You may have missed it, but an outfit called Digital First Media (DFM) is trying to buy the Gannett newspaper chain. Last year, I wrote a lengthy investigative piece on how private equity and hedge fund companies like DFM are destroying what’s left of America’s metropolitan dailies. You can read about it here. The basic […]
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Happy Birthday, Alex Hamilton!
Facebook probably didn’t alert you—he didn’t have an account—but today is the birthday of Alexander Hamilton. He was born on January 11, 1757. Why does this matter? Well, Hamilton might have a lot to say about our current situation. First, he was very much of an infrastructure guy. He wrote America’s first industrial policy, his […]
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How the Shutdown Ends
It will likely end one of two ways. An increasingly demented Trump could go ahead and declare a national emergency, order the military to build the wall—and his order will end up being quickly reviewed by the Supreme Court. It’s not quite a slam-dunk that the Court would approve it, because Chief Justice Roberts is […]
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Governor Newsom and the Return of Laboratories of Democracy
This week, a number of states are swearing in new Democratic administrations. California, of course, was Democratic before November’s election, but it’s more so now, with Gavin Newsom taking the oath yesterday to succeed Jerry Brown as governor, and with the share of Democrats in each house of the legislature rising from just under two-thirds […]
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Needed for the Democrats—a Process of Elimination
With more than two dozen Democrats likely to declare for president, how on earth do they stage debates? We all remember what happened with the Republicans in 2016. With an immense field, there was no discussion of issues; it quickly turned even more nasty and personal than usual, paving the way for the most negative […]
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Personal News and Prospect News
The very talented David Dayen, whose writing you probably know from our pages and other national publications, will be joining the Prospect in the spring as executive editor. In addition to adding immeasurably to our magazine, this will enable me to reach a long-sought personal goal of pulling back from management, to focus on writing, […]
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Orbánomics and Our Brain-Dead Ambassador to Hungary
Having long since undermined any claims he might have had to rudimentary decency, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has now begun to undermine his own dangerously authoritarian regime. The most overtly anti-Semitic leader of a European nation since Adolf Hitler, Orbán is now the target of daily demonstrations from an increasingly unified group of Hungary’s previously squabbling […]
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Corporate Free Speech and the Israel Lobby
As you may have read, the latest ploy by the Netanyahu government and its allies in the U.S. Senate is a provision that would apply criminal penalties against U.S. corporations that boycott companies that operate in the occupied West Bank. This is opposed by the liberal pro-Israel organization, J Street, and the ACLU. The measure, […]
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Corporate America’s Only Priority: Rewarding the Rich
The stock market may be tanking, but investors—make that, major investors—are doing great nonetheless. How, you may ask, is this possible? It’s because corporations have showered them with heretofore unimaginable dividends and share buybacks. According to a front-page story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, “companies in the S&P 500 have spent nearly $421 billion on […]
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Trump Gave Theresa May What She Deserved
Poor Prime Minister May. She has not been able to get her Conservative Party to agree on a Brexit formula, members of the cabinet are deserting her left and right (mostly right), and now she gets sucker-punched by Donald Trump. May, braving broad hostility to Trump throughout Britain, went out of her way to host […]
