to look at it from a business perspective that anyway that I can save our taxpayers money, I’m going to do that.” The sheriff says the operation doesn’t require any additional staff to process the inmates who are sent back to their home countries from Springfield. “There’s really no gray area in this. It’s just like a driver’s license. You either have one or you don’t. When you don’t have a driver’s license and we stop you, you have to suffer the repercussions of that. If you’re in this country illegally and you didn’t go through the right process, then you have to go back home,” he said.
November 7, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
epi.org
When federal data is suppressed EPI's @elisegould.bsky.social turns to state-level information for the latest read on jobs. See the latest →
November 6, 2025 at 10:23 PM
benzipperer.org
There's private sector + state-reported data to give us a general idea of the labor market's trajectory ...

But the unemployment rate for Black workers, young people, women, immigrants? There is no replacement for government data.
aaronsojourner.org Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 11d
Every month for the last 77 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated Americans' unemployment rate

This streak dies tomorrow

Govt staff could not survey Americans about whether they're working or looking for work in Oct, the 1st time in 934 months

This blind spot will remain forever
aaronsojourner.org Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 11d
Here's the planned BLS data release schedule for Nov 2025.

On Tues, it couldn't release Sept job openings, hires, layoffs and firings data.

This morning, it couldn't release 2025Q3 business Productivity and Costs data.

Tomorrow, it can't release Oct 2025 #JobsReport
www.bls.gov/schedule/202...
November 7, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
aaronsojourner.org
Every month for the last 77 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated Americans' unemployment rate

This streak dies tomorrow

Govt staff could not survey Americans about whether they're working or looking for work in Oct, the 1st time in 934 months

This blind spot will remain forever
aaronsojourner.org Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 11d
Here's the planned BLS data release schedule for Nov 2025.

On Tues, it couldn't release Sept job openings, hires, layoffs and firings data.

This morning, it couldn't release 2025Q3 business Productivity and Costs data.

Tomorrow, it can't release Oct 2025 #JobsReport
www.bls.gov/schedule/202...
November 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Ben Zipperer
kombiz.bsky.social
ICE-loving sheriff loses his election in Bucks County, PA, to a young progressive candidate. Apparently, people really don't like it when their neighbors get kidnapped and disappear. buckscountybeacon.com/2025/11/buck...
Bucks County’s ICE-Loving, MAGA Sheriff Fred Harran Got What He Deserved: A Pink Slip From Voters on Election Night - Bucks County Beacon
Sheriff-elect Danny Ceisler, a 33-year-old Democrat from Bristol Borough, was in many ways the crest of the “Blue Wave” that washed away local Republican office holders.
buckscountybeacon.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:19 PM
benzipperer.org
previous increases in immigration enforcement caused child care centers to simply shut down
screenshot of the highlights and abstract of the article by Umair Ali, Jessica H Brown, and Chris M Herbst titled "Secure communities as immigration enforcement: How secure is the child care market?". Highlights • We study the impact of Secure Communities immigration enforcement on child care • Equilibrium wages and employment in child care fall for both immigrants and natives • Number of child care centers falls, as does children’s participation in care • Effect larger for higher SES children and in areas with more undocumented individuals Abstract Immigrants comprise nearly 20% of the child care workforce in the U.S. This paper studies the impact of a major immigration enforcement policy, Secure Communities (SC), on the structure and functioning of the child care market. Relying on the staggered introduction of SC across counties between 2008 and 2014, we find that the program reduced children’s participation in center-based child care programs. The estimated reductions are substantially larger among advantaged children and in jurisdictions with a greater fraction of undocumented individuals. We also find that SC reduced the equilibrium supply and wages of immigrant and native workers in the center-based sector as well as the number of center-based facilities. There is no compensating increase in the home-based or private household sectors. Our findings suggest that immigrants and natives are likely to be complements in child care service production.
November 5, 2025 at 4:09 PM