I’ve written on an array of different topics this year, ranging from a watershed state legislative session in California to the fissuring of the tech sector to the identity crisis within the Democratic Party. For my end of year recap, I’ve highlighted some pieces touching on subject matters that have continued to develop, and, I think, will continue to be important in 2020.
The Tantalizing Nuclear Mirage
In our Green New Deal issue, I took a look into the newfound enthusiasm for nuclear power as a low carbon fuel source. The notion that nuclear power is an environmental necessity has turned up in everything from this late December New Yorker feature to the last Democratic debate. The reality is far more complicated.
The Billionaire Class Created Their Own Wealth Tax. It Failed.
This fall, with wealth tax proposals from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren polling favorably even among Republicans, the billionaire class launched a media blitz to convince the public that it could never work. But many of those same billionaires have spent the better part of the decade trying to disburse 50 percent of their wealth, only to see it grow exponentially.
Boeing Is Basically a State-Funded Company
With the recent firing of Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg capping an unthinkably bad year for Boeing, it’s worth considering having public representation on the company’s board, given how reliant it is on public money, infrastructure, trade policy, and resources, as I wrote in October.
The Miseducation of Mean Pete
Pete Buttigieg has now become the lightning-rod candidate of the Democratic primary, openly warring with progressives from the right on what were once unanimous or widely shared positions on campaign finance and health care. Not that long ago he was a M4A loving, unity preaching, champion of intraparty comity.
SoftBank’s Blurry Vision
Before the swan dive of WeWork was complete, I took a look at the SoftBank Vision Fund, the $100 billion investment fund that’s thrown huge money behind a comically misguided array of overvalued tech startups.
The Dialysis Duopoly Spends Big to Protect Profits in California
California had something of a landmark legislative session in 2019, and one of the most contentious bills it passed was to limit price gouging in the kidney dialysis market. The two companies that dominate that sector went to incredible lengths to keep that from happening, a preview of some of the battles yet to come if public health care is to be expanded.
The Last of the Ayn Rand Acolytes (The New Republic)
For The New Republic, I went to the annual Ayn Rand convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and wrote about the difficulties of replenishing what was once a youthful community of free-market loving individualists.
