AdvertisementAdvertisementBill Gates became the latest billionaire to get into a dust-up with Elizabeth Warren this week, after making some jokey comments onstage about his concerns over her wealth tax proposal, and what it might cost him personally. “I’ve paid more than $10 billion in taxes. I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes,” he told financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, earning some laughs from the crowd. “But I’m glad to have. If I’d had to have paid $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, OK, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left...…AdvertisementAdvertisementBill Gates became the latest billionaire to get into a dust-up with Elizabeth Warren this week, after making some jokey comments onstage about his concerns over her wealth tax proposal, and what it might cost him personally. “I’ve paid more than $10 billion in taxes. I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes,” he told financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, earning some laughs from the crowd. “But I’m glad to have. If I’d had to have paid $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, OK, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementFolks, there is some high-grade malarkey wafting up from Pennsylvania Avenue this morning. The Daily Beast that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.” The pot-smoker purge is happening despite the fact that, just last month, Biden’s team new personnel guidelines suggesting that individuals who had used cannabis recreationally wouldn’t necessarily be blocked from jobs. According to the Beast, staffers have been penalized even if they only partook in states where...…AdvertisementAdvertisementFolks, there is some high-grade malarkey wafting up from Pennsylvania Avenue this morning. The Daily Beast that “dozens of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use.” The pot-smoker purge is happening despite the fact that, just last month, Biden’s team new personnel guidelines suggesting that individuals who had used cannabis recreationally wouldn’t necessarily be blocked from jobs. According to the Beast, staffers have been penalized even if they only partook in states where...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementFacebook has spent much of the past four years kowtowing to conservatives, treating right-wing news outlets with kid gloves even as they flouted its rules and spread disinformation, while bending over backward to avoid offending the Trump administration. By almost , the company hoped that playing nice would stave off any kind of serious regulatory crackdown on its business, or at least spare it some angry presidential tweets (while, of course, keeping Republican eyeballs glued to its news feed).AdvertisementThis strategy seems to have failed rather badly. On...…AdvertisementAdvertisementFacebook has spent much of the past four years kowtowing to conservatives, treating right-wing news outlets with kid gloves even as they flouted its rules and spread disinformation, while bending over backward to avoid offending the Trump administration. By almost , the company hoped that playing nice would stave off any kind of serious regulatory crackdown on its business, or at least spare it some angry presidential tweets (while, of course, keeping Republican eyeballs glued to its news feed).AdvertisementThis strategy seems to have failed rather badly. On...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementFormer Treasury Larry Summers has concerns about President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan, which he broadcast in a Washington Post . Specifically, he thinks it might be too big. Too much. Just, you know, a bit extra. “While the arguments for providing relief to those hurt by the economic fallout of the pandemic, investing in controlling the virus and supporting consumer demand are compelling, much of the policy discussion has not fully reckoned with the magnitude of what is being debated.”AdvertisementI’ve already too seriously. But I want to discuss it a...…AdvertisementAdvertisementFormer Treasury Larry Summers has concerns about President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan, which he broadcast in a Washington Post . Specifically, he thinks it might be too big. Too much. Just, you know, a bit extra. “While the arguments for providing relief to those hurt by the economic fallout of the pandemic, investing in controlling the virus and supporting consumer demand are compelling, much of the policy discussion has not fully reckoned with the magnitude of what is being debated.”AdvertisementI’ve already too seriously. But I want to discuss it a...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementDemocrats aren’t ready to nuke the filibuster. Not now. And possibly not ever, depending how serious you think Sens. and were when they announced this week that they would oppose any effort to blow up their chamber’s antiquated, obviously destructive 60-vote threshold.Practically speaking, this means that if Democrats want to enact most of their agenda, they will have to rely on the somewhat byzantine and widely misunderstood process known as , which prevents filibusters on certain kinds of legislation. Party leaders have that to move President Joe Biden’s big...…AdvertisementAdvertisementDemocrats aren’t ready to nuke the filibuster. Not now. And possibly not ever, depending how serious you think Sens. and were when they announced this week that they would oppose any effort to blow up their chamber’s antiquated, obviously destructive 60-vote threshold.Practically speaking, this means that if Democrats want to enact most of their agenda, they will have to rely on the somewhat byzantine and widely misunderstood process known as , which prevents filibusters on certain kinds of legislation. Party leaders have that to move President Joe Biden’s big...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementJoe Biden used his inaugural address this week to call for a new era of national unity, promising to put his “whole soul” into bringing the country together after the vitriol, violence, and collective trauma of the Trump years. And how are Republicans responding? Largely by trying to club the president with his own words, accusing him of being “divisive” every time he opens his mouth or signs a sheet of paper.The effort to, as Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer put it, Biden’s rhetoric against him is proceeding down two parallel tracks. Some conservatives have worked...…AdvertisementAdvertisementJoe Biden used his inaugural address this week to call for a new era of national unity, promising to put his “whole soul” into bringing the country together after the vitriol, violence, and collective trauma of the Trump years. And how are Republicans responding? Largely by trying to club the president with his own words, accusing him of being “divisive” every time he opens his mouth or signs a sheet of paper.The effort to, as Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer put it, Biden’s rhetoric against him is proceeding down two parallel tracks. Some conservatives have worked...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementPresident Joe Biden and Democratic legislative leaders were extremely clear about how they hoped to govern when they won full control of Washington for the first time in more than a decade. Their mantra? Be more like Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress of 1933, and less like Barack Obama and the Congress of 2009.Well before winning the White House, Biden had begun to murmur about his desire for an , sensing that, just like the Great Depression, the coronavirus crisis not only demanded a massive government response but created an opportunity to build a different and...…AdvertisementAdvertisementPresident Joe Biden and Democratic legislative leaders were extremely clear about how they hoped to govern when they won full control of Washington for the first time in more than a decade. Their mantra? Be more like Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress of 1933, and less like Barack Obama and the Congress of 2009.Well before winning the White House, Biden had begun to murmur about his desire for an , sensing that, just like the Great Depression, the coronavirus crisis not only demanded a massive government response but created an opportunity to build a different and...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisementWe can now add Steve Mnuchin to the list of Trump officials who are doing their part to undercut the next administration before moseying out the door. On Thursday evening, the Treasury secretary announced that agree to renew a series of lending efforts that the Federal Reserve began earlier this year in response to the coronavirus crisis, a move that could hamstring the central bank’s ability to stabilize the economy and financial markets if things get choppy again once president-elect Joe Biden is in office.AdvertisementSuffice to say, none of the explanations...…AdvertisementAdvertisementWe can now add Steve Mnuchin to the list of Trump officials who are doing their part to undercut the next administration before moseying out the door. On Thursday evening, the Treasury secretary announced that agree to renew a series of lending efforts that the Federal Reserve began earlier this year in response to the coronavirus crisis, a move that could hamstring the central bank’s ability to stabilize the economy and financial markets if things get choppy again once president-elect Joe Biden is in office.AdvertisementSuffice to say, none of the explanations...WW…

If you had asked me back in 2017 to guess who would turn out to be the most important force for good within the Trump administration, there was no way I’d have answered Steve Mnuchin. The best thing you could say about the treasury secretary was that he didn’t appear to be a lunatic, just a slightly more-heartless-than-average Wall Street type who’d been born rich and didn’t seem to have especially strong political views.Certainly, nothing in Mnuchin’s résumé suggested the potential for greatness, or that he was even particularly qualified for the job. Over the course of his peripatetic,...…If you had asked me back in 2017 to guess who would turn out to be the most important force for good within the Trump administration, there was no way I’d have answered Steve Mnuchin. The best thing you could say about the treasury secretary was that he didn’t appear to be a lunatic, just a slightly more-heartless-than-average Wall Street type who’d been born rich and didn’t seem to have especially strong political views.Certainly, nothing in Mnuchin’s résumé suggested the potential for greatness, or that he was even particularly qualified for the job. Over the course of his peripatetic,...WW…

AdvertisementAdvertisement“It would be a ‘big fucking deal.’’’I had asked Gabriel Zucman, the influential University of California, Berkeley economist, to weigh in on the Biden administration’s plan for transforming how the whole world taxes large multinational companies, which so far has flown a bit under the radar compared to other parts of its agenda. The White House for its $2 trillion American Jobs Plan by raising taxes on behemoths like Apple and Google while ending what it calls the international “race to the bottom”—the decades-long spiral of beggar-thy-neighbor competition, in...…AdvertisementAdvertisement“It would be a ‘big fucking deal.’’’I had asked Gabriel Zucman, the influential University of California, Berkeley economist, to weigh in on the Biden administration’s plan for transforming how the whole world taxes large multinational companies, which so far has flown a bit under the radar compared to other parts of its agenda. The White House for its $2 trillion American Jobs Plan by raising taxes on behemoths like Apple and Google while ending what it calls the international “race to the bottom”—the decades-long spiral of beggar-thy-neighbor competition, in...WW…