June 21, 2023
The Bad Math Behind Economic Doomerism
It’s a big week for American Compass, a think tank founded in 2020 that fancies itself as the “pre-eminent alternative to the Old Right’s market fundamentalism.” On the heels of its new policy book, Rebuilding American Capitalism, it hosts an event on Capitol Hill today with multiple Republican senators. It’s the latest sign of the intellectual confusion afflicting…
May 5, 2023
Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription
Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond’s previous book, Evicted, offered a compelling account of poverty in America. Illuminating and thought-provoking, its ethnographic accounts of deep struggle spurred new research and increased policy focus on the links between poverty and housing instability. Though it didn’t get everything right, it was an important book. Sadly, Desmond’s latest offering, Poverty, by America, provides little of…