During the campaign, Donald Trump talked loudly and often about how he was going to renegotiate the United States’ “horrible trade deals,” bringing back millions of good jobs. So far, however, nothing has happened. So on Friday the White House scheduled a ceremony in which Trump would sign two new executive orders on trade. The […]
People keep saying that Donald Trump is a populist. I do not think that word means what they think it means. OK, it’s true that our so-called president—hey, if he can say that about a judge who ruled against him, surely we can say that about him—is channeling the racism and bigotry of some ordinary […]
It has been quite a month in politics. On one side, the Democratic National Convention was very much a celebration of America. On the other side, the Republican nominee for president, pressed on the obvious support he is getting from Vladimir Putin, once again praised Putin’s leadership, suggested that he is OK with Russian aggression […]
On the last day of May, the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of America’s most influential environmentalist groups, made its first presidential endorsement ever, giving the nod to Hillary Clinton. And it’s not hard to see why: At this point Donald Trump’s personality endangers the whole planet. We’re at a peculiar […]
The Treasury Department picked an interesting moment to announce a revision in its plans to change the faces on America’s money. Plans to boot Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill in favor of a woman have been shelved. Instead, Harriet Tubman—one of the most heroic figures in the history of our nation, or any nation—will […]
Like many political junkies, I’ve been spending too much time looking at polls and trying to understand their implications. Can Donald Trump really win his party’s nomination? (Yes.) Can Bernie Sanders? (No.) But that’s not the only things being polled; we’re still getting updates on President Obama’s overall approval. And something striking has happened on […]
To the right’s dismay, scare tactics — remember death panels? — and spurious legal challenges failed to protect the nation from the scourge of guaranteed health coverage. Still, Obamacare’s opponents insisted that it would implode in a “death spiralz” of low enrollment and rising costs.
When it comes to economic policy, the reputation is undeserved: Canada has surprisingly often been the place where the future happens first.
Spend any time around monetary officials and one word you’ll hear a lot is “normalization.” Most such officials accept that now is no time to be tightfisted, that for the time being credit must be easy and interest rates low.
Detroit is a symbol of the old economy’s decline. The metropolitan area lost population between 2000 and 2010, the worst performance among major cities. Atlanta, by contrast, epitomizes the rise of the Sun Belt; it gained more than 1 million people.
What happens when good jobs disappear? It’s a question that’s been asked for centuries.
The Twinkie, it turns out, was introduced way back in 1930. In our memories, however, the iconic snack will forever be identified with the 1950s, when Hostess popularized the brand by sponsoring “The Howdy Doody Show.” And the demise of Hostess has unleashed a wave of baby boomer nostalgia for a seemingly more innocent time.
The U.S. economy finally seems to be recovering in earnest, with housing on the rebound and job creation outpacing growth in the working-age population. But it will take years to restore full employment. Why has the slump been so protracted?
Most of the discussion of Paul Ryan, the presumptive Republican nominee for vice president, has focused on his budget proposals. But Ryan is a man of many ideas, which would ordinarily be a good thing.
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald—and he didn’t just mean that they have more money.
What a man does with his money is surely a major clue to his character.
Economists are talking about 1931, the year everything fell apart.
Italy and, in particular, Spain must be offered hope.
Current right-wing mythology has it that bad banking is always the result of government intervention.
