In the News

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Some school supplies got costlier after tariffs. Parents are feeling the pinch.

The cost of school supplies has risen nearly 8 percent since last year, according to a report from the left-leaning groups the Century Foundation and Groundwork Collaborative, which pointed out that the makers of such school staples as Elmer’s glue and Sharpies and Expo markers, Mead and Five Star notebooks, and Logitech headphones have all spoken publicly about raising their prices because of the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported goods.

August 21, 2026 The Washington Post

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“Back to school” on a budget.

Liz Pancotti, vice president at Groundwork Collaborative, said she’ll be watching to see if consumers cut back on Halloween. “Are they having kids do it yourself with a sheet and cutting a couple holes out or are they buying a costume?” she said.

August 21, 2026 Marketplace

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FTC says “personalized pricing” based on consumer data could violate the law.

In December 2025, Consumer Reports and partners Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union investigated pricing practices employed by online grocery shopping service Instacart. They found that consumers paid different prices for the same goods from the same store at the same time.

August 20, 2026 CBS News

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Treasury Doubles Down on Its Plan to Stabilize Financial Markets.

“If we’re talking about kind of more permanently anchoring and lowering long-term bond yields, I think it’s going to be quite ineffective,” said Alex Jacquez, a senior vice president at the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative. “The market is incredibly right to be worried about what the president is going to do day-to-day.”

August 20, 2026 NOTUS

Press Release

Groundwork’s President and CEO Reacts to FTC’s New Personalized Pricing Enforcement Proposal

This morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced it is seeking public comment on an enforcement policy to curb corporations’ use of consumers’ personal data to set individualized prices.

August 19, 2026 Groundwork Collaborative

Press Release

The Sears Home Reimagined: A Plan to Deliver 500,000 Affordable, Move-In Ready Starter Homes to Working Families

Inspired by America’s original Sears Homes, Groundwork Collaborative introduces a direct-to-consumer approach to affordable, accessible homeownership.

August 19, 2026 Groundwork Collaborative

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Why homes once banished to trailer parks are filling the suburbs.

In a paper published this week, advocates from the left-leaning policy group Groundwork Collaborative explored the history of the early-20th-century Sears home, ordered from a catalogue and delivered by mail, and proposed it as a model for a government-sponsored expansion of manufactured housing.

August 19, 2026 The Washington Post

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Most musicians struggle to tour due to finances, hit by Blue Dot Fever.

Although ticket-selling platforms take a chunk of the profit from increased prices, performers rarely earn more even if consumers are paying higher prices. Nashville native, economist and author Lindsay Owens told The Tennessean there's a term for this split. "We're increasingly seeing what people like me refer to as a K-shaped economy, which is really just a story of the lower end of the market bottoming out, but the higher end of the market continuing to have a rapacious spending profile," Owens said.

August 13, 2026 Tennessean

Press Release

Working Families Feel the Heat of Trump’s Recklessness with Consumer Prices on the Rise in July

Trump’s war in Iran drags on with no end in sight, while new tariffs have already hit supply chains

August 12, 2026 Groundwork Collaborative

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Why Nestlé can give you 10% less product and still charge you more.

The thinktank Groundwork Collaborative noted that in 2024 in the U.S. "...prices for consumers rose by 3.4% over the past year, but input costs for producers increased by just 1%, according to the author's calculations, which were based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Income and Product Accounts."

August 12, 2026 MSN