Author of the NYT best seller The Middle-Class New Deal | University of Texas at Austin School of Law prof | @TexasLonghorns faculty athletics representative
Austin, Texas
Joined July 2009
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The affordability crisis affects all generations, but some much more than others. Enjoyed the opportunity to discuss economic mobility across generations at the #AspenIdeasEconomy in Tulsa: youtube.com/watch?v=0yyBEm7B…
Happy to share that @YaleLJournal Forum just published "Rights, Risks, and Student-Athlete Employment” : yalelawjournal.org/essay/rig…. I explore the employment model & argue that it (like prior "fixes") is incomplete & won't resolve existing financial tensions in college sports.
Headed soon to @aspenideas to discuss the affordability crisis & what political leaders can do to cultivate the middle class & create a path to economic security to help people get a college education (if they want one), a stable job & affordable housing. aspenideas.org/sessions/what…
Mechele Dickerson retweeted
Later this month in Tulsa, our President and CEO @ewwilkins joins @JonahDispatch, @amdickerson, and @stacyleeds at @aspenideas to ask what it takes to build a middle-class life today, as the affordability crisis exposes the structural inequalities holding back working families.
Learn more: aspenideas.org/sessions/what…
ALT The image is a promotional poster for the Aspen Ideas Economy Tulsa 2026 Event Speaker. It features a person with short hair, wearing glasses and a purple blazer. The name "Elizabeth Wilkins" is displayed, with the title "President & CEO | The Roosevelt Institute" below. The background is a gradient of blue, pink, and orange.
A lot to unpack here re: the value labor markets place on certain jobs & workers, AI, the ROI for a college degree, fertility rates, the shrinking middle class, etc. Political leaders need to review these data then propose ways to solve the many problems this chart implicates.
A Nor'easter won't stop me from discussing my book at the Brooklyn Book Festival! I got to see Leah (@PressShopPR) at an author reception. She taught me how to get my views/proposals in front of people who can help restore the American middle class.
Mechele Dickerson retweeted
If the status quo isn't working, what can we do to fix it? I'll be at @bkbf on Sept 27 with @MecheleDickerson debating her plan to rebuild the middle class and my case for replacing politicians with ordinary citizens. The amazing corporate governance specialist @shaan_haan will moderate. 11am, Brooklyn Law School. It's free, and I'll be signing some books afterwards.
brooklynbookfestival.org/eve…
Next Sunday, I'll be at @brooklynlaw discussing my book (& more) with Hélène Landemore (@landemore) at the @bkbookfest. I'll explain why political leaders must rethink the gov't's role in tackling the affordability crisis & restoring upward mobility for the middle class. #BKBF
I'm honored to have the opportunity to discuss affordability issues & the challenges facing the American middle class at the @texasbookfest. Just learned I'll be talking Saturday 11/14 at 10:15-11. So excited!
And (as I discuss in a forthcoming paper) even in profitable athletics depts, football is ~ engineering/business. The other teams? More ~ classics/music/religion/gender studies. Clearly valuable but subsidized & operate at a deficit. To “fix” a problem we must honestly define it.
The “94% of athletic departments lose money” statistic is doing a lot of work here.
Athletics is, in this respect, exactly like the math department. The university does not ordinarily ask whether mathematics “generated enough revenue” to cover the salaries, classrooms, scholarships, and administrative costs associated with teaching math. It decides the activity advances the institution’s mission and subsidizes it accordingly.
That does not mean athletics spending is beyond criticism. It means “athletics revenue minus athletics expenses” is a fairly strange way to determine whether the expenditure is worthwhile.
And PCSA’s response to concern about those deficits is especially curious: impose additional medical, scholarship, roster, administrative, and reporting obligations that CBO says will themselves cost institutions tens of millions of dollars annually.
When I’m not obsessing about the affordability crisis, I’m usually watching a UT Austin athletics event. Watching our smart, talented and overall amazing student-athletes helps distract me from the dreary economic news that I consume most of the time🤘
Longhorn spirit comes in many forms 🤘
From games and team travel to study halls and student meetings, faculty athletics representative Mechele Dickerson is there to understand the student-athlete experience firsthand and advocate for their academic success.
Read Mechele’s story here - utex.as/4gWKRfm🧡
I discuss here marketwatch.com/story/the-tr… how the affordability crisis is really hurting young adults & why they need to ask political leaders at every level (local, state and federal) what ONE thing that will do to make it easier for young adults to become and remain middle class
In my #SundayCivics interview (sundaycivics.org/episodes/ep…) I urge voters to ask politicians as we approach midterm elections how their policies will forge pathways to the middle class by creating full-time jobs w/ predictable pay & benefits and by lowering housing & childcare costs
We have a middle class affordability crisis, parents can’t afford childcare & birth rates are plunging (even in Utah). The answer isn’t stripping childcare subsidies from working families to advance an agenda that says moms shouldn’t work outside the home.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/us/po…
When you’re a law professor who teaches/writes about civ pro, remedies, and college athletics you can’t afford to go offline these days. The good part is that colleges/coaches and courts are writing my class hypos for me!!!
I'm not commenting on the NCAA/SEC/B10 stuff b/c I've got to prep to teach civ pro tomorrow. I just wish more commentators (incl. practitioners) were like @EdLawDude & posted about how procedural rules are written/work rather than about outcomes the law just doesn't support.
Long day and cranky, but bullshit.
This conflates two entirely different meanings of “participation.” The words “with it” are doing real work.
La. C.C.P. art. 3605 does not bind everyone who participates in NCAA-sanctioned athletics. It reaches a nonparty that assists the NCAA in violating the TRO or is legally identified with it. NCAA membership, common policy interests, and an affidavit in a different case do not establish that.
The plaintiffs can certainly file a contempt motion. But if the SEC independently adopts and enforces its own conference rule, they will need to sue the SEC and challenge that rule. Otherwise, this theory would allow a TRO against one defendant to bind every conference and school without notice or an opportunity to defend itself.
I can answer that question: the rapid growth of pay-later loans is driven by desperation, not consumer preference. America's middle-class NEVER "wants" to go in debt to pay daily living expenses.
nytimes.com/2026/08/17/busin…
Having had the pleasure of discussing middle-class affordability issues with both @Team_Harbaugh & @fpwellman on their podcasts, it was a joy to watch them discuss affordability (and more) with each other!
A combat vet takes on an incumbent who grew rich in a job you're not supposed to get rich in, while claiming the ladder got pulled up behind her.
@fpwellman
Watch full video here: thekenharbaughshow.substack.…
Follow The Ken Harbaugh Show here: linktr.ee/thekenharbaughshow
ATTN: political leaders - affordability is the defining issue for young voters. Stagnant income, student loans, un/under-employment & unaffordable housing makes it hard for them to form their own households. Not great for them & awful for the economy.
jchs.harvard.edu/blog/afford…
As one who writes about & cares deeply about America’s middle class, today’s job numbers are truly depressing. You know it's bad when labor economists call today's news weak, bleak, and surprisingly bad. Life is rough for folks who are just trying make ends meet.
JUST IN: A surprisingly bad job report. The US economy LOST -23,000 jobs in July (way below expectations of +80k). May and June were revised DOWN by a combined -103,000.
Unemployment rate: 4.1% ->This went down for the WRONG reasons. Over 260,000 left the labor force
Wage growth: 3.2% -->this is entirely wiped out by inflation
