I work on the economic architecture of the next progressive agenda: what the US economy should build, who decides, and how public institutions can drive decarbonization, decommodification, and democratization. The next decade of progressive politics and policymaking can achieve green economic transformation: driving deep decarbonization, making essentials like health care, energy, and housing universal and affordable, supporting cooperative global green development, and giving people far greater democratic control over our economic future, from how AI enters our workplaces to which sectors we build for the twenty-first century.
As US Programme Director at Common Wealth, I lead our work to shape that agenda. From AI to energy to health care, people increasingly want a say in what kind of economy we are building and who it serves. Our starting point is that soaring costs, weak investment outside the speculative AI boom, and slow decarbonization share a common cause: decisions about what our economy builds, and on what terms, are left to private capital.
Our work makes the case for a Productive State that directly invests, produces, and provides in systemically important sectors. Its institutions are a National Investment Authority, a Federal Grid Authority, and Medicare for All. Together, they form an integrated development strategy for a high-investment, full-employment, decarbonized economy in which essentials are affordable for all and the public, not private capital, decides on our most important economic questions.
I carry this work through Common Wealth's two flagship programmes:
The Green Planning Commission: an international commission of leading economists building the case, and the institutional blueprints, for green democratic planning.
Forces of Production: our monthly analysis of the US and global economy, led by US Principal Economist Alex Williams. It is also the base for our work on the next growth and development agenda: which sectors to build, which to wind down, and how they fit together.
Around this research, we convene a growing community of economists, congressional and campaign staff, journalists, and policymakers. I'm always keen to hear from others working on these questions and to build collaborative relationships and partnerships across the US progressive ecosystem as this programme develops.
Check out some of our other recent US programme work on decarbonization after fracking, Trump’s power grab, Medicaid and the struggle for universal health care in the Trump aftermath, and moving economic policy beyond Bidenomics to progressive economic reconstruction.
Before joining Common Wealth, I researched (global) macrofinance, economic management, and industrial planning policy for decarbonization at E3G. There, I wrote a bi-weekly newsletter on green macrofinance and transition planning. I began my career as a researcher in progressive policy and political economy as Gar Alperovitz’s research assistant at the Democracy Collaborative’s Next System Project. There, I supported Alperovitz’s draft manuscript of political economic theory “The Next System,” which advances his model of a Pluralist Commonwealth, centered on (multiscaler and decentralized) democratic ownership and planning.
I studied global political economy at Penn State and Columbia. But I’ve learned the most from lurking on Twitter.
Drawings by my partner!