Sandeep Vaheesan
@sandeepvaheesan
Legal director @openmarkets. Fellow @cplusci. Advisory council @PeoplesParity. Former @CFPB. All opinions are my own.
1. My book Democracy in Power is out today! It examines the history of cooperative and public power in the United States and lays out one possible future. I’m indebted to so many people for their encouragement, support, and wisdom. I’ll highlight a few. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…
In some cases, we'll see pivots from dismissing the American-Israeli destruction of the Palestinian people as the "omnicause" (and demanding people obsess over zoning rules instead) to "maybe sometimes intentionally starving people is bad"
I imagine lots of Vox cinematic universe writers who tried to maintain strategic ambiguity on the genocide in Gaza are whipping up famine explainers right now
The Bush-Obama refusal to help millions of distressed homeowners started this trend, and AirBnB accelerated it
WOW: New California Home Ownership Data - Nearly 20% of homes in California are owned by investors - Investors purchased 26.8% of all residential property sales during the first quarter of 2025 - Sierra County has a whopping 82% of single-family houses owned by investors -…
Gaza was a crime before the war, a legal black hole where people lived and died without basic rights or sovereignty, with Israel (with help from bribed Egypt) keeping a stranglehold on the perimeter and approving/disapproving every item or human being to cross in or out.
Point 3 is very important and captures why the "just and reasonable" standard for prices is better than "low prices at any cost" The public has a clear interest in affordable goods and services but also in decent wages, safe workplaces, and freedom from corporate domination
Sure thing. 1) The theory is laid out in Inderst/Valletti and Inderst/Dobson but I frankly don’t have an opinion on that (nor am I talking about Costco specifically). What I’m saying is based on four years of conversations with at least two major wholesalers that supply…
There is an annoying habit where wonks import (often outdated) economic notions of "efficiency" and "welfare" into policy evaluation, imposing onto democratically enacted laws criteria that were and are foreign to the actual intent of those laws.
Sure thing. 1) The theory is laid out in Inderst/Valletti and Inderst/Dobson but I frankly don’t have an opinion on that (nor am I talking about Costco specifically). What I’m saying is based on four years of conversations with at least two major wholesalers that supply…
To understand how @ZohranKMamdani won the mayoral primary by a full 12 points last month, it helps to understand how tenants like Ferdousi Begum and Parveg Hasan decided to go on the offensive against real estate. My first for @nybooks, learned so much! nybooks.com/online/2025/07…
. . . and has been for nearly 22 months
The United States is abetting a world-historic atrocity nytimes.com/2025/07/24/wor…
probably because American media decided inventing a controversy over a socialist not saying but also not condemning “globalize the intifada” was more important than focusing on the daily massacres of starving people that we are funding
I didn’t realize it was this grim.
all the worst people rushing at once to create an alibi, really bad sign of what's around the corner x.com/bariweiss/stat…
The price of flour shows the growing hunger crisis in Gaza. Important from @AmitSegal in @TheFP: thefp.com/p/the-price-of…
With respect, Israel broke the last ceasefire and imposed a siege on Gaza that has led to the current deadly famine. One million children and their families are starving because Israel is restricting aid delivery. And Israel is still refusing a ceasefire that would end the war.
Gaza is on the brink of mass starvation. Israel, the U.S. and the international community must collaborate to ensure a massive surge of humanitarian relief immediately. This war must end. And let’s be clear: Hamas could end it today if they wanted to. Israel has agreed to a…
The racism of much of the center-left has also been hard to ignore: Tears for Ukrainian children killed by Russian bombs and cruel indifference toward the many, many more Palestinian children killed by American bombs
Always glad to see anyone wake up, but it’s an absolute indictment of the center-left, such as it is, that it took pics of dying, skeletal babies w trash bags for diapers to muster this pale response. Subtext: we can stomach mass bombings, but starvation is a bridge too far.
How far India has fallen over the past 40 years
India was the first non-Arab country to recognise Palestine as a state back in the ‘80s.
Always glad to see anyone wake up, but it’s an absolute indictment of the center-left, such as it is, that it took pics of dying, skeletal babies w trash bags for diapers to muster this pale response. Subtext: we can stomach mass bombings, but starvation is a bridge too far.
Fascinating shift on Israel in the last few days from a very wide range of center-left politicians & voices that had previously defended the country’s conduct
We, the public, are allowed to pass laws that reflect our values. There is no "efficiency" veto over democratically enacted laws. As an *economist*, I am qualified to assess outcomes. I am not qualified to determine what the goals of policy should be.
A reminder: framing homelessness as a problem of mental illness or addiction has been politically manufactured to divert attention from its *actual* causes—skyrocketing rents, poverty wages, gutted social supports—and to justify the removal of homeless people from public space.
An excellent statement by J W Mason: "A broader point, which I'm struggling to articulate, is that it's the very enormity of Israel's actions that calls forth such extreme defenses from its friends. Something that's objectionable can be defended; but the only defense of the…
Israel cutoff electricity to Gaza in 2023. The annihilatory intent of Israeli officials was obvious in public statements. Journalists and aid workers murdered, hospitals destroyed. Nothing new is happening, just a continuation of the same horrors. x.com/DavidKlion/sta…
It’s chilling to watch the people who have cheerled this famine-genocide for two years finally acknowledge the predictable consequences. They sense how history will record this and they want to whitewash their own role in making it happen.
I'll add two things to the Robinson-Patman Act discourse - Imposing a market power requirement is a way of turning the law into a dead letter - Suppliers can show price discrimination in favor of large buyers is cost justified. If they can't substantiate that, that's on them.
Muddled? You’re citing to a guy whose first source is a *chatbot* that *he prompted.* Billionaire big box stores have the power to force their suppliers to cut them secret deals that stick their competitors with higher prices. That power also lets them jack up their own prices…
Read this very carefully: *One quarter* of all the people who have died of starvation in Gaza over the past 22 months have died in the past *3 days*
Sinn Féin President @MaryLouMcDonald is not afraid to speak truth to power. I am grateful for her commitment to ending the genocide in Gaza. May we live to see a free Palestine and a United Ireland. 🇵🇸🇮🇪