Kathleen Geier

Actually, I would argue, as President Obama did last week, that economic inequality is the defining issue of our time. But in a blog post today, Krugman characterized it as “a defining challenge,”, and I don’t want to put words in his mouth. In his post, Krugman makes four important points: 1) First, he says, […]

Yes, it’s that time again! The Monthly is currently hosting its annual, end-of-the-year fundraiser. We’re asking you, the readers, to pitch in and give what you can to support the work we do. As readers know, the Monthly is by now a Washington, and an American, institution. We’ve been publishing high-quality, highly influential public affairs […]

Wonkblog’s Sarah Kliff is reporting yet another serious problem with the troubled HealthCare.gov site. The site failed to transmit data from enrollees to health insurers. As a result, thousands of people who believed they’d completed enrollment for health insurance haven’t actually done so. In many cases, neither the enrollee nor the insurance carrier appeared to […]

I’ve been watching with fascination a situation unfolding in my ancestral homeland of New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie has found himself embroiled in a growing controversy involving traffic congestion on the George Washington Bridge. Only in New Jersey, perhaps, could a story centering on traffic congestion become a source of sexy intrigue and scandal! But […]

It’s December, and you know what that means — the War on Christmas is back! To celebrate, I’m posting this great clip from 2005, in which Sam Seder went on CNN to debate the War on Christmas — then in its early stages — with the head of Concerned Women for America, a man (about […]

Before I abandon ship, I wanted to let readers know about a new project of mine. This week, I will be starting a new personal blog about economic inequality. It’s called Inequality Matters, and you can find it here. As my blurb for the blog says, I will be “exploring the causes and consequences of […]

It’s Sunday, and Ross Douthat has written another typical Ross Douthat column. On the surface, it seems to be all smarmy reasonableness. But that’s only on the surface. If you stop to think for one second — or even just follow one of his links — his argument falls apart. Douthat is shallow, intellectually dishonest […]

With Republicans in firm control of the House of Representatives, there doesn’t seem to be much hope for any kind of a progressive agenda getting through Congress these days. But one area where there does seem to be movement is the minimum wage. Currently, there is a bill making its way through Congress to increase […]

Today’s Washington Post has an article about growing economic populism within the Democratic Party. It can be felt in everything from the movement to increase Social Security benefits, rather than reduce them (as the Obama administration had been willing to do until recently), to drives to increase the minimum wage and enact tougher financial regulations. […]

Yesterday over at WonkBlog, Mike Konczal wrote about an issue that’s long been a problem in the field of economics: the systematic miseducation of economics students. Most introductory economics classes largely ignore politics and institutions, center the individual as the focal point of their analyses, and unrealistically portray individuals as behaving like rational, optimizing actors […]