This morning I had coffee with my colleague Heather Lofthouse, who runs Inequality Media. We talked about generational change (boomers; millennials, and today’s children), and the idea of progress. Feel free to pull up a chair. I’ve enjoyed experimenting with this Substack newsletter — including sending you my written posts, drawings, and audio recordings, and exchanging comments with you. Would you find it interesting if I added informal conversations (such as this morning’s coffee klatch with ...
Mar 19, 2022•11 min
Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb today and suggest something that would have seemed utter nonsense as late as a month ago: I’m seeing the stirrings in Washington of a new era of … I’m not sure what to call it. “Unity” is way too strong. “Bipartisanship” is premature. “ De -partisanship” is too clunky. But something new seems to be happening, and Vladimir Putin is responsible. Don’t get me wrong. Democrats and Republicans won’t join hands and sing Kumbaya anytime soon. Mitch McConnell and Kevi...
Mar 17, 2022•8 min
Welcome to Wednesday, friends. Biden’s advisers are saying that the crisis in Ukraine presents a chance for a reset — Biden’s best opportunity to restore his standing before the November midterms. But what’s the message for the reset? Despite falling coronavirus positivity rates, a bipartisan infrastructure package, and rising employment numbers — and even foreign policy leadership — Biden’s approval ratings remain in the 40s . With inflation soaring and gas prices spiking, the Democrats could s...
Mar 16, 2022•2 min
Hello friends, and welcome to Tuesday. This morning I filled my car with gas costing over five dollars a gallon. My car is a Mini Cooper that I bought years ago, partly because it wasn’t a gas guzzler. Now it’s guzzling dollars. But when I consider what’s happening in Ukraine, I say what the hell. It’s a small sacrifice. Yet guess who’s making no sacrifice at all — in fact, who’s reaping a giant windfall from this crisis? As crude oil prices hit levels not seen in more than 13 years, Big Oil has...
Mar 15, 2022•5 min
It’s like watching a three-hundred-pound bully beat up a kid half his size, for no reason — bloodying the poor kid, pulverizing him. Yet you don’t dare try to stop the mayhem because the bully has a gun that he’ll use on you if you intervene. You look for police, but there are none. You round up your friends, who join you in shouting at the bully. But he pays no attention. They threaten that if he doesn’t stop they’ll no longer go bowling with him or invite him out for drinks. Their threats have...
Mar 14, 2022•2 min
I used to believe several things about the twenty-first century that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump’s election in 2016 have shown me are false. I assumed: Nationalism is disappearing . I expected globalization would blur borders, create economic interdependence among nations and regions, and extend a modern consumer and artistic culture worldwide. I was wrong. Both Putin and Trump have exploited xenophobic nationalism to build their power. (Putin’s aggression has also ignited an in...
Mar 12, 2022•4 min
Among the most heartrending casualties in Ukraine are the children. So far, a million of them have fled the nation. Many are on their own, without parents or relatives to protect them. The 6 million who remain in Ukraine are in grave danger of being maimed or killed. Yesterday Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a children’s hospital. Of all the victims of war, children are the most innocent. If they survive, their physical and psychological injuries may last a lifetime. Children are also the most...
Mar 10, 2022•5 min
I’m becoming increasingly worried that a growing segment of the American public is pushing for a war with Russia. Needless to say, that would be suicidal. This morning I saw an open open letter to the Biden administration signed by a group of 27 foreign policy heavyweights, calling for a limited no-fly zone over Ukraine — “starting with protection for humanitarian corridors that were agreed upon in talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials.” The proposal sounds reasonable until you think abo...
Mar 09, 2022•2 min
Nothing good comes from war except, on occasion, the prevention of something even worse. As pressure increases on the Biden Administration to take more aggressive action against Putin, the question is how to minimize the collateral damage to Americans and use the crisis to move toward a more humane future. Here are five possible ways. 1. Help Americans endure higher fuel prices. The best way to stop Putin’s war machine would be to put economic sanctions on anyone buying Russian oil or gas, becau...
Mar 08, 2022•8 min
We’re sanctioning Russian oligarchs up the wazoo, hoping it’s a way to get Putin to stop his deadly attack on Ukraine. But for this tactic to work (1) the U.S. and our allies must be able to locate and tie up Russian oligarchic wealth, and (2) Russian oligarchs must have enough power to stop Putin. Let’s take them one at a time: Can we locate and tie up the wealth of Russian oligarchs? Anecdotally, sanctions on the oligarchs appear to be working. Last Sunday, billionaire industrialist Oleg Derip...
Mar 07, 2022•6 min
The waitperson where I had breakfast this morning broke down in tears over Ukraine. “I just don’t know what to do,” she said. She’s not alone. I feel the same way. You probably do, too. That one tyrant can cause this much human suffering defies whatever progress we assumed civilization had made since Hitler’s rise almost a century ago. That Putin can wreak such havoc on innocent people, seemingly unconstrained by others in Russia’s government, makes a mockery of modern ideas about governance in ...
Mar 05, 2022•3 min
If Europe and the United States do what must be done next to contain Putin’s despicable invasion – blocking Russian exports of gas and oil – energy prices will soar. That means consumers will have less money to spend on everything else. This could well push the U.S. economy back into recession. Which makes all the more bizarre Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s statement yesterday to the House Financial Services Committee that he will propose increasing interest rates at the central bank’s...
Mar 03, 2022•4 min
When I was in elementary school in the 1950s, I was periodically required to “duck and cover” by huddling under my desk in case the Soviet Union dropped an atomic bomb on my town. If I didn’t survive, I was also issued a dog tag with my name and address to help my parents identify my body. (I remember thinking that if the bomb dropped my parents wouldn’t be around to identify me anyway.) The whole thing was terrifying. Years later, when I had my own children, I learned that the only means by whi...
Mar 02, 2022•3 min
In a few minutes, Joe Biden will give his first State of the Union address. It’s his best opportunity between now and November’s midterm elections to shape the narrative — describing the key choices ahead and explaining where he’s leading America. But there’s far more at stake than mere politics. Biden needs to frame not only what he’s accomplished and wants to accomplish but also what America stands for at this precarious point in our nation’s history. That should be the choice between democrac...
Mar 01, 2022•6 min
The world is currently and frighteningly locked in a battle to the death between democracy and authoritarianism. Yesterday, Vladimir Putin issued a new threat to the West — telling his defense minister and his top military commander to place Russia’s nuclear forces on alert. It is a new cold war. The biggest difference between the old cold war and the new one is that authoritarian neo-fascism is not just an external threat. A version of it has also taken over one of the major political parties i...
Feb 28, 2022•6 min
In the midst of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, it’s hard to keep our minds on domestic priorities — such as protecting voting rights, delivering economic security, and fixing our woefully expensive and unfair healthcare system. Yet maybe this is exactly the time to focus on these domestic goals. Doing what’s right for our people strengthens our moral authority to defend democracy and human rights abroad. Protecting voting rights lends credibility to our claims of the superiority of democracy to auto...
Feb 26, 2022•4 min
We must do what we can to contain Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. But we also need to be clear-eyed about it, and face the costs. As I’ve said before, economics can’t be separated from politics, and neither can be separated from history. Here are eight sobering realities: 1. Will the economic sanctions now being put into effect stop Putin from seeking to take over all of Ukraine? No. They will complicate Russia’s global financial transactions but they will not cripple the Russian economy...
Feb 24, 2022•8 min
The stock market is gyrating wildly in light of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, but Wall Street traders are doing just fine. Bad news is good news for traders who make money off volatility. After all, in the year of Delta and Omicron, climate chaos, Trump Republican attacks on democracy, bitter divisiveness, a calamitous exit from Afghanistan, and accelerating inflation, the Street’s biggest banks have reaped record profits. Bonuses are through the front Porsche. Hundreds of traders have racked u...
Feb 22, 2022•5 min
Happy Presidents Day. It’s a good day to contemplate whether Joe Biden has a prayer of keeping a Democratic House and Senate next year. Call me a hopeless optimist, but I think he does. Yes, I know: Republicans are suppressing votes, Democrats are hopeless at messaging, Biden’s poll numbers are in the basement. But let me give you ten reasons why I think there’s a decent chance Democrats can maintain control of both the House and the Senate, and maybe even gain some seats. First: It’s likely tha...
Feb 21, 2022•4 min
Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such inequalities have soared since the late 1970s and early 1980s. The questions we’ll focus on today are: How did the market for financial capital contribute to inequalities of income and wealth? Did the accepted purpose of the American corporation change over the last fifty years, and, if so, when and how? More generally, for whom should the corporation ...
Feb 18, 2022•2 min
For many years, my right ankle has been losing cartilage that keeps my ankle bones from scraping up against each other. The result: increasing inflammation and pain. An orthopedic surgeon suggested replacing the ankle with an artificial one, but the procedure is costly, takes months to heal, and requires lots of physical therapy. So I’ve taken a different route. I cut way back on sugar, began an exercise program aimed at strengthening the muscles around my ankle, and lost twenty pounds. Now, six...
Feb 17, 2022•5 min
I got my start in American politics about 50 years ago. America was in many ways a different country then, but my political views weren’t all that different than they are now. I was against the Vietnam War and the military-industrial complex, pro civil and voting rights, and against the growing power of big corporations. That put me just left of the center. Today I’m much further left of center than I used to be — because the “center” has moved to the right and the right has become far far more ...
Feb 16, 2022•2 min
I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been inspired by the young Starbucks baristas who are leading the charge to unionize the company. The number of unionizing stores has risen to seventy-two since the fall. The weekly spate of new Starbucks election filings represents a breakthrough for labor. Starbucks executives are counterattacking. Last week, they fired seven Memphis baristas who had led the organizing in that city. I urge you to watch my interview with leaders of the Starbucks baristas (just do...
Feb 15, 2022•1 min
When I began this newsletter almost five months ago I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t. But your enthusiastic response, thoughtful comments, and helpful feedback have guided me — and continue to make it all worthwhile. It has been a journey into the unknown. We’re figuring it out together. A big thanks to you. I hope you’re finding my course on inequality (which began here last Friday, and will be continuing for the next 13 weeks) helpful. I hope you’re also finding useful (and someti...
Feb 14, 2022•5 min
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says he’s ready to step up to the plate and help end Major League Baseball’s lockout. My advice to Marty, as former labor secretary to the current one: Stay away from baseball. I wouldn’t touch another baseball labor dispute if Babe Ruth asked me in person. In 1995, the owners and players were at loggerheads, too. I tried to mediate. Bill Clinton (on phone): “Bobby, this is Bill. How you doing on the strike?” Translated: What the hell’s going on? The World Series may ...
Feb 12, 2022•10 min
More inflation buzz today. The U.S. consumer price index for January rose at an annual rate of 7.5 percent, the largest such increase since 1982. Yes, prices are increasing. But would you prefer a recession? As a practical matter, that’s the choice the Fed gives us. When the Fed puts on the brakes, it often pushes the economy into a ditch. (Anyone remember when Paul Volcker “broke the back of inflation” by putting the economy into a tailspin?) A recession will cause far more hardship for many mo...
Feb 10, 2022•9 min
Many people tell me America is going to hell. But when I ask them how their own lives are going, they say pretty well. This discrepancy between how people feel about America’s public life and their own private lives is wider today than it’s been since the late 1960s. Then, our public life was marked by assassinations, riots, an escalating war in Vietnam, and the deeply flawed Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. But our private lives featured love-ins, Woodstock, and the Beatles. (I know; I was the...
Feb 08, 2022•7 min
The biggest stories this week are likely to be the continuing standoff between NATO (led by the United States) and Putin in the Ukraine, the new Russo-Chinese detente, and the Republican Party’s continuing drift toward Trumpism. One way of tying these together to reveal a larger pattern is to talk about the expanded Child Tax Credit. You heard me right. The fate of the expanded Child Tax Credit illustrates a basic problem that runs through all this. Let me explain. Even before the pandemic, more...
Feb 07, 2022•8 min
Thank you so much for joining me in this community. It’s an experiment in group learning and teaching about the American system — and it’s succeeding far beyond my expectations. Your interest and enthusiasm make it all worthwhile. Please let others know! In preparation for my course on Wealth and Poverty, which starts Friday on this page, you may find useful the documentary below. It’s called Inequality for All. I made it a few years ago with the talented director Jacob Kornbluth. It’s won many ...
Feb 06, 2022•2 min
Today’s January jobs report is heightening fears that a so-called “tight” labor market is fueling inflation, and that therefore the Fed must put on the brakes by raising interest rates. This line of reasoning is totally wrong. Among the biggest job gains in January were workers who are normally temporary and paid low wages (eg, leisure and hospitality, retail, transport and warehousing). Employers cut fewer of these low-wage temp jobs than in most January’s because of rising customer demand comb...
Feb 04, 2022•5 min
