I closely track inequality in the U.S. and around the world.
Americans should brace for an explosion in inequality under the next Trump administration.
In the firing line areworkers rights.
President-elect Donald Trump at the launch of a SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, TX.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
An oligarchy now has democracy in its grip.
Consider the horrors of themass deportationthat Trump has planned, and the chaos that would ensue.
I use the word oligarchy, usually associated with rogue states, intentionally.
Oligarchs are those empowered politically by massive wealth.
It turns out theyve bought a couch, if not a seat, in the Oval Office.
This moment isthe long triumph of abipartisan embrace of oligarchyover our politics.
This path was chosen.
The future of our politics must reckon with uncomfortable truths.
It is customary to lament the role that Ronald Reagan and other right-wing figures played in fueling inequality.
This path was also paved by compelling, if fictional, stories.
Such fictions undermine efforts to tackle poverty, and flow wealth upwards.
The federal government cant run everything.
Its worth imagining where we would be had we enactedwindfall taxes on extreme profitsand targetedprice controls.
Above all, the path of oligarchy has been about power, acting as the ultimate special interest group.
Corporate monopolies are spending more than ever onfederal lobbying.
As Sen. Chris Murphy describes, so often they were shunned as dangerous populists.
Still, advocates and activists carved out an interregnum from neoliberal economics as theanger against inequalitybecame unavoidable.
TheBiden administrationattempted new economic approaches, for a time.Workers chalked up victories.
Policymakers prepared proposals to, finally,tax billionaires.
But even these limited attempts for a new economics have been fought tooth and nail by monied elites.
Heads they win, tails you lose.
The capture of our political economy by a few is relevant to every question in our society.
Who can blame working folks angry at elites for making a world that put them on the scrapheap?
A generational contest for an economic vision thats different to the past 40 years is on.
President-elect Trump and indeed Vice President-elect J.D.
Their rush to delivermore tax cutsfor their ultra-wealthy friends shows whose side they are on.
