Trump’s Tall Tax Tales

Trump’s Tall Tax Tales

An old saying asserts that falsehoods come in three escalating levels: Lies, damn lies, and statistics. But now there’s an even higher category of lies: a Donald Trump speech. Take his recent address on specific economic policies he’d push to benefit hard-hit...
Reagan Sold Your Future, Trump Will Too

Reagan Sold Your Future, Trump Will Too

Two generations ago, many white working-class Democrats bought into Ronald Reagan’s promise of a better nation. Eager for “morning in America” — and swayed by fear that advances for black people would come at their expense — they didn’t see that the shadow...
It Doesn’t Have to Be ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’

It Doesn’t Have to Be ‘Us’ vs. ‘Them’

It’s increasingly easy to believe that our country is irreconcilably divided. But that’s not quite the America that Michael Morrill saw from his perch in Reading, Pennsylvania the weekend before the Republican convention in Cleveland. Morrill, the...
There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Free Market’

There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Free Market’

The debates leading up to the election this year will no doubt invoke the “American value” of capitalism. But what, exactly, does that mean? And what should it mean? I’m no economist, but I took a few economics courses while earning an undergraduate...