A Side Effect of the Booming Job Market: Wage Inequality Is Way Down
Plus: Think Trump Can’t Run Again in 2028? Don’t Be So Sure.
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: Why The Gaetz Defeat Really Matters
Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
BRENT ORRELL: A Side Effect of the Booming Job Market: Wage Inequality Is Way Down
WHEN VOTERS TELL YOU what they are concerned about, believe them. Exit polls from the presidential election the show that the economy ranked first among voters’ concerns at 32 percent, almost three times more than the next closest issue, immigration. A plurality of voters—45 percent—said that their financial situation was worse than four years ago. As many commentators have noted, this concern about the economy seems starkly at odds with actual economic conditions: very low unemployment and inflation that has fallen almost to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. Not too shabby for an economy that has led the world in the post-COVID recovery.
A recently revised 2023 study by MIT’s David Autor and his collaborators, Arindrajit Dube and Annie McGrew, adds to the mystery of the disconnect: Over the past four years, wage inequality has shrunk dramatically.
SONNY BUNCH: Streaming Churn Guide
The Bulwark’s own Tim Miller asked if I had a handy guide of what to watch and where as folks looked for ways to decompress/get away from the news for a few hours every day. And while I always recommend justwatch.com for those of you trying to find a specific viewing object, I realized I did not really have a lineup of shows I’d recommend handy to share. There are so many services and so many offerings that it’s easy to lose track of it all. To get overwhelmed.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Sarah Longwell and Jonathan V. Last: The Lonely Boy Club [YouTube]
Across the Movie Aisle: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Beg to Differ: Humiliation Theater [YouTube]
The Secret Podcast: All the Feelings 🔐
Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.
Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
📣Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here.
Our 🎥YouTube offerings are the free-versions of shows, and they do have ads.
✍️Also: Did you know that every podcast has a transcript for B+ members? Yes! If you’re more a reader than a listener/viewer, open any podcast and the transcript button is beneath the player.
SAM STEIN Interviews Sen. Murphy: I’m Preparing for Dystopia
As Democrats grapple with the threat Donald Trump’s presidency poses and how best to combat it, one of the party’s leading figures isn’t mincing words.
“I’m getting prepared for the worst,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview with The Bulwark. “Which is, you know, arrest warrants for members of Congress, shutdowns of not-for-profit organizations that are trying to cross Donald Trump. I’m legitimately worried about that. . . . I’m crossing my fingers that we will be in some normal world in which I can find some narrow areas of agreement with Trump. But I’m spending most of my time thinking and preparing for dystopia.”
BERIN SZÓKA: Think Trump Can’t Run Again in 2028? Don’t Be So Sure.
“I SUSPECT,” DONALD TRUMP RECENTLY told House Republicans, that “I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.’” What might that something else be?
Some commentators have said that Trump has no real intention of running again, that he is just teasing and trolling, warding off the bad vibes of being a lame duck. Indeed, although he has on many occasions hinted at making another run, Trump has also sometimes said he’s done.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Friday! My Cleveland Browns did not disappoint, and WHAT. A. GAME! Watch these highlights of a beautiful winter AFC North night game basically being played in a snow globe. Al Michaels was dipped in magic waters and was living his best life, as Ray Ratto documents over at Defector writes. He didn’t want it to end! (Me neither.)
Cleveland (and Ohio, for that matter) doesn’t have $4b lying around for a Jimmy Haslam Dome, but he wants one. Domes are antithetical to football around here. It’s a shame to think that, if Haslam gets his way, picturesque and memorable games like last night’s would be no more. Jameis Winston got his first win over Pittsburgh, and that makes him a Brown forever. I don’t make the rules.
It’s that time of year again… For The Bulwark Thanksgiving Cookbook! If you have submitted a recipe to me in year’s past, nothing has changed. But if you have a recipe you want to submit, reply to this email! Read last year’s version to avoid duplicative recipes, but we always want new ones! The 2024 Edition of The Bulwark Thanksgiving Cookbook will be in Overtime early next week.
The proposed cabinet… Is getting pretty full, and Trump has announced his pick for Treasury: Scott Bessent, a South Carolina billionaire, consistent woth the either/or litmus test of “are they obscenely wealthy or a credibly accused sex pest?” but not a New York or Florida pick. Read some of my colleague Marc Caputo’s reporting about Bessent here.
You do that, Florida… And report back to us about de-flouridating water and how that works out for your state. (WaPo).
In the old neighborhoods… Another great Defector read here for you. It’s about Northern Virginia HS football and how a coach and players from a juggernaut in Woodbridge (where I lived until very recently) moved across county lines to Hayfield High School, an opponent you might remember from the movie Remember the Titans, and ended up beclowning the Fairfax County Public School System in the process.
Matt Gaetz is on Cameo… And he’s trying to “bring joy” in this interlude period in his life for $250 a pop. (Justin Baragona, The Independent)
The Iron Man of America’s op-ed pages… George F. Will’s conservative outlook and cheerful erudition have been the hallmarks of an extraordinary career, David Von Drehle writes at The Washington Post. 🎁
Tulsi was on a TSA watch list… “Trump’s intel pick was placed on government watch list for overseas travel and foreign connections”, CNN reports in a scoop by Katie Bo Lillis, Zachary Cohen and our friend and former colleague Holmes Lybrand.
'Terror and fear': Elon Musk opens government workers to harassment after id'ing them on X (Raw Story)
If you’re looking to follow us on BlueSky… Adam Keiper has made an official staff listing, and Holly Berkley-Fletcher one that includes contributors, readers, and friends.
How a Pennsylvania Turnpike redesign could kill — or save — Breezewood (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Team Trump Is Furious Hegseth Hid Sex Assault Claim: ‘This Is the F–king Pentagon!’ (Rolling Stone).
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.