“It almost feels like we’re trying to rebuild everything from scratch,” Michael Wieder told me. The company he co-founded, Lalo, sells sleekly designed baby gear, much of it made in China. In his first weeks in office, Donald Trump increased […]
The Era of Thrash – The Atlantic Read More »
Like buffets and online dating and many other terrible-and-wonderful things, budgets are about trade-offs. Policy makers in Washington seem to have forgotten that obvious reality. From the Great Recession through the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic, interest rates were
The Republicans’ Budget Makes No Sense Read More »
The American consumer is tapped out. Grocery prices are bananas, housing prices are obscene, out-of-pocket medical expenses are absurd, and child care is impossible to afford, if you can find it. To keep up with the basics, let alone the
There Are Two Kinds of Credit Cards Read More »
On the campaign trail last fall, President Donald Trump promised a “new era of soaring income, skyrocketing wealth, millions and millions of new jobs, and a booming middle class. We are going to boom like we’ve never boomed before.” On
Maybe Don’t Invite a Recession In Read More »
Congratulations, American taxpayer: You are going all in on crypto. This weekend, President Donald Trump announced that he is moving forward with a plan to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, purchasing bitcoin and ether, as well as the more esoteric
Crony Crypto Capitalism – The Atlantic Read More »
Imagine telling someone five years ago that a carton of eggs would cost more than a pound of salmon fillet or a whole rotisserie chicken. Somehow, today, it does. Prices have doubled in the past year, with a dozen eggs
How Much Should an Egg Really Cost? Read More »
Richard Tikey builds coke-oven doors for U.S. Steel. He’s a union guy, through and through: He’s been a union member for 26 years, and is now the vice president of his local, the United Steelworkers 1557 in Clairton, Pennsylvania. He
How Democrats Lost the Working Class Read More »
Earlier this month, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare was assassinated during morning rush hour on a busy block in Midtown Manhattan; the alleged killer’s confession went viral, in particular the line “the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare
The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless Read More »
No federal agency is as hated as the IRS, and perhaps no federal agency deserves so much hate. The average American spends 13 hours a year completing the agency’s ugly, indecipherable forms. The process is so onerous that Americans fork
Elon Musk Has a Point About Government Efficiency Read More »
The other night, a friend came over. A dear friend. A friend who has helped me out when I’ve been sick, and who brought over takeout when I had just given birth. Still, before he arrived, I vacuumed. I thought
Why Women Can’t Put Down the Vacuum Read More »
