The more that young people focus on supposed generational injustices rather than the real injustices of class and power, the less likely they are to embrace a politics that might make a real difference.
Economic Policy
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 inEconomic Policy
More State (or Is It Just Trump?) Capitalism
Last year, financier Scott Bessent excoriated the Biden administration for its revival of industrial policy. Now as Trump’s Treasury secretary, he the government would be expanding investments in companies in crucial economic sectors.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Socialist Case for Antitrust
The modern antitrust movement, sometimes called the neo-Brandeisians after the former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, had a major influence on the Biden administration. Now that Donald Trump has returned to power, what’s next? Over at the new publication The Argument, Matt Bruenig has a critical review of what he calls the urtext of the modern antitrust […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
How Scott Bessent Enables Oligarchy
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government began cracking down on hidden transfers of wealth. The purpose was to prevent money laundering that might finance terrorism. Some of this was codified in the USA PATRIOT Act. After the financial collapse of 2008, other safeguards were added. All this strengthened the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
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.
Posted inEconomic Policy
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.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Clamoring to Tax the Rich
In Berkeley, New York, Paris, and Vatican City, it’s become central to political battles—and religious concerns.
Posted inEconomic Policy
GOP Wrings Hands About Fraud After Crushing CFPB
A House Committee on Financial Services hearing Thursday morning was an exercise in gaslighting.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Private Equity’s $3 Billion Bet on a Casino Chimera
A casino is at the center of a fight over the soul of Coney Island, one of three downstate casino licenses being pursued in New York.
