Open Markets Institute and Revolving Door Project Debunk the “Abundance” Agenda & Propose Alternative, Shared-Power & Prosperity Approach
The Open Markets Institute and the Revolving Door Project released a comprehensive joint report on the policy underpinnings of the so-called “abundance agenda,” an economic agenda popularized by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their recent book Abundance.
At a time when wealth disparities in the United States have reached historic levels, the report exposes how the Abundance platform sidesteps the root causes of inequality and enables the further consolidation of corporate power—undermining the very democratic and egalitarian values it claims to champion.
“Behind the movement’s rhetoric about ‘building’ lies a dangerous deference to corporate power, deregulation, and trickle-down thinking,” said Brian Callaci, Chief Economist of the Open Markets Institute and one of the report’s co-authors. “True, democratic abundance, by contrast, means vigorous anti-trust enforcement, protecting working people, and ensuring that the benefits of growth are shared by all—not just the wealthiest few.”
“At a time of widespread anger at economic inequality, people are yearning for left-populist policies to redistribute the wealth and power that billionaires have hoarded during the neoliberal era,” said Kenny Stancil Revolving Door Project Senior Researcher and report co-author. “[T]he abundance agenda misdiagnoses the causes of scarcity, and its deregulatory approach is incapable of solving the crises it purports to address.”
Rather than weakening public safeguards in pursuit of growth, the Open Markets-Revolving Door Project report outlines an alternative path toward genuine abundance—rooted in the democratic legacy of the New Deal. This vision calls for robust regulation of corporate power, large-scale public investment in housing and infrastructure, strong labor rights, environmental protections, and economic policies that prioritize people over profit.
The joint analysis critiques several core pillars of the Abundance agenda, including:
Land Use Deregulation Without Tenant Protections: While land use reform can play a role in expanding housing supply, the report shows that without strong tenant protections, public investment, and rent stabilization, wholesale deregulation fails to achieve housing justice and risks fueling suburban sprawl as private equity firms increasingly dominate the single-family home market, driving up both prices and rents.
Weakening Environmental Protections: The movement’s attacks on foundational environmental laws align with the interests of fossil fuel and AI industries, threatening both climate goals and public health.
Corporate Capture: As corporations consolidate power, they gain greater influence over political and regulatory systems, blocking competition, inflating costs, and creating the very bottlenecks the Abundance movement claims to solve.
“Abundance advocates erroneously blame environmental review for hindering the clean energy transition, for example, but they have little to say about the real causes of delay, including privately owned utilities’ profit-driven opposition to building interstate transmission lines, investors’ prioritization of short-term oil and gas profits, and interference from fossil fuel-backed politicians, said Kenny Stancil Revolving Door Project Senior Researcher and report co-author.
“As the report explores, abundance talking points have already been adopted by Trump’s energy appointees to justify new fossil fuel projects, while circumventing public participation and transparency in the environmental review process,” said Hannah Story Brown, Revolving Door Project Deputy Research Director and report co-author.
“A more equal and prosperous society doesn’t happen when corporations set the rules,” said Callaci. “It happens when the public sector uses its power to protect communities, ensure fair competition, and ensure that prosperity is shared.”
Journalists interested in more information or in interviewing report authors may contact woolheater@openmarketsinstitute.org or burke@therevolvingdoorproject.org.
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