Category: US Political System
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Good Policy Is the Goal. Compromise Should Not Be.
Matt Bruenig just wrote an excellent series of posts dismantling a misguided “Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream” from the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution. Bruenig’s posts explain why the plan’s emphasis on education, work, and marriage will not accomplish its goals (I’ve made…
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What’s Wrong with the Democratic Party
Two things that happened this week illustrate much of what’s wrong with the Democratic party. First, Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon doubled down on Clinton’s commitment, voiced at the last Democratic debate, to avoid any tax increases at all on the “middle class.” Second, the Service Employees International Union…
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Hillary Clinton’s Less than Stellar Record on Trade
In this post, Part 4 in a series on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Emilio da Costa describes Clinton’s record on international trade and business issues. Emilio, who holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies from Stanford, can be…
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Digging Deeper Into Democratic Donors
After I argued that labor unions should endorse Bernie Sanders about a month ago, a Hillary Clinton supporter complained on Twitter about this section of my article: The following meme, describing cumulative donations the candidates have received over the past thirty years, is illustrative: She voiced two criticisms of the…
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Big Pharma: Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game
Martin Shkreli is a man I admire in an odd sort of way. The recent controversy involving Mr. Shkreli and his price hike of the toxoplasmosis drug, Daraprim, seems to have caused misguided furor towards the 32-year-old CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He may epitomize a major problem with the pharmaceutical…
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Organized Labor Should Endorse Bernie Sanders
The National Education Association (the union to which I used to belong) is considering an early endorsement of Hillary Clinton. This decision, like the American Federation of Teachers’ endorsement of Clinton on July 11, would be a huge mistake. One reason is that it would violate members’ trust. As Peter…
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Sexual Assault Prevention Requires More than Well-Intentioned Allies
Update (3/2/2018): Author’s information has been removed due to the author’s request to remain anonymous. Columbia University student-activist and rape survivor Emma Sulkowicz was raped by a classmate in 2012, and, after the university failed to punish her attacker, called attention to the epidemic of sexual assault on campus through…
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Everything You Need to Know About Inequality
Jared Bernstein and I just published a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation on inequality in the United States (available for download here). This presentation is first and foremost intended as a resource. Part 1 of the presentation documents the increase in inequality over the past 35 years; the trend is evident from…
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