Mike Konczal

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Mike Konczal is the Senior Director of Policy and Research at the Economic Security Project, where he oversees policy development, research, and strategic analysis to advance its ideas. Previously, he served as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Chief Economist for the National Economic Council. He was an early hire at the Roosevelt Institute, leading major projects on financial reform, inequality, economic ideas, and macroeconomics. He authored Freedom from the Market: America’s Fight to Liberate Itself from the Grip of the Invisible Hand, and co-authored Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy with Joseph Stiglitz. Mike is a respected voice in U.S. economic discourse, frequently cited in media outlets, and has provided testimony before Congress. His writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and more, with appearances including CBS Sunday Morning, Planet Money, Washington Journal, and elsewhere.

He enjoys making informative graphics for the monthly economic data releases.

Show the code 
library(tidyverse)
library(httr)
library(data.table)
library(magrittr)
library(ggridges)
library(lubridate)
library(janitor)
library(viridis)
library(scales)

cpi_data <- GET("https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/cu/cu.data.0.Current", user_agent("rortybomb@gmail.com")) %>%
  content(as = "text") %>%
  fread()
cpi_data <- cpi_data %>% clean_names()
cpi_data$value <- as.numeric(cpi_data$value)
cpi_data$series_id <- str_trim(cpi_data$series_id)
cpi_data$date <- paste(substr(cpi_data$period, 2,3), "01", substr(cpi_data$year, 3, 4), sep="/")
cpi_data$date <- as.Date(cpi_data$date, "%m/%d/%y")

series <- GET("https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/cu/cu.series", user_agent("rortybomb@gmail.com")) %>%
  content(as = "text") %>%
  fread()
series <- series %>% clean_names()
series$series_id <- str_trim(series$series_id)

items <- GET("https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/cu/cu.item", user_agent("rortybomb@gmail.com")) %>%
  content(as = "text") %>%
  fread()
series <- inner_join(series, items, by = c("item_code"))
cpi_data <- inner_join(cpi_data, series, by = c("series_id"))

cpi_weights <- read_csv(file = "data/inflation_weights.csv") %>% select(-year_weight)

cpi_data <- inner_join(cpi_data, cpi_weights, by = c("item_name"))
cpi_weights <- read_csv(file = "data/inflation_weights_2023.csv") %>% select(item_name, weight_2023 = weight, year = year_weight)
cpi_data <- left_join(cpi_data, cpi_weights, by = c("item_name", "year"))

cpi_data$weight <- ifelse(!is.na(cpi_data$weight_2023),cpi_data$weight_2023,cpi_data$weight)

### Make the graphic ###
median_terms <- read_csv("data/mediancpi_component_table.csv") %>% mutate(item_name = Component)

median <- cpi_data %>%  filter(item_name %in% median_terms$item_name | item_name == "Owners' equivalent rent of residences") %>%
  filter(period != "M13", seasonal == "S") %>%
  arrange(date) %>%
  group_by(item_name) %>%
  mutate(Pchange3 = (value/lag(value, 3)-1)) %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  group_by(date) %>%
  mutate(normalized = sum(weight)) %>%
  mutate(weightN = weight/normalized) %>%
  arrange(Pchange3) %>%
  mutate(cumsum = cumsum(weight)/100) %>%
  mutate(cumsumN = cumsum(weightN)) %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  mutate(Pchange3a = (1+Pchange3)^4-1)

start_month <- month(max(median$date))
quarters <- ((seq(start_month, start_month + 9, by=3) - 1) %% 12) + 1

#THIS IS THE GRAPHIC - 30 percent-trimmed distribution
median %>% mutate(dateF = as.factor(date)) %>%
  filter(cumsumN <= 0.85 & cumsum >= 0.15) %>%
  mutate(Pchange3a = (1+Pchange3)^4-1) %>%
  filter(date >= "2018-06-01") %>%
  filter(date != "2020-06-01") %>%
  filter(month(date) %in% quarters) %>%
  mutate(monthC = format(date, "%B, %Y")) %>%
  mutate(monthC = fct_reorder(monthC,date)) %>%
  mutate(monthCR = fct_rev(monthC)) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = Pchange3a, y = monthCR, fill = stat(x))) +
  geom_density_ridges_gradient() +
  scale_fill_viridis(option = "H") +
  theme_ridges() +
  theme(legend.position = "none") +
  scale_x_continuous(labels = percent) +
  labs(title="Price Inflation Distribution Returning Back",
       x="Three Month Percent Change", y="", caption="OER is treated as one value.\nMike Konczal, Roosevelt Institute") +
  theme(plot.title.position = "plot", legend.position = "none", legend.title = element_blank(),
        plot.title = element_text(size = 20,margin=margin(0,0,5,0)),
        plot.subtitle = element_text(size=13),
        plot.caption = element_text(size=10, face="italic"),
        axis.text.y = element_text(size=12, face="bold"),
        axis.text.x = element_text(size=12))

This is the distribution of the Cleveland Fed’s Median/Trimmed-Mean CPI price basket, using 3-month change annualized, with components whose expenditure weights fall above/below the 85/15th percentile of price changes removed. It moved out during the reopening, but is moving back now.

Here are some of the latest things I’ve been doing; you can find the full list of research, writings, and media around this website.

Date Outlet Title Type
March 14, 2025 Democracy Journal The Abundance Doctrine Book Review
March 04, 2025 House Subcommittee Testimony Examining Monetary Policy and Economic Opportunity Testimony White Paper
September 14, 2023 Planet Money Wait, Did We Really Need To Raise Rates? Podcast
September 08, 2023 Roosevelt Institute Supply-Side Expansion Has Driven the Decline In Inflation White Paper
April 28, 2023 The Nation The Revolutionary Potential Of the Inflation Reduction Act Article
March 28, 2023 Why Is This Happening? Wth Happened At Silicon Valley Bank? Podcast

I’m often cited and quoted in coverage around the economy. Here’s some recent examples, with the full list here.

Date Outlet Title
March 04, 2025 Reuters Fed's Tools, Goals Under the Microscope As Us House Task Force Gets Underway
March 04, 2025 New York Times A Global Trade War Raises Fears Of Higher Inflation and Slower Growth.
March 22, 2024 Bloomberg Biden Taps New Advisers Focused On China, Inflation In 2024
March 22, 2024 Politico Bah-Bah-Bah-Bah-Bah-Basketball!
January 10, 2024 The Economist Has Team Transitory Really Won America's Inflation Debate?
December 01, 2023 Washington Post Biden Turns Up Pressure On Corporate 'Price Gouging' As 2024 Nears

Praise for Freedom From the Market:

“The Roosevelt Institute’s Konczal is one of the warriors in this fight, arguing fiercely for the need to set much narrower limits on what is left to markets than has been the case in recent decades. A powerful polemic.”
— Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“By identifying an alternative grammar, one that is grounded in the American past, Freedom from the Market provides a way out of the political cul-de-sac created by the failure of the market to deliver on its promises of ‘freedom.’”
— Molly Michelmore, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

“Freedom from the Market is an impressive book, easily one of the best I’ve read in the past several years. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
— Matt Mazewski, Commonweal

“terrific book.”
— Jamelle Bouie, New York Times

“Markets will set us free—except when they won’t, don’t, can’t. In this deeply researched yet eminently readable book, Mike Konczal tells the powerful forgotten story of how American democracy once tamed markets to advance our freedom, and shows us how it could do so once again.”
— Jacob Hacker, Yale University.

“Freedom from the Market has the potential to be a very important book, focusing attention on the contested, messy but crucially important intersection between social movements and the state. It provides a set of ideas that people on both sides of that divide can learn from, and a lively alternative foundation to the deracinated technocratic notions of politics, in which good policy would somehow, magically, be politically self supporting, that has prevailed up until quite recently. Strongly recommended.”
— Henry Farrell, Crooked Timber