Brian Callaci
@briancallaci.bsky.social
Economist | Union guy | Personal account | He/him
Pinned
Brian Callaci
@briancallaci.bsky.social
· Sep 11
Crassly dipping my toe onto this platform with self-promotion: My book, Chains of Command: The Rise and Cruel Reign of the Franchise Economy now has a beautiful cover, and a release date: April 20th. So you'll have something to enjoy with your 4/20 Taco Bell order! bookshop.org/p/books/chai...
Reposted by Brian Callaci
In which Brett nicely sums up the relationship between union organizers and union lawyers
Haha horrible. You people are insufferable.
August 25, 2026 at 12:58 AM
In which Brett nicely sums up the relationship between union organizers and union lawyers
Reposted by Brian Callaci
Franchising is sold as the American dream: own your business, be your own boss.
@briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else.
🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn
@briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else.
🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn
August 25, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Franchising is sold as the American dream: own your business, be your own boss.
@briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else.
🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn
@briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else.
🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn
He is a character from some Charles Portis/Mark Twain novel. Truly one of those "only in America" personalities.
Those poor kids are missing out on a hell of a story. My franchise law group did a franchise trivia game and there was a whole category devoted just to that man’s adventures.
Finger lickin transcendent.
August 5, 2026 at 5:41 PM
He is a character from some Charles Portis/Mark Twain novel. Truly one of those "only in America" personalities.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
great odd lots episode with @briancallaci.bsky.social discussing the making of the franchise model.
How Franchise Restaurants Opened the Door to the Gig Economy
Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · July 24 · 45m
podcasts.apple.com
July 26, 2026 at 12:01 AM
great odd lots episode with @briancallaci.bsky.social discussing the making of the franchise model.
Started a new in-office job today. My wife is texting me photos of how the dog is handling it
July 14, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Started a new in-office job today. My wife is texting me photos of how the dog is handling it
Reposted by Brian Callaci
The impact of AI on jobs is uncertain.
What is certain: assessment of job-creation/destruction by tech company CEOs should be heavily discounted, or ignored altogether.
Tech CEOs have no insights in labor economics, and have bad incentives on this issue.
What is certain: assessment of job-creation/destruction by tech company CEOs should be heavily discounted, or ignored altogether.
Tech CEOs have no insights in labor economics, and have bad incentives on this issue.
July 12, 2026 at 11:48 PM
The impact of AI on jobs is uncertain.
What is certain: assessment of job-creation/destruction by tech company CEOs should be heavily discounted, or ignored altogether.
Tech CEOs have no insights in labor economics, and have bad incentives on this issue.
What is certain: assessment of job-creation/destruction by tech company CEOs should be heavily discounted, or ignored altogether.
Tech CEOs have no insights in labor economics, and have bad incentives on this issue.
Brings into relief the very dumb discourse that No Kings was "bigger than the civil rights marches." NK was good, but there's a qualitative difference b/t CR marches as demonstrations of deep organization and force and NK's loose one-off mobilizations.
July 9, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Brings into relief the very dumb discourse that No Kings was "bigger than the civil rights marches." NK was good, but there's a qualitative difference b/t CR marches as demonstrations of deep organization and force and NK's loose one-off mobilizations.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
I don’t think "Dem HR ladies" is labor coded or working class aligned. It comes from the same place everything that is terrible in the last two years has come from. The backlash to the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.
July 8, 2026 at 11:05 AM
I don’t think "Dem HR ladies" is labor coded or working class aligned. It comes from the same place everything that is terrible in the last two years has come from. The backlash to the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
A lot of HR haters on this thread. HR serves the executive & board and always acts in institutional interest not employee interest. The animus of “HR lady” is precisely anger at the overlap of employee and employer interest in preventing sexual misconduct. It’s not about “the man” it’s about the dog
he's not wrong about the implicit vibes but again I'm wondering how many people saying this have ever had to actually deal with HR in a big company/on a non management level
I saw one guy start his take on this with "as an executive" and I'm like yeah I bet you love having HR do your dirty work
I saw one guy start his take on this with "as an executive" and I'm like yeah I bet you love having HR do your dirty work
I don’t think "Dem HR ladies" is labor coded or working class aligned. It comes from the same place everything that is terrible in the last two years has come from. The backlash to the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.
July 8, 2026 at 12:45 PM
A lot of HR haters on this thread. HR serves the executive & board and always acts in institutional interest not employee interest. The animus of “HR lady” is precisely anger at the overlap of employee and employer interest in preventing sexual misconduct. It’s not about “the man” it’s about the dog
Reposted by Brian Callaci
Palestinian pediatrician, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, has spent 18 months in Israeli prisons without trial or charge. His lawyer reports his life is in immediate danger, following torture and poor treatment in prison.
He must be released immediately.
He must be released immediately.
Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says
Hussam Abu Safiya faces ‘tangible danger to his life’ following 18 months in prison without charge or trial
www.theguardian.com
July 7, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Palestinian pediatrician, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, has spent 18 months in Israeli prisons without trial or charge. His lawyer reports his life is in immediate danger, following torture and poor treatment in prison.
He must be released immediately.
He must be released immediately.
My dad had a middle finger rubber stamp he used to reject management contract proposals. One time my little brother (maybe with some sibling help) stamped his whole body in ink before we walked to school.
Always a special day when I can pull the box with Walter Reuther’s carved wooden hand. From the @uaw.org’s archives here at the @reutherlibrary.bsky.social. Learn more: youtube.com/shorts/_9o31...
July 7, 2026 at 3:32 PM
My dad had a middle finger rubber stamp he used to reject management contract proposals. One time my little brother (maybe with some sibling help) stamped his whole body in ink before we walked to school.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
I spoke to @newleftreview.bsky.social about the political economy of climate: supply chain geoeconomics, why Biden’s signature climate policy didn’t stick, political weakness of green capitalism, Chinese industrial policies, global South resource nationalism &more newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
Thea Riofrancos, The New World Climate Order, NLR 159, May–June 2026
An interview about the new parameters of climate politics, with the breakdown of global consensus. As the EU re-opens coal-fired plants and the US shuts down wind farms, China gouges the earth to chur...
newleftreview.org
July 6, 2026 at 1:36 PM
I spoke to @newleftreview.bsky.social about the political economy of climate: supply chain geoeconomics, why Biden’s signature climate policy didn’t stick, political weakness of green capitalism, Chinese industrial policies, global South resource nationalism &more newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...
Reposted by Brian Callaci
greedflation theory (sophisticated version) explains a lot
July 1, 2026 at 12:16 AM
greedflation theory (sophisticated version) explains a lot
Reposted by Brian Callaci
Protecting workers from #fissuring requires enforcing #jointemployment. Thanks to @timothynoah.bsky.social @newrepublic.bsky.social & @briancallaci.bsky.social for making the case. newrepublic.com/article/2124... @crampell.bsky.social @epi.org
How Trump Plans to Crush Fast-Food Workers
Franchising is usually a racket. Now it will be more of one.
newrepublic.com
June 30, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Protecting workers from #fissuring requires enforcing #jointemployment. Thanks to @timothynoah.bsky.social @newrepublic.bsky.social & @briancallaci.bsky.social for making the case. newrepublic.com/article/2124... @crampell.bsky.social @epi.org
With deviations correlated with being venomous. We are all 7 y/o boys.
Reptiles with longer Wikipedia pages tend to be bigger. The relationship is a power law with exponent = 0.85. I guess humans really like writing about big lizards? The longest article is the Komodo Dragon.
June 25, 2026 at 4:11 PM
With deviations correlated with being venomous. We are all 7 y/o boys.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
The Spurs told ESPN that Jalen Brunson is going to have patch things up with San Antonio following last weeks finals victory
The House minority leader told CNN the mayor is going to have to patch things up with congressional Democrats follow Tuesday's primary upsets.
Top Democrat Seems Sour After Mamdani-Backed Candidates Oust House Incumbents
The House minority leader told CNN the mayor is going to have to patch things up with congressional Democrats follow Tuesday's primary upsets.
www.huffpost.com
June 24, 2026 at 7:20 PM
The Spurs told ESPN that Jalen Brunson is going to have patch things up with San Antonio following last weeks finals victory
Reposted by Brian Callaci
Sociologist C Wright Mills had a term for such ideologically blinkered “centrists” back in the days of the Cold War: Crackpot Realism.
Representatives Goldman and Espaillat really should have moderated their extreme views on Israel-Palestine policy, views which are increasingly out of step with their constituents and American voters in general. The price of not getting out of your “ideological bubble”
June 24, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Sociologist C Wright Mills had a term for such ideologically blinkered “centrists” back in the days of the Cold War: Crackpot Realism.
Reposted by Brian Callaci
went down to the centrist convention. they’re all shaking and crying, I heard one guy say “I’m starting to think a better world IS possible.” the lady next to him slapped him in the face
June 24, 2026 at 3:32 AM
went down to the centrist convention. they’re all shaking and crying, I heard one guy say “I’m starting to think a better world IS possible.” the lady next to him slapped him in the face
Reposted by Brian Callaci
We could have had a very different rollout of LLMs than we actually did.
It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful.
Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.
It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful.
Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.
June 22, 2026 at 10:01 PM
We could have had a very different rollout of LLMs than we actually did.
It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful.
Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.
It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful.
Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.
Have to give Greenspan this: with his "traumatized workers" analysis of the declining influence of low unemployment on wages and inflation, he understood the institutional-political determination of reserve army/NAIRU dynamics better than most.
June 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Have to give Greenspan this: with his "traumatized workers" analysis of the declining influence of low unemployment on wages and inflation, he understood the institutional-political determination of reserve army/NAIRU dynamics better than most.
This is the entire story of the post-1980 period: GDP growth never recovered pre-1974 growth rates, but profits, stock prices surpassed anything seen since WWII. Misleading the well-off to believe we were in a time of wider prosperity than we were.
The NYT Alan Greenspan obituary says he oversaw "a period of immense wealth creation." In reality, his time at the Fed from 1987-2006 was a period of average GDP growth — BUT the growth that there was flooded to America's richest people, making them think it was a period of immense wealth creation.
June 22, 2026 at 3:23 PM
This is the entire story of the post-1980 period: GDP growth never recovered pre-1974 growth rates, but profits, stock prices surpassed anything seen since WWII. Misleading the well-off to believe we were in a time of wider prosperity than we were.
Working on presentations for book talks, so going back to my files for visuals. These are Dunkin' Donuts brochures from the 1960s. Amazing that franchisors (and related businesses) have avoided joint employer liability for this long.
June 22, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Working on presentations for book talks, so going back to my files for visuals. These are Dunkin' Donuts brochures from the 1960s. Amazing that franchisors (and related businesses) have avoided joint employer liability for this long.