John Maynard Keynes fought authoritarianism with economics

We’ve all seen the mind-boggling charts demonstrating how income inequality has expanded to unprecedented levels in America since the late 1970s. We know that this ever-growing divide between the wealthiest one percent of all Americans and the rest of us was the result of a systemic trickle-down economic framework of tax cuts and deregulation promoted by conservative […]

Voting by mail is the safest, easiest way to vote. Why are Republicans lying about it?

Last weekend, we passed a milestone moment in the 2020 election cycle: We are now less than 100 days away from Tuesday, November 3 — Election Day. In normal years, this would be the time when the general public really starts tuning in to the messages both parties are running with, familiarizing themselves with the […]

The “subversive” idea that breaks economics: What if people are largely decent?

Even if you don’t know Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s name, you’ve likely heard him speak. In January of last year, you probably saw a viral video on social media of Bregman speaking truth to power in front of some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. […]

The Free Market Doesn’t Care if You Live or Die

I’m old enough to remember that, when Democrats were passing the Affordable Care Act through Congress, Republicans argued that they were tampering with the greatest healthcare system in the world. The argument I saw most often in comment threads and on cable news, if I recall correctly, went that a free market healthcare system made […]

We can’t keep slashing state budgets.

When unemployment numbers exceeded expectations last Friday, the Trump administration wasted no time in rolling out the metaphorical mission accomplished banner. President Trump himself declared the addition of two million jobs to be “the greatest comeback in American history.” While it is undeniably good news that two million Americans went back to work in April, […]

On Rush Limbaugh, white privilege, and coronavirus

Early this week, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh visited popular progressive radio show The Breakfast Club to discuss the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis. “I don’t buy into the notion of white privilege,” Limbaugh said. After a second of stunned silence, Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne tha God told Limbaugh […]

A Nobel Prize-winning economist says coronavirus shows ‘that markets don’t work’

There’s no feeling quite like the stomach-clenching dread that hits when you hear a Nobel laureate in economics label the coronavirus recession as “a textbook example of showing that markets don’t work.” The concept of markets — defined simply as the system that allows buyers and sellers to interact — is a cornerstone of mainstream […]

The coronavirus pandemic shows that the trickle-down theory of economic growth is a fabrication

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that the American economy would “bounce back” from the coronavirus shutdown by this summer. “As businesses begin to open,” Mnuchin promised, the “demand side of the economy” will “rebound.” Mnuchin was reiterating President Donald Trump’s line on the economy — the idea that when social distancing […]

Reopening the economy isn’t going to work if no one shows up

Seattle is one of America’s nerdiest cities — home to cartoonists, the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, and a whole slew of video game developers. It’s also a city that profits greatly from the business of nerd culture, particularly through a full, year-round slate of large conventions in the downtown retail core ranging from Emerald […]