Rakeen Mabud
rmabud.bsky.social
Rakeen Mabud
@rmabud.bsky.social
Political economist and independent consultant. Associate Fellow, Common Wealth. Formerly: Groundwork Collaborative, Time's Up, Roosevelt Institute, U.S. Treasury Department
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
🚨 Today, Common Wealth launches the Green Planning Commission.

A major new initiative to tackle the twin crises of our era: climate breakdown & the affordability crisis.

To meet these challenges, we need a new era of democratic planning.

🧵

https://www.common-wealth.org/green-planning-commission
October 30, 2025 at 9:04 AM
How do we break out of the doom loop of authoritarianism & deep inequality? On 11/6, Future Currents is hosting @bilalb.bsky.social (@rooseveltinstitute.org) @povertyscholar.bsky.social (Cornell) & Erica Gallegos (Childcare for Every Family) to discuss. Register today us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Escaping the Doom Loop for a Better Future. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Escaping the Doom Loop for a Better Future. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
us02web.zoom.us
October 29, 2025 at 8:23 PM
If you read one piece today, read this one from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...
Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
WSJ - Federal economists and researchers responsible for measuring hunger in America are placed on indefinite paid leave. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/usda-puts-food-researchers-on-leave-ef287cd7
September 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
Trump is cancelling an annual government survey that measures hunger in America, rather than allow it to show hunger increasing under his tenure.

This follows the playbook of many non-democracies that cancel or manipulate reports that would otherwise show less-than-perfect news.
Exclusive | Trump Administration Cancels Annual Hunger Survey
The government has been measuring food insecurity since the mid-1990s, but now says the report has become “overly politicized.”
www.wsj.com
September 20, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
In the last six weeks, the Tenant Union Federation launched seven (7) majority tenant unions, across five (5) states, representing 1000 units of housing owned by Capital Realty Group, a New York-based corporate landlord. The first portfolio organizing of its kind...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Tenants Seek to Unionize One Private Equity Firm's Entire Housing Portfolio
By organizing renters across Capital Realty Group’s affordable housing complexes, the Tenant Union Federation hopes to bring sectoral bargaining to negotiations with large landlords.
www.bloomberg.com
September 22, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
Some coverage of the federal takeover of DC would leave you thinking the main consequence is National Guardsmen laying mulch.

No. It is masked agents terrifying schoolchildren.

Please read this crucial article from @teoarmus.bsky.social on how DC communities are trying to protect families.
They watched ICE detain their dad. Now D.C. neighbors escort them to school.
Immigrant neighborhoods across the District have organized “walking school buses” to shuttle kids to classes during President Donald Trump’s federalization of D.C. police.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 11, 2025 at 1:07 PM
So grateful to be invited into this conversation with @msmagazine.com and @carmenriosss.bsky.social alongside @lenorepalladino.bsky.social.

I found it personally helpful to take a moment to reflect and regroup in the fight for a just society, and I hope this conversation helps others as well.
August 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
widespread adoption of crypto
+ proliferation of AI
+ softening of the labor market
+ enforcement “replaced by crypto industry toadies”

= “It is a great time to be a scammer.”
i got one of those low effort spam texts from "Indeed," offering a low effort, well-paid remote job. I spent the last two months working in a Filipino clickfarm, for a very disappointed woman named Cathy. slate.com/technology/2...
I Responded to One of the Spam Texts From a “Recruiter”—Then Took the Job. It Got Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined.
The story of “Cathy,” my scammer.
slate.com
August 5, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
NEW: I spoke with a woman named Andrea about her experience being detained by ICE after calling the cops for help during a domestic violence incident.

She was recently postpartum, breastfeeding & put in an all-male facility. She was detained for 2.5 months.
July 31, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
it was both *fun* and *deeply depressing* to revisit 2021 and all the arguments @rmabud.bsky.social and I made then for how investing in care would benefit the ENTIRE economy

thanks @msmagazine.com @carmenriosss.bsky.social for the opportunity
August 3, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
ep three of looking back, moving forward is live
@msmagazine.com! today's topic: economic justice 💰

feat. premilla nadasen, @rmabud.bsky.social + @lenorepalladino.bsky.social, aisha nyandoro, nwlc.org's gaylynn burroughs, and *the* dolores huerta.

tune in!
Women Can't Afford to Wait for a Feminist Economic Future (with Premilla Nadasen, Rakeen Mabud and Lenore Palladino, Aisha Nyandoro, Gaylynn Burroughs, and Dolores Huerta)
Meet the Voices Premilla Nadasen, history professor at Barnard College and author of Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement and Care: The Highest Stag...
msmagazine.com
August 1, 2025 at 5:56 PM
TOMORROW: @gruberg.bsky.social @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social @mauricewfp.bsky.social @akapczynski.bsky.social & I will be talking about how to build power in this new world we're living in. Need inspiration? Someone to ask all your unanswered questions? Join us! us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
July 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
The always brilliant Zephyr Teachout in the @nytimes.com: "People are tired of being squeezed at the checkout counter while corporate giants count their profits. They want groceries they can afford, stores they can trust and fair prices, not rigged ones." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/o...
Opinion | New York City Has the Power to Bring Down Grocery Prices. All Cities Do.
www.nytimes.com
July 21, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
somehow one of the most underrated facts in american politics is that trump is a republican who does republican stuff www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/o...
Opinion | Now Can We Stop Talking About What a Maverick Trump Is?
www.nytimes.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
A new article from me and Ellis Chen at @lawfaremedia.org on the gutting of the IRS and why the destruction of a nation's tax capacity is part of the pattern in democratic erosion.
What’s Going on at the IRS?
Breaking down the reduction in tax workforce, DOGE’s attempts to access sensitive data, and the politicization and erosion of agency independence at the IRS
www.lawfaremedia.org
May 13, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
IMPA’s new research on the long-run costs of cutting federal R&D funding is featured in today’s @nytimes.com
The findings are clear: plausible cuts would shrink U.S. GDP for generations.

📉 Read the article: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/b...

📄 Full report: impa.american.edu/costs-of-cut...
Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Could Hurt U.S. Economy, Study Shows
Reducing federal support for research and development could cause long-run economic damage and reduce government revenue.
www.nytimes.com
April 30, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
Here's me telling Marketplace morning report that yes, cutting the IRS workforce in half is a very bad idea.
Halving the IRS workforce in the middle of tax season - Marketplace
The second Trump administration is reportedly working on a plan to dramatically reduce the workforce at the Internal Revenue Service.
www.marketplace.org
March 5, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
Yeah so the Constitution isn’t really in effect right now
Opinion | There Is No Going Back
The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Rakeen Mabud
To review, the FAA administrator was forced out because of a business vendetta of Elon Musk’s, Trump froze the hiring of new ATCs despite staff shortages, Musk launched an underhanded attempt to hollow out the whole federal workforce, and then the first US airliner crashed in 16 years.
January 30, 2025 at 7:13 PM