Writing

Since 2015 I have been a book critic and contributor at Commonweal, “a review of religion, politics, and culture edited by lay Catholics,” where I write on economics, public policy, and Catholic social thought. I officially joined the masthead as Contributing Writer in 2020. Below are links to pieces I have had published in the print magazine and as online features:

• “Taking On Union-Busting: Jennifer Abruzzo Is One of the Star Recruits of the Biden Administration” (published in the November 2023 issue as “A Star Recruit: Under Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB Is Changing How Labor Law Is Enforced”)

• “The Pandemic Isn’t Over: Why Are Both Parties Pretending That Covid Is Behind Us?” (published in the June 2023 issue as “Waving the White Flag: Why Are Both Parties Pretending That Covid Is Behind Us?“)

• “The Crypto Crackup: Should We Regulate It, Ban It, or Just Let It Burn?” (published in the January 2023 issue)

• “Supersizing Labor Rights: Is California’s New Fast Food Council a Step Toward Sectoral Bargaining?” (published in the October 2022 issue)

• “Too Big to Pluck?: Biden’s ‘Billionaire Tax’” (published in the June 2022 issue)

• “Radicalism Without Revolution,” book review of Radical Sufficiency: Work, Livelihood, and a U.S. Catholic Economic Ethic by Christine Firer Hinze (published in the February 2022 issue)

• “Polanyi-ish,” book review of Freedom From the Market: America’s Fight to Liberate Itself from the Grip of the Invisible Hand by Mike Konczal (published in the July/August 2021 issue)

• “Put Away the Kludges: The Best Child Allowance Policy is the Simplest” (published in the June 2021 issue)

• “Ending the Sabotage: How Democrats Can Restore Federal Labor Law” (published in the March 2021 issue)

• “Trump Can Run Again: How to Make Sure He Doesn't Win in 2024” (published in the December 2020 issue)

• “Keeping Up With China,” book review of One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias (published in the November 2020 issue)

• “Your Money, or Your Life?: What the Debate About Lockdown Measures Gets Wrong” (published in the July/August 2020 issue)

• “Good, But Not Good Enough: Biden, Warren, & Bankruptcy Reform” (published in the April 2020 issue)

• “Is There An Alternative?,” book review of Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World by Branko Milanovic (published in the February 2020 issue)

• “Bringing the Workers on Board: The Catholic Roots of Codetermination” (published in the March 22, 2019 issue)

• “Take These Jobs and Shove ‘Em,” book review of Bulls**t Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber (published in the November 9, 2018 issue)

• “A Problem Only Politics Can Solve,” book review of After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality by Heather Boushey, J. Bradford DeLong, and Marshall Steinbaum (eds.) (published in the January 5, 2018 issue)

• “Results May Vary,” book review of Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank (published in the October 7, 2016 issue)

• “Is Bernie Sanders Anti-Immigrant?” (published online January 24, 2016)

• “A Nobel Prize for Catholic Social Thought?” (published online October 21, 2015)

My other publications include:

• “Hedge Funds Running Catholic Schools on the Side? Socially Responsible Investing and the Economic Ethics of Financing Catholic Higher Education,” in Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought, edited by Bernard G. Prusak and Jennifer Reed-Bouley (Paulist Press, 2023).

• Fratelli tutti Challenges the Utopia of Neoliberalism (The Bias Magazine, January 25, 2021)