Brian Callaci

New York, Peekskill

Chief Economist at Open Markets Institute

Chief Economist @openmarkets | Sometime adjunct @JJayEcon | Formerly @WorkersUnited and @TheSOC | 100% a personal account | he/him

Articles

To Get Abundance, We Need to Discipline Capital

1 week ago | jacobin.com | Brian Callaci

Amid the mutual recriminations inside the Democratic Party about how Americans could have elected Donald Trump to a second term, one theory has risen to prominence: President Joe Biden’s industrial policy, codified in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS Act, failed to go far or move fast enough to bring tangible improvements in the lives of the electorate.
Big fast-food squeezes workers and franchisees alike - Capitol Weekly

Mar 28, 2025 | capitolweekly.net | Brian Callaci

Opinion by BRIAN CALLACI posted 03.28.2025 OPINION – April 1 marks the first anniversary of a historic victory for California’s fast-food workers, the establishment of a $20/hr minimum wage for the industry.
Tenants on the March: An Interview With Cea Weaver

Mar 3, 2025 | dissentmagazine.org | Andrew Elrod |Ned Resnikoff |Brian Callaci |Sandeep Vaheesan

Tenants on the March: An Interview With Cea Weaver “Organizing tenants has the potential to shape the political landscape for decades to come.” &squarf; Winter 2025 In many parts of the country, rising rents have hit a political limit, as politicians, unions, and community organizations increasingly recognize the centrality of housing to the cost-of-living crisis.
Supply and the Housing Crisis: A Debate

Jan 13, 2025 | dissentmagazine.org | Ned Resnikoff |Brian Callaci |Sandeep Vaheesan |Michael Brown

Supply and the Housing Crisis: A Debate How do we achieve housing for all? , and &squarf; Winter 2025 After decades of relative stagnation, American housing policy is now several years into a period of radical change and experimentation. In California, where I am policy director for the state-level organization California YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard), city planners will often gripe (with, I have to admit, some justification) that state housing law is changing too quickly for them to keep up.
Open Markets Lauds the Justice Department for Ramping Up RealPage Lawsuit to Include Landlords Engaged in Price-Fixing — Open Markets Institute

Jan 9, 2025 | openmarketsinstitute.org | Brian Callaci

Washington, DC – In response the Department of Justice and state co-plaintiffs filing an amended complaint in its lawsuit against real estate software provider RealPage for orchestrating a price-fixing cartel via algorithm, Open Markets Institute Chief Economist Brian Callaci issued the following statement: “Yesterday, the Department of Justice took a major step towards protecting renters from price-gouging by landlords using RealPage to jointly set rents by amending its complaint to bring...
Rent control is inflation control, and Atlanta is ground zero

Dec 3, 2024 | ajc.com | Brian Callaci

Inflation brought Donald Trump back to the White House, or at least aided his reelection chances. In the United States, consumer price inflation was, in part, rent inflation. Smart rent control laws could have kept growth in housing costs in check and curbed overall inflation. Corporate power is an important contributor to exploding rents. In Atlanta and many other cities across the country, software firm RealPage operates as a cartel manager for property managers and owners.
The Market Alone Can’t Fix the U.S. Housing Crisis

Sep 12, 2024 | hbr.org | Brian Callaci |Sandeep Vaheesan

Unaffordable housing is a drag on regional and national economies. In areas where housing costs are high, employers end up effectively transferring significant sums to landlords as the cost of attracting talent. But what will it take to fix this problem? Will market-based solutions suffice? If not, what kinds of interventions are necessary? Recent research shows that the market itself needs to be fixed.
Joseph Stiglitz and the Limits of Liberal Freedom

Jul 3, 2024 | jacobin.com | Brian Callaci

The economist Joseph Stiglitz has always occupied an odd position within the mainstream of his discipline.
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United And The Fight For $15

May 1, 2024 | popularresistance.org | Brian Callaci

Above photo: McDonald’s workers protest outside a store in Oakland in 2014. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. The National Labor Relations Act still functions, just barely, for Starbucks workers. Employees at fast-food franchises face even worse odds under federal labor law.
Lessons From Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15

Apr 30, 2024 | portside.org | Brian Callaci

Lessons From Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15 Published April 30, 2024 On February 27, after over two years of gutsy and strategic organizing, Starbucks Workers United forced Starbucks to surrender to its workers’ wishes and recognize their legal right to a union under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).