Many Trump critics are focused on what he is doing to our basic democratic compact. But there’s a reason that all the presidents who led us through our worst previous crises also had an aggressive program of reform—including public provision and ownership.
Economic Policy
Posted inEconomic Policy
Making Banking Supervision Suck Again
Bank supervision consists of two main prongs: risk management and compliance. On the compliance side, consumer protection laws are being enforced less than at any time since at least the Great Recession.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Canada vs. the U.S.
President Trump announced the day before the World Series began that he was ending ongoing trade and tariff negotiations with Canada. As a result, the contest has taken on symbolic significance amid worsening relations between the two countries.
Posted inTAP
Trump’s Faltering Economy
The seemingly not-too-bad Trump economy is living on borrowed time. Both inflation and employment are getting worse, and the booming stock market is in AI bubble territory.
Posted inTAP
Unveiled Today: The First Politically Viable Wealth Tax
A proposed 2026 California ballot measure would tax billionaires’ fortunes to fund imperiled health access for 15 million state Medicaid recipients. The spillover effects of its presence on the midterm-election ballot should be considerable.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Myth That Mamdani Will Cause New York City’s Richest to Leave
Millionaire tax flight would devastate a future Mamdani administration. If the rich leave, how could anything be financed? But research shows that wealthy individuals move at lower rates than others, even in response to higher personal income taxes.
Posted inEconomic Policy
No, the Boomers Did Not Take It All
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.
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
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 […]