Alex Hertel-Fernandez
LightNews LightNews
banner
awhf.bsky.social
Alex Hertel-Fernandez
@awhf.bsky.social
2.3K followers 660 following 92 posts
Columbia SIPA professor studying labor policy, politics of policy design, and political economy. Co-director of Consortium on American Political Economy & Columbia Labor Lab. Former Biden-Harris Department of Labor and Office of Management and Budget.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
annagbusse.bsky.social
Just in time for Christmas: a great interview with an absolute legend.

Theda Skocpol and Edwin Amenta on her career, US politics, the erosion of democracy, and most of all, what to do about it.

sociologica.unibo.it/article/view...
View of Theda Skocpol in Conversation with Edwin Amenta on Sociology, Political Science, Higher Education, and U.S. Politics | Sociologica
sociologica.unibo.it
December 23, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
adamserwer.bsky.social
The right, along the Roberts Court, is trying to nullify the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing equality under the law, in order to restore the Antebellum Constitution, which envisions “liberty” as an eternal aristocracy of race and class (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
When the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson asked why “we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes,” he was identifying no mere contradiction, but liberty as it was imagined by men who owned other human beings as property. Slaveholders such as John Calhoun saw slavery as inseparable from their own freedom, and they worried that the false doctrine of abolitionism would eliminate that freedom away. “Already it has taken possession of the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent, of the press; those great instruments by which the mind of the rising generation will be formed,” Calhoun said. (It seems the “woke mind virus” was telling lies about the great and benevolent institution of American slavery as far back as two centuries ago.) Defending slavery, however, required invasive uses of power, such as banning antislavery literature and returning escaped Black people to bondage. Many white Americans in the 19th century began to understand that the “Slave Power” curtailed their freedoms as well. And this is what many people forget: Systems of domination rarely spread their blessings widely. The Redemption-era revocation of Black freedoms didn’t result in prosperity for white people writ large, but a Gilded Age in which the upper classes gained unfathomable wealth and economic crises left millions destitute. The nation may have held on to white supremacy, but it also got low wages, a threadbare welfare state, and a society dominated by the rich. Everyone else was too divided by race and class to challenge them.
December 22, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
sbagen.bsky.social
This is a great piece on Trump's near-destruction of the National Labor Relations Board. (And I'm betting they don't let the Acting GC go on-the-record about anything after his performance here. Kudos to @msainato.bsky.social for a very effective interview.) www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘A very hostile climate for workers’: US labor movement struggles under Trump
National Labor Relations Board, the federal watchdog for workers’ rights, has been rendered toothless as employees grapple with corporations
www.theguardian.com
December 14, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
mbkplus.bsky.social
If we accede to the demand that political appointees can decide what is worthwhile to study and what isn't, we've lost universities as institutions of knowledge, innovation, and progress. This is why academic freedom and tenure are so important.
epopppp.bsky.social Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 26d
This -- a model bill to effectively decimate non-STEM research by requiring 3-3 teaching loads outside of "STEM or Americanism and western civilization" -- seems...extremely bad but also quite plausible.
Proposed Model Bill Would Change College Tenure, Teaching, & Research
Three conservative groups have proposed model legislation that would dramatically change faculty tenure paths, teaching loads, research activities and hiring authority
www.forbes.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
samuel-bagg.bsky.social
Succinct and important summary of what we know about money in politics, and why it’s so different from the conventional wisdom.
adambonica.bsky.social Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · Dec 6
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
brycecovert.bsky.social
Old enough to remember when the federal government withholding Medicaid funds from states that didn't expand the program under the ACA was deemed unconstitutionally coercive www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...
Agriculture Dept. Threatens to Withhold Food Stamps From Democratic States
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
adamdean.bsky.social
Climate change is killing workers. The fix is simple.

Water. Shade. Rest Breaks.

Our new Health Affairs study: California's heat standard was associated with a 33% drop in heat-related deaths among outdoor workers.

Now it's time for OSHA to adopt a federal heat standard.

tinyurl.com/4wejjhkd
December 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
hshierholz.bsky.social
Affordability is dominating the discourse. What I don't like about the conversation is that it focuses almost entirely on prices—as if the only way to make life affordable is to make things cheaper. But affordability is determined by prices *and pay.* 1/
December 1, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
Number of SNAP recipients Amazon 2,456 Walmart 2,318 Uber 1,799 DoorDash 1,462 Tempus Unlimited 1,425 Stop & Shop 989 Mass General Brigham 956 Dollar Tree 952 Albertsons Companies, Inc. 896 Bayada Home Health 887
November 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
mattheweadie.bsky.social
And one more other thing I’m seeing now, that Northwestern unsurprisingly didn’t mention in its statement, effectively banning gender affirming care at NU school of medicine
November 29, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
johnpfaff.bsky.social
DOJ is now recruiting for immigration judges by calling them “deportation judges.”

That’s seems really bad.
YOU BE THE JUDGE Help write the next chapter of America. Apply today to become a deportation judge and you may be entitled to these benefits.
November 21, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
ericlipton.nytimes.com
NEW: As Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick drives billions of dollars in foreign payments to help build AI data centers in the US, his sons help run a company earning tens of millions in fees helping finance AI data centers. A NYT investigation. (Free link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/u...
Family Affair: Commerce Secretary’s Sons Cash In on A.I. Frenzy
www.nytimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
profsaunders.bsky.social
Damn right.
bakerdphd.bsky.social Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · Nov 20
"By any consistent standard, if Summers is unfit to work for each of these institutions [from which he resigned], he is equally unfit to teach at our school. Harvard should not be the only institution in America where Summers remains above reproach."

🔥🔥🔥

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
The Professor and the Pedophile | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
Summers should choose the most straightforward path and resign. Should he refuse to, though, the University must cut ties with its former president to the greatest extent possible.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
sbagen.bsky.social
Things are bad, but pushback can still work. Keep it up.
kathleenromig.bsky.social Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · Nov 19
The Trump Administration is abandoning plans for the biggest-ever cut to Social Security Disability Insurance, which would have hit older workers hardest.

The rule would have devastated up to 1.5 million workers' financial stability, retirement security & access to health care.

wapo.st/4o48J24
Social Security scraps plan to limit disability benefits after uproar
The policy would have fundamentally altered who qualifies for the two federal disability programs by eliminating or limiting a person’s age as a factor to consider.
wapo.st
November 19, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
dynarski.bsky.social
A senior academic using mentoring as leverage to obtain sex is a contemptible abuser of power.
dynarski.bsky.social Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · Nov 17
Summers conferred with Epstein frequently about how to extract sexual favors from a Harvard econ grad (AB '04, PhD '09)

The grad is from China

Epstein and Summers referred to her by the codename "Peril"

Racism and sexual exploitation in one efficient package

bit.ly/3LHpin8
As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ | News | The Harvard Crimson
When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jef...
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
cohodes.bsky.social
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣

"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
Screenshot of working paper: The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct
November 10, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
bgrueskin.bsky.social
A thread of two photos, each worth more than 1,000 words:

The Rev. Michael Woolf of Lake Street Church in Evanston, Ill., is detained by Illinois State Police at a protest outside the Broadview ICE facility

Via Freelance photographer Jim Vondruska/Reuters

1/2

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
November 14, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
jfallows.bsky.social
1) 'Why I Resigned' from UVa Prez 100% worth reading www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

2) Events were forced by NYT story w leaked info that he was under pressure to resign. UVa prez has 'no idea' where leaks came from (See below.)

3) FWIW same NYT team did leaked "Harvard will cave" stories
Story says: Headline "The Final Day" Then: The Final Day Rachel went to meet with the DOJ lawyers the next day—Thursday, June 26th. That morning, an article came out in the NY Times describing how DOJ lawyers were pressuring me to resign. I still have no idea who leaked the story. At around 1pm on Thursday, I was called by Rachel and the two outside lawyers, Jack and Farnaz, who attended the meeting with Rachel. I was told that the DOJ lawyers were very upset with the leaked story in the Times and that the only offer on the table was that I needed to resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA. I also needed my resignation to be effective prior to the students returning. If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate. I was then told that the DOJ had offered an amazing deal—unlike any the lawyers had ever seen, in their words. They were basically willing to grant UVA blanket immunity—all of the inquires and investigations would be suspended, no financial penalties would be imposed, and agencies would be told not to cut off our research funding. They said they had never seen or heard about such a great deal for any university. Rachel praised the lawyers for their astute and savvy bargaining, and I was told this was an amazing deal.
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
malpas.bsky.social
The problem was never "cancel culture." The problem is that our elites have no shame. And many are also pretty terrible people
November 13, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
columbiaigp.bsky.social
LIVE now 🔴 The Rise of Populism and the Future of Economic Policy

With Sheri Berman, Mary Kay Henry, @awhf.bsky.social, Faiz Shakir, @josephestiglitz.bsky.social, @shaynalstrom.bsky.social, and more. @equitablegrowth.bsky.social

youtube.com/live/41tsfAq...
The Rise of Populism and the Future of Economic Policy
YouTube video by Columbia SIPA
youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
ezralevin.bsky.social
We started Indivisible in 2016 because a future Trump appointee was talking about the WWII Japanese internment camps as a model for immigrants at the same time that Schumer was talking about finding common ground with Trump.
themodsisyphus.bsky.social Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · Nov 12
This concentration camp was opened at Fort Bliss, the site of a former Japanese internment camp.

It also cost over $1B in private contracts to build in a place meant to hold 1000 people. So, basically it’s a fascist grift.
shorturl.at/qhuSc
November 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
equitablegrowth.bsky.social
How do we rebuild trust in government to achieve equitable economic growth? 
 
Panelists @josephestiglitz.bsky.social, @dongravesjr.bsky.social, Sheri Berman of @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, and @matt-tuerk.bsky.social discuss alongside NYT reporter and moderator @lydiadepillis.bsky.social.
November 10, 2025 at 10:50 PM
awhf.bsky.social
Starting now with a great discussion of the connection of economic policy and democracy @equitablegrowth.bsky.social @columbiaigp.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Alex Hertel-Fernandez
kjephd.bsky.social
This is why this surrender isn't just about this narrow issue but is rather the whole constitutional ballgame:

Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever
adamserwer.bsky.social Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · Nov 10
Not that he didn’t already know, but now Trump knows for sure he can roll the Dems every time and there’s no need to negotiate for anything
November 10, 2025 at 3:10 AM