It’s encouraging on many levels: New York City didn’t submit to a campaign of flagrant bigotry from disgraced two-time loser Andrew Cuomo, and Americans, particularly young ones, can still be politically inspired by a good candidate with a good message.
Poverty & Wealth
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 inHousing
Remedying the Workforce Housing Crisis
Rising rents have been particularly pronounced in the workforce housing segment, squeezing tenants across the country. According to a new report, most regions nationwide experienced workforce housing rent increases of 20 percent or more from 2021 to 2025.
Posted inHousing
The Lost Dream of Obam-a-Lago
Long before the September 30 ICE raid, Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood had been ravaged by a series of sprawling apartment building pump-and-dump schemes, aided and abetted by industrial-scale mortgage fraud, old-fashioned government inaction, and a smattering of Venezuelan gangsters.
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
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 inTAP
Taxing the Rich and the Survival of Emmanuel Macron
Macron, whose own popularity ratings have been languishing, has made it clear that he opposes a wealth tax.
Posted inPolitics
How Mamdani’s Predecessors Built Democratic Socialism
A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin’s Freedom Budget is the key to understanding the appeal of the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor.