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Matthew Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.

Recent Articles

Concern Trolling Iran

The conservative take on Iran has never been genuinely interested in what Iranians think or in the well-being of the Iranian people.

Matthew YglesiasJun 24, 2009
A woman holding a photo taken during clashes following election results in Iran, as she takes part in a demonstration near the Iranian embassy in Paris on June 22. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Conservative hawks, who just a few weeks ago were eager to drop bombs on Iran, have not hesitated to take advantage of the recent political unrest to launch criticisms on President Barack Obama for being insufficiently concerned with the welfare of the Iranian people. In its most extreme guises, this criticism has taken the form of National Review writers accusing Obama of having an active preference for tyranny. Victor Davis Hanson alleges that Obama is "almost more at ease with virulent anti-Westerners." Andy McCarthy deems Obama "steeped in Leftist ideology, fueled in anger and resentment" and thus eager to embrace theocracy.

Is Iran's Election America's Problem?

The theft of Iran's presidential election raises more foreign-policy implications than any clean result could have.

Matthew YglesiasJun 12, 2009

The closely watched Iranian election campaign came to a close over the weekend on what was probably the least-likely of possible outcomes: a decisive win for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad apparently driven by widespread fraud. Subsequently, protests and riots broke out in the streets, met in turn by a closing of ranks in the regime and a crackdown by security forces.

The Sound of Settling

Right-wing hawks and Israeli officials are savaging Obama for his condemnation of settlement expansion. But is there any good reason for the president to back down from his stance?

Matthew YglesiasJun 10, 2009

Every American president for decades has officially said that the United States is opposed to the construction of Israeli "settlements" in occupied Palestinian land. But such opposition has almost always come with wink-and-nod approval of continued settlement activity. Thus, even at the height of the Oslo Accords and the peace process and even under the governance of center-left Labor prime ministers, settlements continued to expand with little public criticism from the United States. The loophole of choice has been the notion of "natural growth," the idea that a given settlement's development due to increases in family size doesn't "really" constitute expansion.

The North Korea Conundrum

How do you solve a problem like Korea? With great difficulty.

Matthew YglesiasMay 27, 2009
Protesters burn portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il during a rally in Seoul on May 25 after North Korea's announcement that it had conducted its second nuclear test. (AP Photo)

Ever since North Korea's nuclear test on May 24, I've been sporadically humming "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea?" to myself while trying to devise an answer to the question in time for my column deadline. But I've got nothing. As Andrew Grotto, a colleague of mine at the Center for American Progress, points out, there are some additional sanctions that could be applied to North Korea, but not by the United States. China could impose a total energy embargo that could potentially cause the North Korean state to collapse. But China doesn't want North Korea to collapse. And to tell the truth, neither does South Korea, and nor do we.

The Next Tax Revolt

It's time for progressives to stop pretending that raising taxes on only the very rich will be sufficient to fund an ambitious agenda.

Matthew YglesiasMay 21, 2009

It's doubtful anyone has ever enjoyed paying taxes. In most developed democracies, taxation is a necessary evil that finances the services that make for a fair and dynamic society. Taxes let people take risks with their lives, guarantee a financially secure retirement, educate children, keep our roads drivable, pay police, and help ensure that the benefits of prosperity are broadly shared. But starting in the late 1970s, political entrepreneurs on the right helped launch a broad "tax revolt" that completely changed the public's view of taxation. Before, higher taxes were a price that one might or might not want to pay in order to finance an expenditure.

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