Chance Phillips
@chancephillips.bsky.social
A student in the economics PhD program at UMass Amherst.
Recreationally reading: TBD
Most bylines in @alreporter.com and @liberalcurrents.com
Substack: someconvenienttree.com
Recreationally reading: TBD
Most bylines in @alreporter.com and @liberalcurrents.com
Substack: someconvenienttree.com
Pinned
Crunching the Numbers on Predistribution
Merely including the elderly flips the relative importance of redistribution.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org
As my own little intervention into the predistribution vs. redistribution discourse, I sanity checked one recent estimate of how much taxes and transfers matter for reducing income inequality. And I found they matter far more than folks have been saying.
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/10/31/c...
www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/10/31/c...
Well, of course he did.
www.liberalcurrents.com/missouri-sen...
www.liberalcurrents.com/missouri-sen...
January 30, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Well, of course he did.
www.liberalcurrents.com/missouri-sen...
www.liberalcurrents.com/missouri-sen...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
'he is "central casting" and he will never let you down'
January 30, 2026 at 11:53 AM
'he is "central casting" and he will never let you down'
Sen. Tuberville has been saying this for weeks, and repeatedly used it as a reason for America’s intervention in Venezuela during interviews on conservative programs.
www.alreporter.com/2026/01/09/s...
www.alreporter.com/2026/01/09/s...
January 29, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Sen. Tuberville has been saying this for weeks, and repeatedly used it as a reason for America’s intervention in Venezuela during interviews on conservative programs.
www.alreporter.com/2026/01/09/s...
www.alreporter.com/2026/01/09/s...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
If you want fine wine, go to France. If you want to do great journalism, go to Alabama. Congratulations to The Alabama Solution!
January 22, 2026 at 2:54 PM
If you want fine wine, go to France. If you want to do great journalism, go to Alabama. Congratulations to The Alabama Solution!
Reposted by Chance Phillips
70 economists about to burst into the room and argue about whether banks lend their deposits or whether their lending generates their deposits.
CC: @besttrousers.bsky.social
CC: @besttrousers.bsky.social
January 21, 2026 at 10:55 PM
70 economists about to burst into the room and argue about whether banks lend their deposits or whether their lending generates their deposits.
CC: @besttrousers.bsky.social
CC: @besttrousers.bsky.social
DeSantis’ rapid response director for his presidential campaign—who per Semafor (www.semafor.com/article/07/3...) oversaw the groupchat that created fascist edits of the Florida governor—just posted a lengthy tweet explaining she had been quietly advising groyper candidate James Fishback.
January 19, 2026 at 11:50 AM
DeSantis’ rapid response director for his presidential campaign—who per Semafor (www.semafor.com/article/07/3...) oversaw the groupchat that created fascist edits of the Florida governor—just posted a lengthy tweet explaining she had been quietly advising groyper candidate James Fishback.
The real reason people hype up the FT...
January 18, 2026 at 1:53 PM
The real reason people hype up the FT...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
Our ambitious fundraising goal is equal to the amount paid by the Eric Adams campaign to "Fairfax Digital."
Let's invest in a positive vision for a liberal future: www.liberalcurrents.com/a-preview-of...
Let's invest in a positive vision for a liberal future: www.liberalcurrents.com/a-preview-of...
January 18, 2026 at 2:17 AM
Our ambitious fundraising goal is equal to the amount paid by the Eric Adams campaign to "Fairfax Digital."
Let's invest in a positive vision for a liberal future: www.liberalcurrents.com/a-preview-of...
Let's invest in a positive vision for a liberal future: www.liberalcurrents.com/a-preview-of...
Today, the under secretary of public diplomacy (Darren Beattie’s permanent replacement) called immigrants to Europe “barbarian rapist hordes.”
Dollars to donuts, she will not face any professional consequences for this.
See my August piece for more examples: www.liberalcurrents.com/nobody-cares...
Dollars to donuts, she will not face any professional consequences for this.
See my August piece for more examples: www.liberalcurrents.com/nobody-cares...
January 15, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Today, the under secretary of public diplomacy (Darren Beattie’s permanent replacement) called immigrants to Europe “barbarian rapist hordes.”
Dollars to donuts, she will not face any professional consequences for this.
See my August piece for more examples: www.liberalcurrents.com/nobody-cares...
Dollars to donuts, she will not face any professional consequences for this.
See my August piece for more examples: www.liberalcurrents.com/nobody-cares...
FT Alphaville is producing the real news
www.ft.com/content/28f8...
www.ft.com/content/28f8...
Polymarket’s eye-watering brush with the 1958 Onion Futures Act
Peeling back the layers of the ambiguously-regulated US prediction market
www.ft.com
January 14, 2026 at 10:48 PM
FT Alphaville is producing the real news
www.ft.com/content/28f8...
www.ft.com/content/28f8...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
"Despite President Jackson’s pretensions, the Bank War he began was not a mass movement against unelected, usurious elites. It was a president grabbing at power denied to him by the people’s duly elected representatives in Congress, as is Trump’s recent feud with the Fed." (from September)
Trump Must Lose the Second Bank War
Henry Clay understood what was wrong with the unitary executive theory back in the 1830s.
www.liberalcurrents.com
January 12, 2026 at 1:26 AM
"Despite President Jackson’s pretensions, the Bank War he began was not a mass movement against unelected, usurious elites. It was a president grabbing at power denied to him by the people’s duly elected representatives in Congress, as is Trump’s recent feud with the Fed." (from September)
Reposted by Chance Phillips
Reposted by Chance Phillips
Turning this offer off tomorrow; $40 off the first year at our Supporting Subscriber tier. Get access to the Discord, The Opposition Report, our bonus monthly podcast ep, and more www.liberalcurrents.com/get-to-40-pr...
Liberal Currents
Liberal Currents publishes writers of diverse perspectives who share an unflinching commitment to freedom, pluralism, and democracy, in opposition to authoritarianism at home and around the world.
www.liberalcurrents.com
January 9, 2026 at 2:25 AM
Turning this offer off tomorrow; $40 off the first year at our Supporting Subscriber tier. Get access to the Discord, The Opposition Report, our bonus monthly podcast ep, and more www.liberalcurrents.com/get-to-40-pr...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
Very excited to publish the first Opposition Report written by @chancephillips.bsky.social
"Any pretense that the operation might have been meant to help the Venezuelan public was quickly shattered when Trump repeatedly bragged about the benefits of the action for American oil companies." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-oppositi...
The Opposition Report #9
Venezuela, Epstein, purchased pardons, and more.
www.liberalcurrents.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Very excited to publish the first Opposition Report written by @chancephillips.bsky.social
After seeing a wind turbine loom out of the mist in Costa Rica, I think I can understand what Don Quixote was on
January 4, 2026 at 2:51 PM
After seeing a wind turbine loom out of the mist in Costa Rica, I think I can understand what Don Quixote was on
As I was still ~interested in this question, I decided to similarly mess around with PSID data. The below graph ought to show median (log) income for the individuals in each of the 5 income quintiles in 1980 between 1974 and 1989.
TL;DR: post 1980 rates of income growth seem comparable.
TL;DR: post 1980 rates of income growth seem comparable.
December 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM
As I was still ~interested in this question, I decided to similarly mess around with PSID data. The below graph ought to show median (log) income for the individuals in each of the 5 income quintiles in 1980 between 1974 and 1989.
TL;DR: post 1980 rates of income growth seem comparable.
TL;DR: post 1980 rates of income growth seem comparable.
?: Isn’t another interesting question how much an average worker in a given decile or quantile in year T earns in year T+1? Distributional concerns are obvi. important, but what does showing that people at the 10th percentile in 1980 are earning less in 1981 mean when they aren't the same people?
The 1980s really didn't produce good wage outcomes for the bottom half of the American workforce. Worse than before, and what came after (partial rebound in the late 1990s and 2010s.)
December 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
?: Isn’t another interesting question how much an average worker in a given decile or quantile in year T earns in year T+1? Distributional concerns are obvi. important, but what does showing that people at the 10th percentile in 1980 are earning less in 1981 mean when they aren't the same people?
I'm approximately 100% certain that someone could accurately tell me that I messed this up somehow (likely the weighting), but here's what a bit of time messing around in Stata with ASEC data got me.
December 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I'm approximately 100% certain that someone could accurately tell me that I messed this up somehow (likely the weighting), but here's what a bit of time messing around in Stata with ASEC data got me.
An interesting table for this debate. (Median income by year separated by race/ethnicity and gender.)
Source: www.census.gov/library/publ...
Source: www.census.gov/library/publ...
December 20, 2025 at 3:28 PM
An interesting table for this debate. (Median income by year separated by race/ethnicity and gender.)
Source: www.census.gov/library/publ...
Source: www.census.gov/library/publ...
Reposted by Chance Phillips
Very cool!
December 19, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Very cool!
Reposted by Chance Phillips
This is horrible. Trump and his crew shut down USAID, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and they had no idea what they were doing or what would be the consequences. Completely immoral.
(From the VF story on Susan Wiles.)
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...
(From the VF story on Susan Wiles.)
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...
December 16, 2025 at 4:41 PM
This is horrible. Trump and his crew shut down USAID, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and they had no idea what they were doing or what would be the consequences. Completely immoral.
(From the VF story on Susan Wiles.)
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...
(From the VF story on Susan Wiles.)
www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...
“So Helen Andrews cited Claudia Goldin in an interview with Douthat in order to argue that you can observe the negative effects of feminization in veterinary medicine” — something I actually made the mistake of trying to explain to my labor econ professor. (Luckily I didn’t mention the CSPAN clip.)
and i'm just as guilty of it too. i tried to explain that helen andrews feminization article to my girlfriend and she was like "i think you need to get off your phone"
December 16, 2025 at 7:50 PM
“So Helen Andrews cited Claudia Goldin in an interview with Douthat in order to argue that you can observe the negative effects of feminization in veterinary medicine” — something I actually made the mistake of trying to explain to my labor econ professor. (Luckily I didn’t mention the CSPAN clip.)
Reposted by Chance Phillips
"The newspaper industry served as a feeder for our entire news media ecosystem. So when we lose those newspapers, we've lost that journalism. In the early 2000s, we had 40 journalists per 100,000 people. We're now down to 8 journalists per 100,000 people," says @victorpickard.bsky.social.
December 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
"The newspaper industry served as a feeder for our entire news media ecosystem. So when we lose those newspapers, we've lost that journalism. In the early 2000s, we had 40 journalists per 100,000 people. We're now down to 8 journalists per 100,000 people," says @victorpickard.bsky.social.
Reposted by Chance Phillips
New BW feature: While federal unions play defense elsewhere, a unionization wave is building in the National Park Service, driven by slash-and-burn Trump Admin. cuts, decades of prior bipartisan neglect, and worker-to-worker organizing www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... w/ @mslaurabliss.bsky.social
How Trump Pushed US Park Rangers to the Breaking Point—and a Union Drive
Galvanized by cuts to the federal workforce, park workers are organizing to protect their jobs and some of America’s most iconic places.
www.bloomberg.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:05 AM
New BW feature: While federal unions play defense elsewhere, a unionization wave is building in the National Park Service, driven by slash-and-burn Trump Admin. cuts, decades of prior bipartisan neglect, and worker-to-worker organizing www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... w/ @mslaurabliss.bsky.social
“The CEO of Affirm was on Odd Lots? Aren’t more than half of all Odd Lots guests CEOs of a firm?”
December 5, 2025 at 11:59 PM
“The CEO of Affirm was on Odd Lots? Aren’t more than half of all Odd Lots guests CEOs of a firm?”