To lower beef prices and help out his pal Milei, Trump will quadruple beef quotas from Argentina—and domestic cattle ranchers are going ballistic. But the bigger problem is an America that can no longer feed itself.
David Dayen
David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. He is the author of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power and Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud. He co-hosts the podcast Organized Money with Matt Stoller.
He can be reached on Signal at ddayen.90.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Here’s What Trump’s Ballroom Donors Want
The price tag on Donald Trump’s garish White House ballroom, now up to $350 million, keeps increasing. That’s because the cost of construction isn’t nearly as important as having an inventory of donations available for corporate America to pony up.
Posted inPolitics
Politicians Aren’t Heroes
Issues lead politicians, not the other way around. It would be incorrect to say that politicians don’t matter—they most certainly do—but they matter less than people might think, and are often better seen as instruments of power.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Health Insurance Cost Crisis Is Now Upon Us
The price hikes won’t happen until January 1, but open enrollment begins on November 1, ten days from now—and the average exchange beneficiary will see their premium costs more than double.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Fed Making Key Economic Decisions Without Key Economic Data
The Fed considers information from a variety of sources in setting monetary policy, everything from anecdotal reports to original data produced by its regional Reserve Banks. But the loss of public, and apparently some private, data is an acknowledged blow.
Posted inPolitics
Mad King Trump Seizes Your Money
We’ve written before about how Trump is spending money without congressional authorization, with the open support of the corrupt Republican hacks on the Supreme Court. Now, with the government formally shut down, Trump has ramped up this practice.
Posted inPolitics
The 2026 Election Is Being Decided at the Supreme Court
The Trump gerrymandering tour has not been going well. So far, it has succeeded in Texas, where new districts could dislodge up to five Democrats, and Missouri, where lawmakers voted to muscle out Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) by splitting up Kansas City. But Texas is under a legal challenge and, more importantly, still gives Democrats […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Why China Can Collapse the U.S. With One Decree
America has made an unusually directional economic bet that is at this moment totally dependent on Chinese rare earth exports.
Posted inNewsletters
What’s Behind the Viral Katie Porter Attack
The surprisingly wide-open race for governor of the nation’s most populous state emerged from its slumber last week when a three-minute clip of former California Rep. Katie Porter, who has been leading Democrats in all polls, went viral on the internet. It reinforced persistent rumors and evidence that Porter comes off as combative and angry. […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Anti-Monopoly Is Enduring Despite Trumpian Corruption
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s meager attempt at insult comedy in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week is the kind of thing that many political observers call “dramatic,” when in reality it was boring deflection and obfuscation punctuated by lazy scandalmongering. But there was something interesting going on in that hearing on the other side of the […]
