James Kwak
Washington Monthly
United States
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Past articles by James:
The Fallacy of the Free Market
Democrats' vision that our broken economy simply needs to correct for market failures has its limits. → Read More
Letter to the Editor: In Defense of Econ 101
“We make every effort to give our students a fundamental theoretical structure that they can extend as appropriate when evaluating real-world problems.” → Read More
The Curse of Econ 101
When it comes to basic policy questions such as the minimum wage, introductory economics can be more misleading than it is helpful. → Read More
The Perfectly Normal Ways Trump Can Enrich Himself as President
The president-elect's control over conventional economic policy could be worth more money than any conflict of interest. → Read More
The Tax Code for the Ultra-Rich vs. the One for Everyone Else
It’s as though there’s a separate set of laws for people with extreme amounts of wealth. → Read More
The Tax Code for the Ultra-Rich vs. the One for Everyone Else
It’s as though there’s a separate set of laws for people with extreme amounts of wealth. → Read More
California's Smart New Retirement Plan and the Industry That Opposes It
Many asset-management companies fear a program that would reduce something they depend on: consumers’ confusion. → Read More
The Difficult Math of American Health Care
It’s not just Aetna: The way Obamacare handles the excessive costs of treatment simply doesn’t work. → Read More
Hillary Clinton Is Proposing Tweaks to Wall Street When an Overhaul Is Needed
Ultimately, her vision is likely to vanish into an abyss of rule-writing and regulatory dithering. → Read More
the rich, the poor, and whether tax policies live or die
Obama's failed proposal to eliminate 529 plans illustrates the current state of American taxation: Reforms that benefit the middle class at the expense of the wealthy will never pass. → Read More
How Not to Regulate
This past weekend's This American Life/ProPublica report confirms the worst of what many already suspected: The New York Fed has little independence from the industry it is supposed to control. → Read More
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States?
The conventional wisdom is that revoking a large bank’s license can trigger potential systemic consequences. But that's not the case here. → Read More
Why Won't Washington Take on Wall Street's Biggest Crimes?
The Justice Department has successfully convicted dozens of bankers for insider trading. But the big banks did something much worse and got away with it. → Read More
Bitcoin and the Myth of Tech Utopia
The belief that every human problem can be solved with software forgets the human element inside all software. → Read More