Fintech and Microfinance Are Preying on the Global Poor
Microfinance and fintech have been sold as innovative solutions to poverty in the Global South. But for the most part, they’ve just enriched wealthy investors at the poor’s expense.
Blog
The Debt Ceiling Deal Is Not a “Victory”
The deal that brought an end to the debt ceiling circus is not good — and Democrats didn’t have to let it become this bad.
An Elite Soldier’s Downfall Has Created a Dilemma for Australian Politicians
Former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has failed in his bid to sue journalists for exposing his war crimes in Afghanistan. His downfall is set to embarrass the political elites who championed him.
Chile’s Constitutional Fiasco Holds Lessons for the Left
The election of the far right to Chile’s Constitutional Council is another major blow to the hope of a new constitution. But the Chilean left isn’t defeated yet.
A Queens Hospital Just Saw the First NYC Hospital Doctors’ Strike in Over 30 Years
Last week at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, over 150 resident physicians walked out and won a tentative agreement, marking the first time hospital doctors in New York City have gone on strike since 1990. We spoke with an Elmhurst doctor about the strike.
Faced With Electoral Wipeout, Spain’s Left Has to Unite
After gains for the Right in Sunday’s local and regional contests, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap general election. Yolanda Díaz’s left-wing Sumar project can get a good result — but only if the Left can overcome its damaging splits.
Simone de Beauvoir Understood the Link Between Gender and Class Oppression
The Second Sex is rightly celebrated as a classic work of feminist theory. But it’s often forgotten that Simone de Beauvoir saw it as a socialist text carefully anatomizing the relationship between gender and class oppression.
The Debt Ceiling Deal Fast-Tracks the Approval of a Climate-Killing Fossil Fuel Pipeline
The deal struck by Joe Biden and congressional Republicans to avert a default on the national debt includes provisions that expedite construction of a greenhouse-gas-spewing pipeline and even attempt to block courts from hearing challenges to its legality.
Denmark’s Political Establishment Is Cozying Up to Israel
Denmark’s grand coalition government has potentially misled parliament to push through a deal to purchase billions in arms from Israel. The deal marks a high point in Danish-Israeli relations and is a sign that the Left has been marginalized on foreign policy.
Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Benefactor Is Grateful for a Recent Supreme Court Ruling
Billionaire Harlan Crow’s firm advocated for rolling back the very wetland protections the Supreme Court just gutted. The obvious conflict of interest raises questions about not just the ruling’s legitimacy but the entire court’s.
At the National Conservatism Conference, Thatcher’s Ghost Was Haunting the Proceedings
I went to the right-wing populist National Conservatism Conference in London. I found a self-consciously “post-liberal” right grappling with the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and divided between pro- and anti-Thatcherites.
Martin Amis Resisted Every Cliché — Except for Lurching Rightward as He Aged
An often brilliant writer, Martin Amis dedicated himself to fighting a war on cliché. At his best, he produced comic parodies of upper- and working-class life. At his worst, he followed the dominant political currents to the right and embraced its platitudes.