What a year! It began with America barely surviving an attempted coup, and Joe Biden surprising nearly everyone by resolving to govern in the spirit of FDR. It is ending with a whimper, as Joe Manchin holds the entire progressive agenda hostage.
Here were some of my favorite pieces this year:
“The Unhinged Republican Congress as a Gift for 2022”
I remain optimistic that 2022 will be better, and that the Democrats’ not-so-secret weapon, as I wrote, will be Donald Trump, who will wreak plenty of havoc in his own party, thus reminding dispirited Democrats of the importance of mobilizing to vote.
Best of 2021 banner
“The China Challenge”
“Connecting Climate Goals to Industrial Goals”
“Biden’s Smart EU Trade Deal”
I follow a number of beats, including China and other trade subjects. Here’s a sampling of that.
“Capitalism vs. Liberty”
My two favorite feature pieces of the year were this one making the case that capitalism has become so toxic that liberal values require something very like so*ial*sm …
“The Movement, the Party, and the President”
… and this deeply reported piece on the relationship between the progressive movement and the Democratic Party.
“Powell Stays as Chair—of a Transformed Fed”
I paid close attention to Fed Chairman Jay Powell’s deft campaign to get himself reappointed to chair our central bank. As I wrote in this piece, he turned in a masterful audition in which he dismissed inflation worries and pledged allegiance to low interest rates. That evidently did the trick. No sooner did Biden reappoint him than Powell reversed course and became an inflation hawk. So it goes.
“Liberals With Tin Ears”
I love the three-times-weekly On Tap format. It gives me a chance to write short, topical posts, and to indulge my interest in political language, as in this piece on how lousy liberals are at political language.
“If We Ran the Zoo”
As a sometime poet, I offered my rhymed defense of Dr. Seuss (Ted Geisel) who was in fact a great racial progressive.
“Is Summers Owed an Apology—or Does He Owe Us One?”
“The Sour Grapes of Jason Furman”
I also keep close track of faithless Democrats, as in these pieces on Larry Summers and Jason Furman.
“The Supply Chain Mess”
The rediscovery of industrial policy and the end of naïve or corrupt globalization is another subject of long-standing interest.
The American political economy reaps what it sows. It is his fate that it falls in on President Biden—and up to us to revive a majority progressive politics.
Thank you for reading and supporting the Prospect, and wishing all of us a better new year.
