Brown Stage Capitalism
Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” in 2022, though it was hardly a new phenomenon even then. In granting apps the right to wield the absurdities of intellectual property law to legally bully their users, the government emboldened tech founders to view their companies as exempt from laws and regulations.
America’s Greatest Mistake
This article appears in the October 2025 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here. The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (And What Would Make It Right) By David J. Lynch PublicAffairs For a time, globalization was synonymous with utopia: the untrammeled flow of capital across borders, new markets waiting to be opened, the growth of developing…
How Mamdani’s Predecessors Built Democratic Socialism
A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin’s Freedom Budget is the key to understanding the appeal of the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor.
Supermarket Shaping
Critics say Zohran Mamdani’s public grocery store proposal will never work. But Mamdani’s idea isn’t the problem—market consolidation is.
FEMA’s Years of Living Dangerously
The Trump administration’s determination to force states to shoulder disaster funding burdens guarantees more deaths and destruction.
Why the Israel-Palestine Conflict Remains Unresolved
Two former negotiators on opposite sides write that neither side has ever acknowledged the other side’s existential needs.
Why Winning Is Bad for Democrats
Oh, you want life to get better now, do you? Do you even understand politics?
Michelle Wu, the Boston Beacon of Progress
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s first-term achievements shine, but numerous challenges persist after her re-election.
Big Banks Behaving Badly
Decades of consolidation have made large financial institutions the primary partners for small businesses. Two case studies show how banks destroy businesses with automated systems, rather than personal relationships. Meanwhile, America’s relatively meager safeguards are being radically dismantled.
This Greenland Is Red
The small island nation has one of the largest and most successful portfolios of state-owned companies in the world. What?
Down and Out on the Crypto Frontier
In Wyoming, the Delaware of cryptocurrency, industry players celebrated their fortunes and said everyone will benefit. But workers haven’t seen it.
Can Resistance Succeed?
The more authoritarian Trump becomes, the more he provokes effective opposition.
How Today’s America Came About
Two different accounts from two of the Prospect’s co-founders
