It’s not just OpenAI that looks overhyped. There’s a whole mountain of sketchy financial engineering underneath.
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 hosts the weekly live show The Weekly Roundup and co-hosts the podcast Organized Money with Matt Stoller.
He can be reached on Signal at ddayen.90.
Posted inTAP
Endless Mortgage
The median age of a homebuyer right now is 59, and even for a first-time homebuyer, it’s 40. Nobody really wants to be in debt until they die.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Russ Vought Tries to Bankrupt the CFPB
A legal office in the White House, at the behest of Office of Management and Budget director and Project 2025 architect Russ Vought, has decided to redefine the word “earnings” in order to bankrupt the largely dormant Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Posted inPolitics
The Most Frustrating Thing About the Shutdown Cave
Senate Democrats actually know how to use their power to counter Donald Trump and ensure that legislative funding gets spent—but this continuing resolution makes it clear they chose not to.
Posted inPolitics
Poll: Trump Is Not Delivering on Foreign Policy
Overall, Americans are not pleased with President Trump’s performance on foreign policy: 50 percent grade him as “poor” against 37 percent as “good,” and on a range of foreign-policy topics, he is only above water on stopping “international drug trafficking.”
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
The Electric Bill Election
On Tuesday, the soaring cost of power was a key factor in several races, including those in Georgia, Virginia, and New Jersey. Democrats have a plan that can match their economic populist rhetoric.
Posted inTAP
Supreme Court Poised to Defy Trump on Tariffs
Most of the conservative justices seemed skeptical of the argument that the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, which allows a president in an emergency to “regulate importation and exportation,” confers worldwide, unlimited tariff authority.
Posted inPolitics
California Democrats Win Redistricting Measure, Prove That Resistance Works
The win, combined with several mid-cycle surprises, has weakened Trump’s shield against accountability for his unpopular reign, although the Supreme Court really holds the key to whether we’ll have something approaching legitimate elections next year.
Posted inPolitics
Trump Lost the Politics of the Shutdown
On a political level, Democrats have succeeded in painting Republicans as mean and unfeeling stewards of American decline. But Trump may win on policy nonetheless, as a gang of Democrats prepares to squander their leverage based on a vague assurance.
Posted inLaw and Justice
‘Progressive’ Tech Group Asks Trump to Block AI Copyright Cases
The Chamber of Progress’s campaign to promote fair use, which they have created a campaign around called “Generate and Create,” comes as at least three of the nonprofit organization’s past or current backers are being sued over copyright claims.