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What is Economix?
Praise for Economix
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–James Floyd Kelly, Wired.com
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“Economix is a lively, cheerfully opinionated romp through the historical and intellectual foundations of our current economy and our current economic problems. Goodwin has a knack for distilling complex ideas and events in ways that invite the reader to follow the big picture without losing track of what actually happened. Any reader wondering how our economy got to where it is today will find this a refreshing overview.”
— Timothy W. Guinnane, Philip Golden Bartlett Professor of Economic History, Yale University
Author’s Blog
Okay, we’ve heard a lot about how Harris lost because the Republicans had all sorts of ways to get their message out–Fox, OANN, Sinclair, Musk, and so on and so on–and Democrats didn’t.
Which is true. But Democrats also don’t use the tools they have.
For example: I donated a decent amount this cycle; the punishment for that was no end of texts and emails.
Texts and emails that all seemed to have one message, and one message only: Send more money.
There was very little about why to send money, or why to vote for that matter.
This isn’t just my impression. I went back through all 75 (!) political texts I got from September 16th to election day (36 from PACs, 39 from candidates) to see if they mentioned any reason to support them. (Texts made a more objective dataset than emails because I had deleted a lot of political emails, and others were caught by my spam filter.) I set a very low bar: any mention of a real, specific reason—the candidate supports policy X, the opponent is an insurrectionist, the Republicans are the party of hate, whatever—counted. Horserace stuff like “the polls are close” or “we’re being OUTSPENT” didn’t count.
45 of the 75 texts (60%) failed that easy test. Worse, of the 30 that did give some kind of reason, only 3 went into any detail. That was true even though many of the texts were quite long; they went on and on about the URGENCY of donating, without giving much, or any, reason why it was important.
Here’s a graph:
This was, I’m sorry, a massive failure of the Democratic messaging machine. Yes, I’m a safe Democratic voter. But safe voters talk to others and try to convince them; why not give us more and better talking points?
And, of course, it turned out that many safe Democratic voters, well, weren’t. Maybe the Democrats could have retained more votes if they’d spent less time hysterically demanding money and more reminding us why we became Democratic voters in the first place.
For instance: all of the texts linked to a donation page (except two that linked to a “poll”—“But despite asking multiple times this month, we at the DGA are still not sure who you’re supporting for president!”—that then linked to a donation page). And yeah, duh, you should have a donation link in your email. But how many texts linked to anything else? There was plenty of room for more than one link—again, the texts often went on and on.
Here’s a graph:
Why not, at least occasionally, link to something we can share around, put on social media, and so on? Like this video, which laid out what Project 2025 has in store for us? (The video was made by Samuel Spitale, who’s just some guy working on his own initiative. I’d say that an official video would be even better, except that Democratic consultants are famously bad at crafting such things. But still, whatever they made would have been better than nothing. Probably.)
Also, what about the how of it? How to check your polling place, how to vote by mail in your state, where to volunteer? Any information people could use?
Well, here’s a graph:
Point being, the Democrats had a whole channel of communication they could have been using to spread their message and keep voters engaged. Instead, they endlessly, drearily hit us up for money with text that seemed like they were written by the same couple of consultants, probably because they were.
Presumably a lot of the money they did raise went to ads. I don’t get TV or radio ads, but the digital ad I kept being fed started with Harris talking about, yes, donating. I never let it run longer than the first few seconds, and I doubt many others did either.
Also: in 2020, the Democrats had blacklisted firms that worked with primary challengers (not ones that work with Republicans, or work for oil companies, or anything like that); these were the firms that were best at digital outreach. I don’t know if that explains how bad digital outreach was in 2024.
I expect it doesn’t, though, because unfortunately this is all part of a bigger problem: The Democratic Party is a machine designed, not so much to win elections, as to take donor money, give consultants a big chunk for keeps, and set the rest of the money on fire.
That’ll be a whole different post, though.
I guess my point is, while progressives have been trying, and failing, to turn the Democratic Party into something other than an election-losing machine for more than two decades, the misuse of texts and emails seems like something that could be fixed short of sending James Carville and his ilk to the glue factory, however much that also needs to be done.
Anyway.
Speaking of the misuse of texts, I noticed big differences between texts from PACs and from candidates:
- In the use of ALL CAPS:
- In the use of exclamation points:
- In the offers to DOUBLE, TRIPLE, or QUADRUPLE MATCH the donation (if someone’s ready to give you 4X my donation, why don’t they just, you know, give it? Why do you even need me?):
- And in how they respected my requests to stop:
So PACs were responsible for a disproportionate share of the really annoying texts, the shitty formulaic ones that beg for parody:
PACs were also, with a couple of exceptions, opaque about how the money would be spent.
So, reining in the sleazy PACs would be a good idea.
Although candidates can be sleazeballs too—I’d like to end this with a shout-out to my congressman, Dan Goldman of New York, for being a particular piece of shit: He sent an (actually inspiring) text that talked a great game about contributing to downballot Dems in tight races. Which seemed quite good of him. But it was a bait-and-switch—the link went to his *own* donation page.
Yow it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I just finished a new piece about Project 2025! It wound up being about Project 2025, our wider political climate, our actual climate, dam failures in China in the 1960s. . . .
It’s below. Page references to Mandate to Leadership (https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf) are given in the text itself; sources for other statements are given after the comic.
Thanks for reading!
If you liked this, check out my book! Bookshop.org is a good resource if you want to avoid Amazon. You should absolutely stay away from pirated copies, like this one, right here, just at this link, one free click away: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/economix/15460336
Again, when page number for the Project 2025 quote is given in the piece, I won’t bother giving it again, but here are the sources for everything else.
Page 1 panel 2: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/05/donald-trump-project-2025
Page 1 panel 3: Flores settlement: Here’s an overview: https://www.cwla.org/history-and-update-on-flores-settlement/
Page 2 panel 1: Disbanding the Directorate didn’t mean that we had zero pandemic response–the Directorate was one of many lines of defense–but not everyone who was lost was replaced. https://www.kff.org/news-summary/usa-today-fact-checks-claim-trump-fired-entire-nsc-global-health-unit/.
Page 2 panel 2: Quote: https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1816171964802699731/video/2
Authors: Mandate for Leadership, pages xvi, xvii.
Page 2 panel 3: 64%: Mandate for Leadership, p885
Page 4 panel 4: The quote is on Mandate for Leadership, p93. As for how Heritage cheerled Bush’s Middle East disasters, see, e.g., here (https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/report/fighting-just-war-iraq) and here (https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/getting-the-facts-straight-iraq).
Page 5 panel 1: Clean fossil fuels are impossible because even if we got rid of every cancerous particulate, using fossil fuels turns carbon into CO2—that’s just how burning coal, gas, or oil works—and CO2 is what’s killing the planet right now.
Page 5 panel 2: https://electrek.co/2024/07/29/california-achieves-100-days-of-100-electricity-demand-met-by-renewables/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEUu6dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHULCvxCNDj3_ZjbXE_RlsGwinnhBm9WzNhrYGUjRbLPM_-u94JN-OsLtHw_aem_cruKcvaWzQfrubTKXoS2Gg
Page 5 panel 3: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/05/gobsmackingly-bananas-scientists-stunned-by-planets-record-september-heat
Page 5 panel 4: Hausfather quote: https://x.com/hausfath/status/1709217151452954998?lang=en.
Page 6 panel 1: Canada on fire: In New York in the summer of 2023 we were choking on Canadian wildfire smoke. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Canadian_wildfires
Hawaii on fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Hawaii_wildfires
Mountains flooding: In Hurricane Helene, which was followed by another hurricane barely a week later.
Mail-order meds: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/health/heat-mail-order-drugs.html?rsrc=flt&smid=tw-share
Cows: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105482394/cattle-kansas-heat-wave
Once-in-a-century storms: e.g., A record rainfall in September 2023 in New York City (https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/weather/2023/10/05/new-york-city-rain-temperatures-flood-september-), followed by one the next March (https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-rain-flooding-risk/). Or, if that’s too far in the past, Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Air Travel: Too many examples to count at this point.
Heat wave: A weather channel headline from August 2023 was “It can’t last forever, right?” I have a screenshot but can’t find it now.
Page 7 panel 3: Around 4,000: 3,600 according to Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_appointments_in_the_United_States
Page 7 panel 4: Bacon: The federal law in question reads:
(ii) Packages for sliced bacon that have a transparent opening shall be designed to expose, for viewing, the cut surface of a representative slice. Packages for sliced bacon which meet the following specifications will be accepted as meeting the requirements of this subparagraph provided the enclosed bacon is positioned so that the cut surface of the representative slice can be visually examined:(a) For shingle-packed sliced bacon, the transparent window shall be designed to reveal at least 70 percent of the length (longest dimension) of the representative slice, and this window shall be at least 11/2 inches wide. The transparent window shall be located not more than five-eighths inch from the top or bottom edge of a 1-pound or smaller package and not more than three-fourths inch from either the top or bottom edge of a package larger than 1 pound.(b) For stack-packed sliced bacon, the transparent window shall be designed to reveal at least 70 percent of the length (longest dimension) of the representative slice and be at least 11/2 inches wide. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2017-title9-vol2/xml/CFR-2017-title9-vol2-sec317-8.xml.
Page 7 panel 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index
Page 8 panel 1: A picture of the actual doctored map is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/05/not-just-sharpie-gate-other-times-officials-tried-fabricate-trumps-truth/
Page 8 panel 2: The track of Hurricane Dorian can be found here: https://wcti12.com/news/local/national-hurricane-center-releases-report-on-hurricane-dorian
Page 8 panel 4: Roberts’s quote can be found here: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01082023/far-right-battle-plan-to-undo-climate-progress-trump-win-2024/
Page 9 panels 2 and 3: https://damfailures.org/case-study/banqiao-dam-china-1975/
Page 9 panel 4: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/jared-kushner-let-the-markets-decide-covid-19-fate
Page 10 panel 1: Constitutional means, 33% of the vote: A good summary is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_1932_German_federal_election
Page 10 panel 2: https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/how-did-the-nazi-gain-power/gleichschaltung/.
Page 10 panel 4: Roberts quote: https://www.mediamatters.org/project-2025/heritage-foundation-president-celebrates-supreme-court-immunity-decision-we-are
Trump quote: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-christian-voters-turning-point-action/. Different sources vary the punctuation a bit.
Page 11 panel 2 (Narrator’s head is 1). Trump quote: https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/kamala-harris-campaign-laughs-as-trump-rants-about-donuts-to-explain-economy/ar-AA1sobWY
Roberts quote: https://newrepublic.com/article/184651/voters-right-know-kevin-robertss-disturbing-book-says-j-d-vance-project-2025
Page 11 panel 3: Both quotes are from William Shirer’s Mid-Century Journey (page 118 and 183 of my edition).
Page 11 panel 4: This Askhistorians answer goes into some of the funding: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1dohbxh/did_hitler_enrich_himselfadd_to_his_own_coffers/laa6d8h/. It’s worth pointing out that the funders originally thought they could use the Nazis as a tool against the left, but the Nazis wound up taking over, and the funders turned out to be okay with that.
Page 12 panel 1: The quote is from Mandate for Leadership, page xxiii.
Page 12 panel 2: >$150 million: https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-raises-more-150-million-record-breaking-fundraising-year
Other orgs: Mandate for Leadership, pages xi, xii.
Page 12 panel 3: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638
Leo: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/11/2198756/-We-don-t-talk-about-Leonard-The-man-behind-the-right-s-Supreme-Court-supermajority
The other names you can look up if you’re interested.
Page 12 panel 4:
“Right-wing colleges” doesn’t even get the full scope of their influence—at this point your education at any college is going to be affected by right-wing money. For instance, Florida State University isn’t a right-wing college, but if you take an economics course there your professor might be funded by a grant from the Kochs. That sounds okay, but in that case the Kochs had veto power over who was selected (see James Kwak, Economism, Vintage Books, 2018, page 45.)
ALEC and the Federalist Society: The Wikipedia articles are good here.
Direct gifts to judges: Those aren’t just any judges, they’re Aileen Cannon: https://www.propublica.org/article/judge-aileen-cannon-trump-documents-case-travel-disclosures, and Clarence Thomas, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/supreme-court/3031453/clarence-thomas-far-more-gifts-last-20-years-watchdog/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Pmax_USA_Magazine_21-June-Intent-Audience-Signals&gad_source=5&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1PzUtfeGiQMVrGVHAR3NbDdMEAAYAiAAEgLMc_D_BwE.
Page 13 panel 1: Hired Vance and $15 million: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-trump-vp-peter-thiel-billionaire/
“Co-founded” https://www.axios.com/2020/01/09/jd-vance-venture-capital-fund-ohio-silicon-valley-peter-thiel
Page 13 panel 2: Thiel quote: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/.
Page 13 panel 3: https://www.vox.com/voting-rights/2023/8/3/23818858/wisconsin-gerrymander-clarke-wisconsin-election-commision-supreme-court-janet-protasiewicz
Page 13 panel 4: That’s the gist of Trump vs United States, 2024, which vacates a mere 235 years’ worth of constitutional law.
Page 14 panel 2:
Legal Democratic voters: This was a scandal, little reported at the time. Here’s an overview: https://www.gregpalast.com/the-great-florida-ex-con-gamernhow-the-felon-voter-purge-was-itself-felonious/
Obviously bad: They didn’t use that term (duh), but part of the decision in Bush v. Gore, 2000 actually did say that it couldn’t be used as precedent; the only possible reason for that is if the majority knew it was obviously bad.
Democrat got more votes: It depends on how you count them, but every complete count had Gore ahead. An okay summary is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election_recount_in_Florida#cite_note-Pecquet-109
Republican mob: Look up the “Brooks Brothers Riot”
Media normalized it: The film Outfoxed goes into some of the ways.
Page 14 panel 3: 95,000 polling places: https://www.route-fifty.com/management/2024/03/there-are-100000-fewer-election-day-polling-places-2024/394959/
Georgia: https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-election-boards-swing-states;https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/georgia-election-board-reasonable-inquiry-rule-trump/
Sabotaged early voting: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/north-carolina-robert-kennedy-early-voting-trump-sabotage.html
Workers quitting: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/05/politics/election-worker-resignations-2024-elections/index.html
Election police: https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2024/09/06/florida-abortion-amendment-petition-signature-fraud-voters/
Police raids: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/ken-paxton-latino-democrats-raids-19720940.php
Only six: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4878373-house-republicans-election-results/
Page 14 panel 4: Your local paper: The right-wing New York Post lost money for 45 straight years after Rupert Murdoch bought it (so it’s not like the Post is right wing because it’s good for business); https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/new-york-post-profit/
Page 15 panel 1: Calm down: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/calm-down-roe-v-wade-isnt-going-anywhere/2018/07/03/fd470196-7f05-11e8-bb6b-c1cb691f1402_story.html
Yahoo quote: No longer on their site, but a screenshot is here:
Authoritarians: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/opinion/trump-milei-wilders-strongmen.html
Mirage: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/02/project-2025-trump-inside-story-00172299. Politico is run by a right-wing billionaire, of course: Also, while Politico poses as neutral, it’s run by a right-winger: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/politico-owner-pray-for-trump-mathias-dopfner-axel-springer-1234587243/
Page 17 panel 2:
Brandeis quote: This is often quoted but hard to track down; Here’s a discussion that concludes that he never perhaps put it in exactly this way, but it’s still an accurate summary of his thoughts on the subject: http://www.greenbag.org/v16n3/v16n3_articles_campbell.pdf
TR quote: Page 472 of his autobiography.
FDR quote: From a message to congress in 1938: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-congress-curbing-monopolies
Page 17 panel 3:
Chart: Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, page X.
Reagan factoid: Mandate for Leadership page 2.
Stronger antitrust: Lina Khan is driving monopolists crazy actually.
Stronger unions: Biden is the first president ever to walk a picket line (as president at least), and unions have been recovering some juice during his presidency
Page 18 panel 4: Big pharma (which also funds Democrats, duh) funds ALEC: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/big-pharma-alec-voting-trump-maga-cleta-mitchell-1235079548/
Page 18 panel 5: See, e.g., Gilens M, Page BI. Testing theories of American politics: elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics; 12(3):572-573.
Page 19, panel 1:
Stronger antitrust: Lina Khan is driving monopolists crazy actually.
Stronger unions: Biden is the first president ever to walk a picket line (as president at least), and unions have been recovering some juice during his presidency
Better enforcement: There’s finally funding to go after rich people’s tax crimes, although that hasn’t necessarily changed the culture at the IRS for now. https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/06/how-the-irs-went-soft-on-billionaires-and-corporate-tax-cheats/
Page 20, panel 4: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/21/magazine/heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts.html
Page 21 panel 2: We’re not quite at the point of book burnings yet, but books are already going into dumpsters: https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2024/08/23/new-college-florida-books-dumpser-gender-desantis-rufo/
Writing comics about the economy is not the road to immoderate wealth that one might suppose, which is why I have a day job writing about medicine. So when I started reading about how vitamin D can help with COVID-19, I wound up making this:
(This was made in early 2021; now it’s late 2021, and it holds up pretty well. This meta-analysis [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8557713/pdf/12937_2021_Article_744.pdf] says that there’s no statistical effect, but it includes four sub-analyses, each of which are right on the statistical line–clearly there is an effect, and they just happened to cut the data in a way that juuuuust failed to show it four times. Also, that study confuses odds ratio and relative risk, so I’m not sold on their statistical chops.)
