Category Archives: Uncategorized

For Quartz, I wrote about restrictive new voter ID laws that may disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of non-white voters in swing states, potentially handing a victory to Donald Trump. I encourage you to circulate this article. Voter disenfranchisement is an issue people … Continue reading →

For the Chronicle of Higher Education, I wrote about the retirement crisis in academia, but it applies to US workers generally: America’s contingent faculty are not alone in their predicament. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, 92% of … Continue reading →

For Quartz, I wrote about how the phrase “anti-establishment” has lost all meaning: The 2016 election is unprecedented on a number of levels. The two candidates with the most delegates, Clinton and Trump, are the two least-favorably rated front-runners in … Continue reading →

Since the fall of 2015, I’ve been predicting that Trump would win not only the GOP nomination but the general election. This claim was dismissed as paranoid and pessimistic, but unfortunately I was right. I do think the general election … Continue reading →

For Quartz, I wrote about the geography of the unequal economic recovery in the US. Coastal cities with thriving economies have become unaffordable for the average worker; heartland cities that are affordable have few jobs, and most Americans cannot afford … Continue reading →

For Quartz, I wrote about the very misleading 5% unemployment rate, a statistic which discounts 1) the long-term unemployed and the lowered labor participation rate 2) the explosion of the low-paying, unreliable “gig economy” 3) the proliferation of low-wage jobs … Continue reading →

For the Globe and Mail, I wrote about the New York primary, in a piece published the day before. The piece discusses not only the candidates — three of whom are personally connected to New York — but the elitism … Continue reading →

It was another rough year for Uzbekistan, with entrenched corruption, forced cotton labor, and an economy weakened by the Russian remittance crisis among the key trends. My report for Nations in Transit is out today. Here is an excerpt: Despite the government’s … Continue reading →

Most articles about why people vote for Donald Trump get their answers from two places: polls, with no follow-up questions but lots of speculation as to the “real meaning”; and rallies, where reporters interview the die-hards. Trump fans are rarely … Continue reading →

For the Globe and Mail, I wrote about anti-Trump protests and the potential danger of cable news exploitation as they become increasingly violent. An excerpt: Mr. Trump’s seeming encouragement of riots, along with inflammatory remarks like offering to pay the … Continue reading →