Kathleen Geier

Yesterday, when I wrote about a White House gathering of young billionaire philanthropists, I did so with a healthy dose of snark. However, I didn’t make an argument about the many things that are terribly wrong with government-by-billionaire. But if you’re interested in reading such an argument, you’re in luck. Tom Frank has written one […]

The Supreme Court doesn’t like poor people very much. Recent rulings by the Court have had a profoundly harmful impact on the health, lives, and livelihoods of poor folks. The best-known example is the Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, which allowed states to opt out of Medicaid. That is an option that 24 […]

Here is the magnificent Patti Smith song, “Easter.” Isabelle, Frederick, and Vitalie were Rimbaud’s brother and sisters, by the way. She was raised Catholic and there are many traces of Catholicism in her life and work. Among other things, there’s this song; there’s the title track of her album Wave, which is about Pope John […]

Earlier this week, Chelsea Clinton revealed that she was pregnant. Before that announcement, in the current issue of The Washington Monthly, Haley Sweetland Edwards had speculated about how such an announcement would play out amongst the Hillary-haters: Of course, regardless of how deftly she plays her new role, Hillary’s many critics will complain. They will […]

Catherine Rampell’s new economics and business blog at the Washington Post, Rampage, is excellent (and boy was the New York Times stupid to let her get away). Take, for instance, her latest column, which is about wage theft. The human-interest reporting is very good: Take Ashley Cathey, 25, a six-year McDonald’s employee who participated in […]

Thomas Piketty, call your office! Today’s New York Times — in the Fashion and Style section, but of course! — reports on a White House meeting of “100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire family fortunes.” Some of the people quoted in the article are as young as 19, and they are from family names […]

There’s no doubt about it: with the Democrats’ decision to run on women’s issues and the gender pay gap this election is making Republicans very, very nervous. So far, they’ve have two basic responses to Democrats: one is to flat-out lie about the GOP’s record on women, pretending that it’s pro-equality. But the reality is […]

You’ve probably heard of the Bechdel test. It’s a criterion to evaluate how female-friendly a movie is that was created by the cartoonist and memoirist Alison Bechdel. To pass the test a movie has to have: 1) two female characters that 2) have names and 3) have a conversation with each other about something other […]

Game of Thrones returns to the air tonight, and not a moment too soon. I’ve written before about the greatness of the series, and now that I’ve caught up with the books and know what’s in store this year, I can safely say that this season is likely to be every bit as compelling and […]

On Monday last week, Daniel Murphy, the New York Mets’ second baseman, skipped the team’s opening day game because his wife was expecting a child. He was back on the job by Thursday, after taking three days off and missing only two games. In the meantime, though, he heard quite an earful about his choice […]