David Atkins

The right has long tried to appropriate the concepts of “freedom” and “liberty” into their proprietary lexicon. And why not? The right is home to libertarians who want the freedom to oppress others economically and socially without a burdensome government apparatus telling them how much to pay their workers at what age, or which kinds […]

Steve Koonin has an obfuscatory piece in the Wall Street Journal today claiming that the science of climate change isn’t settled. But it’s not the usual radically ignorant posturing. As with much of the evolution of the conservative “debate” over climate, it represents another move in the shifting ground of conservative chicanery intended to paralyze […]

Reagan adviser Lee Atwater: Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “N—–, n—–, n—–.” By 1968 you can’t say “n—–” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re […]

Justice Antonin Scalia did a lengthy interview recently, and it’s a doozy. It’s more than a little disconcerting that the fate of the world’s most powerful democracy is in the hands of a dangerously disconnected crank who thinks flogging probably is OK, but obsesses over “ladies” using vulgar language; thinks Facebook is “strange” but that […]

Talk about jobs and wages to most sectors of the American left, and you’re likely to hear that the problems in the modern economy are mostly political rather than structural: essentially, that changes to tax, labor and trade law created an easier environment for companies to reduce wages and outsource labor. That is certainly true […]

You won’t hear most political elites talk about these numbers, but they matter more than almost any other: Despite fears from some inflation hawks, the fact is that the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages, and there has been no significant pickup in nominal wage growth […]

Reason Magazine is highlighting a report from the Freelancer’s Union indicating that a full third of Americans are currently engaged in freelance work, and most of those are doing it as their main source of income. A new report shows some 53 million Americans—or 34 percent of the U.S. workforce—are now working as freelancers in […]

In the long series of bad news items about increasing income inequality, the plight of younger households often gets overlooked. This bit from Fivethirtyeight deserves special attention: Young people were hit especially hard. Thursday’s report provided yet more evidence that today’s young people risk becoming a “lost generation” economically. The median family headed by someone […]

It’s old hat by now that Republicans have the market on the senior vote cornered. Between a steady leftward wind on most social issues and trumped up fears over the impact of the ACA on Medicare, the GOP has made strong inroads with older Americans that spell danger and distress for Democrats in midterm elections. […]

Many progressives have been thanking our lucky stars for years now that conservatives have failed time and again to make a “Grand Bargain” with the President to enact brutal cuts to earned benefit programs, particularly at a time of economic malaise and record income inequality. The Republican Party was set up with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: […]