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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

Egypt's Obvious Lesson

The U.S. should stop supporting unpopular but "moderate" regimes in the Middle East just for the sake of stability.

Matthew YglesiasFeb 15, 2011

However things turn out in Egypt, the nascent revolution that played out over the past few weeks is a reminder of something that should have been obvious all along: The political status quo in the Middle East is not sustainable and won't be sustained.

The Constitution in Danger

It's Congress, not the president, that is a threat to democracy.

Matthew YglesiasFeb 07, 2011

Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State By Garry Wills, Penguin Press, 278 pages, $27.95

The Decline and Fall of the American Republic By Bruce Ackerman, Belknap Press, 270 pages, $25.95

In Bomb Power, the eminent intellectual Garry Wills gives us an entertaining and informative book whose self-proclaimed "basic thesis" is clearly mistaken. The thesis is that the development of nuclear weapons "redefined the presidency as, in all respects, America's 'Commander in Chief'" and "altered our subsequent history down to its deepest constitutional roots."

The Right's Real Problem With ElBaradei

The right hates Mohamed ElBaradei because he was right about Iraq, not because he's wrong for Egypt now.

Matthew YglesiasFeb 02, 2011
Mohamed ElBaradei in 2006 (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

It's no surprise that the growing movement for democratic change in Egypt is prompting some mixed feelings on the American right. On the one hand, the conservative movement has gotten deeply invested in rhetorical tropes about "freedom" and "democracy." On the other hand, the conservative movement is deeply hypocritical and mostly likes this rhetoric because it can be used as a club to wield against regimes that stand in the way of our geopolitical aspirations.

The Problem With the Bilateral "Summit"

The United States' long-term interests are much better served by almost any conceivable decision-making process other than so-called G2 summits with China.

Matthew YglesiasJan 19, 2011
Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Barack Obama after their joint press conference yesterday (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington this week is being widely billed in the media as a "summit" with Barack Obama, and that fact may be more important -- and more disturbing -- than anything that transpires.

Obama's CEO Problem

The idea that warmer sentiments from CEOs will make the president more popular is ill-conceived.

Matthew YglesiasJan 05, 2011
Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, whose name has been floated for a possible post in the Obama administration (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

I find it difficult to get worked up about debates over whom the president should pick to succeed Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff or Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council (NEC). These are important jobs, but they're fundamentally staff jobs whose occupants work for the president and have little to no autonomous decision-making authority. Under the circumstances, Barack Obama should pick people he likes, and the only real mystery is what's taking so long.

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