Robert Kuttner
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Articles by Robert Kuttner
The American Prospect
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity ratings (at around 18 percent) are well below Trump’s, exited Paris yesterday for the Middle East, even as some neighborhoods of major French cities were still smoking. Supposedly, he is on a mission to bring down fuel prices. Bonne chance to that. The French mess is best understood in three dimensions that are all connected—the social, the economic, and the political.
The Possible Socialism of Andy Burnham
LONDON – Imagine that the U.S. had a gifted progressive president, with a common touch and a large majority in Congress. That’s basically what Britain has today with its new prime minister, former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whose Labour Party has a working majority of 167 seats in the House of Commons.
The Blob Celebrates Alan Greenspan
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan died last June 22 at age 100. Next Monday, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), of which he was a longtime member, is having a members-only celebration of Greenspan, in which “panelists who worked alongside him discuss his legacy and contribution to the American economy and society.” Opening the panel will be former Treasury secretary and Clinton economic chief Robert Rubin, who is also former chair of CFR.
A Perfect Economic Storm
By Robert Kuttner, Portside. If Trump needed one more calamity less than three weeks before the election, the financial house of cards is tottering. On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index for September came in hotter than expected. Inflation was up at an annual rate of 3.7 percent. Gasoline prices rose 34 percent over the past year, and home heating oil is up a staggering 74 percent. Combined with other factors, this news spooked the stock market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by 2.7 percent.
A Perfect Economic Storm
President Trump’s deal with Vladimir Putin to buy 300,000 tons of Russian diesel infuriated legislators of both parties as foreign policy, but as Paul Krugman pointed out, Trump evidently failed to do the arithmetic. That quantity equals just half a day of U.S. diesel consumption.
A Perfect Economic Storm
On Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index for September came in hotter than expected. Inflation was up at an annual rate of 3.7 percent. Gasoline prices rose 34 percent over the past year, and home heating oil is up a staggering 74 percent. Combined with other factors, this news spooked the stock market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell by 2.7 percent.
What Will Everyone Do for a Living?
I’m in London this week. Before I left home, I contacted my phone company to check my rate plan. I hate talking to AI droids, so I waited for several minutes to get a human on the line. I asked the human, what does my plan cost me when I make calls to and from London, or use other internet and text services in London? And what are the options to pay a flat rate and reduce the per-minute charges? Pretty straightforward questions.
The American Prospect
Last week, I published a piece on a private company called ID.me, which has over a billion dollars in contracts with federal and state agencies to provide secure identification when citizens do digital transactions with government agencies. Because this company is a dot-me rather than a dot-com, several readers wrote me to say that they had just assumed it was part of the government. Over 150 million Americans now have ID.me accounts, which are required to access several government agencies.
Stopping Election Theft Before It Starts
The courts, the vigilance of state attorneys general and secretaries of state, plus the good work of the democracy defense groups have steadily diminished the likelihood of President Trump trying some kind of Election Day coup. However, a recurring worry is the risk of a post-election coup on January 3, when the newly elected Congress is due to be certified and sworn in. In a scenario that has been making the rounds.
The Political Economy of Diesel
As much as any other factor, the disproportionately high price of diesel is killing President Trump’s political support and by extension that of other Republicans. This particularly threatens Republicans in the Midwest, where farmers rely on diesel for tractors and harvesting, with close Senate races in Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
The Political Economy of Diesel
As much as any other factor, the disproportionately high price of diesel is killing President Trump’s political support and by extension that of other Republicans. This particularly threatens Republicans in the Midwest, where farmers rely on diesel for tractors and harvesting, with close Senate races in Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska.
The American Prospect
My dad was in the Normandy Invasion. His unit, the 28th Infantry Division, helped liberate Paris in August 1944. They marched down the Champs-Élysées, saluted by Gen. de Gaulle. My father was subsequently captured in the Battle of the Bulge and spent several months in the infamous Nazi prison camp Stalag IV-B, near Mühlberg. After hearing the stories from the time I was a young child, I finally decided to look up my dad’s war record. That’s when I encountered something called ID.me.
The Red Tide Goes Out—With a Blue Splashback
As Donald Trump’s support collapses, Republican candidates are whipsawed between distancing themselves from their albatross president and keeping faith with the MAGA hard core. As this straddle becomes all but impossible, Senate seats once considered safely Republican are now in play. Trump adds to the fun by keeping himself highly visible.
The Road to Universal Medicare
The Road to Universal Medicare Published October 2, 2026 Universal health coverage under Medicare is a natural for Democrats. According to a new report by the American Economic Liberties Project, between 2005 and 2025 the annual cost of employer-sponsored family coverage increased from $12,214 to $35,119. Deductibles and co-pays keep rising as well. Illustration by Jordan Awan. President Trump’s assaults have added to the system’s miseries.
Happy Anniversary, EPI
The Economic Policy Institute celebrated its 40th anniversary Thursday with a policy conference and gala. EPI has long been a key sister organization to the Prospect. We’ve published many of its thinkers, relied on its work, and shared goals for the country.
Trump’s No Good at Dictatoring
I’ve been reading a terrifyingly informative new book by Timothy Ryback titled 53 Days: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy. As Ryback reminds us, the Nazi Party actually lost seats in the November 1932 election. But Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933, appointed by Germany’s aged president Paul von Hindenburg, with just three Nazis in his coalition cabinet. Yet by March 23, just 53 days later, a large majority of elected members of the Reichstag voted him full dictatorial powers.
The Road to Universal Medicare
This article appears in the October 2026 issue of The American Prospect magazine. If you’d like to receive our next issue in your mailbox, please subscribe here. Universal health coverage under Medicare is a natural for Democrats. According to a new report by the American Economic Liberties Project, between 2005 and 2025 the annual cost of employer-sponsored family coverage increased from $12,214 to $35,119. Deductibles and co-pays keep rising as well.
Chuck Schumer Neuters Troy Jackson
Last week, Rebecca Traister in New York Magazine, followed by Nathan Bernard and Ryan Grim on Drop Site News, published two deeply reported and alarming stories.
Trump’s Pander Diplomacy
Trump’s summit with China’s Xi Jinping was a perfect metaphor for the entire Trump presidency: no strategic goals or coherent plans, and a clear win for America’s main global adversary. There was zero progress on the real issues in the fraught US-China relationship, which would be a challenge even for a competent president. Instead, the pageantry suggested a declining power fawning in the face of a rising one.
The Coming AI Meltdown
A new report to be presented today at the Brookings Institution shows that the total cost of the AI build-out through 2032 will be $10.3 trillion. That amounts to 3.63 percent of GDP per year, many times that of previous large-scale infrastructure investments, from the 19th-century canals, the railroads, telephone, and electric grids, to the interstate highway system.
The New Union Way to Build Progressive Power
Labor leaders in three swing states, Maine, North Carolina, and Texas, have launched a very promising initiative called the “Contract with Working America.” The idea is to use a deep canvass—extensive in-depth conversations—to learn what’s on the minds of working families, and then distill the results into an explicit plan of action that reflects actual worker views rather than top-down policy wonkery. The canvass has already reached hundreds of thousands of union members and nonmembers.
Kamala Harris for President Again?
The other day, California’s lame-duck Gov. Gavin Newsom made what looked like a high-minded promise in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. If Kamala Harris ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, Newsom said, he would not run. “I know her base of supporters, I know her friends,” Newsom told Tapper. “I wouldn’t do that to people. I wouldn’t put them in that position.” Is Newsom just being gracious and courtly? Not exactly.
Bonta Gives Up on the Paramount Case
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has settled the challenge that he brought with 11 other state AGs to the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The deal to settle the suit is both improbable and outrageous. The $81 billion merger will give the Ellison family control of two of America’s biggest media companies, rolled into one behemoth combining film, television, sports, entertainment, and news. It would slash jobs and reduce competition throughout several industries.
Mark Carney Is No Hero
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has legions of U.S. fans, because of his most un-Canadian moxie in standing up to President Trump. In his latest move, Carney has even enlisted the EU to invent an associate member status, just for Canada. Take that, Donald! But there is a lot less to this latest move than meets the eye—and a lot more about the neoliberal Carney that you need to know about.
The Unbearable Lightness of Pete Hegseth
Yesterday, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed a well-deserved impeachment resolution against Pete Hegseth, on eight specific charges. And he filed it as a privileged resolution, which requires the House to act within two days. Also yesterday, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to invoke the War Powers Act against President Trump’s undeclared war in Iran.
How Should the Federal Reserve Deal With the AI Bubble?
The Federal Reserve faces a momentous decision tomorrow on whether to raise interest rates, and the calculation will be whipsawed by multiple factors that cut in opposite directions: rising energy costs, a weakening labor market, and most recently, the multipronged revolt against AI, which itself has crosscutting implications. The best argument in favor of a rate hike, which is now the consensus forecast, is the plain fact that prices keep increasing.
The Courts and American Democracy
The Supreme Court has signaled that it has little sympathy for President Trump’s scheme to use the U.S. Postal Service to frustrate mail-in balloting and generally sow confusion. Pending a decision on the merits of the case, the Court has fended off the administration request to pause lower-court injunctions prohibiting the USPS from implementing its requirements. But as states send out ballots, the high court has not yet scheduled a hearing or provided a timetable for issuing a final ruling.
Germany’s Far Right, China, and Trump Original
The 44 percent support for the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the small east German state of Saxony-Anhalt has produced great anxiety about the causes of a new turn to fascism in the nation that produced Hitler. Call me an economic determinist, but for the most part it’s the economy, stupid. And absent drastic changes in the global economic order and the role of China, Germany and the West are headed for much worse. This story comes in three parts.
The Post-Trump Republican to Watch (and Watch Out For)
The subject of the August 4 Senate investigative hearing was surveillance pricing, and the senator was on fire with indignation. In his opening remarks, he called surveillance pricing “one of the biggest scams in American history.” Surveillance pricing has become ubiquitous.
The Legacy of 9/11: A Surveillance Society
When the attacks of September 11, 2001, stunned America 25 years ago, the Prospect had just moved to Washington and brought on a new executive editor in Harold Meyerson. In about a week, we managed to assign and edit an issue that was one of our best ever. The cover line was “Defending an Open Society.” The articles in that issue challenged the widespread assumption that we were now in a new normal, in which the vulnerability of an open society had been horribly revealed.
Q&A: Preventing a Trump Election Coup
By all indications, the midterm elections should produce a massive blue wave, unless of course Trump and his thugs manage to steal it. How likely is he to succeed? I put the question to one of America’s most thoughtful and public-minded experts on the subject, retired federal district judge Nancy Gertner, who now teaches at Harvard Law School.
Trump, Election Theft, and the Courts
The Missouri Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will help Democrats gain a House seat in November, but more importantly will complicate President Trump’s attempt to use the U.S. Supreme Court to manipulate the election.
The Postal Service’s Destruction of Democracy
The Postal Service’s Destruction of Democracy Published September 2, 2026 Until the release of a whistleblower dossier on Monday, one could be relatively hopeful that a string of court decisions would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s orders to slow-walk mail-in voting. As I wrote in this piece last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani has enjoined the Postal Service from implementing its plans, pending a full hearing scheduled for tomorrow.
The Postal Service’s Destruction of Democracy
Until the release of a whistleblower dossier on Monday, one could be relatively hopeful that a string of court decisions would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s orders to slow-walk mail-in voting. As I wrote in this piece last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani has enjoined the Postal Service from implementing its plans, pending a full hearing scheduled for tomorrow. Now, however, a whistleblower lays out new alarming details. In a letter to Sen.
Paramount, CBS, Trump, and the Ellisons: The Ultimate Corruption
There is so much sheer corruption on all sides in the efforts by Larry Ellison and his son, David, to cash in big by trading favors with the Trump administration (and incidentally killing CBS News as part of the deal) that it’s hard to keep all the details straight. Happily (or sadly), a brilliant new documentary, Murdering 60 Minutes, connects all the dots. The documentary follows the format of a 60 Minutes investigation. It is like 60 Minutes investigating itself. You need to see it.
Trump Weaponizes the IRS Against Liberal Nonprofits
The Trump administration will try to strip tax exemptions from several liberal nonprofits, according to a leak to the Rupert Murdoch–owned New York Post. The top target, says the Post story, are philanthropies linked to Trump nemesis George Soros.
The Battle Over Mail-In Ballots
In the latest twist in the saga of President Trump’s efforts to get the U.S. Postal Service to restrict or condition mail-in voting, a federal judge once again has enjoined the Postal Service from moving ahead with its plan. District Court Judge Indira Talwani’s order yesterday came after the Supreme Court had admonished her on Monday, overturning her earlier injunction on the grounds that the Postal Service had not finalized any changes; thus the suit and injunction were supposedly premature.
How Trump Is Destroying Detroit
The U.S. auto industry was in big trouble even before President Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on the profitable vehicles that the Big Three automakers produce in Ontario. Auto manufacturers make several trucks in Canada, including GM’s Chevy Silverado and Ford’s F-350 and F-450. These will now have to carry far higher sticker prices. The negotiations collapsed after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick inserted himself in the final talks and declared that tariffs would not be cut on heavy trucks.
You Can Take This as Gospel
When I first moved to the Boston area in 1979, my congressman was Robert F. Drinan, better known as Father Drinan. He was, of all things, a left-wing Catholic priest. Father Drinan, a Jesuit, ran for Congress in 1970 on an anti-war platform, defeating the incumbent, Philip Philbin, a pro-Vietnam hawk who served on the House Armed Services Committee. Despite being a priest, Drinan was also a champion of abortion rights. Exasperated church officials repeatedly tried to drive Drinan out of politics.
Canada Stands Up to Trump’s Illegal Tariffs
The mainstream media has treated the collapse of trade talks with Canada as a symmetrical crisis, with each side blaming the other for a needless trade war. The Wall Street Journal’s story is headlined “U.S., Canada Spiral Toward Trade War.” The New York Times piece reported that “Trade talks between the countries suddenly soured late Friday night, following a week of talks in which negotiators appeared hopeful for an agreement.” This framing is horse pucky.
That Stunning Florida Senate Win
Until this week’s Florida primary, corporate and AIPAC Democrats could comfort themselves with the belief that the surge of democratic socialists was largely limited to a few big cities and college towns. But then DSA member Angie Nixon, a three-term state rep from Jacksonville, trounced the impeccably credentialed centrist Alex Vindman by 12 points.
How the Cost of Money Spikes Inflation
If you are an ordinary civilian, the words bond market are a guaranteed snooze. But this story should be keeping you awake big-time. The government is now paying more to finance the public debt than at any time since the fateful year 2007, the eve of the 2008 financial collapse. Why have rates on 30-year Treasury bonds risen to more than 5.3 percent? Partly because investors think that inflation will keep creeping up, so they charge the government a premium for lending it money long-term.
More About Seth Moulton’s Conflicts
More About Seth Moulton’s Conflicts Published August 11, 2026 Last week, I reported that Seth Moulton, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey for the Massachusetts Democratic Senate nomination, was given a sweetheart opportunity to buy into three lucrative defense-related stocks not available to the general public. Moulton is a top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
More About Seth Moulton’s Conflicts
Last week, I reported that Seth Moulton, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey for the Massachusetts Democratic Senate nomination, was given a sweetheart opportunity to buy into three lucrative defense-related stocks not available to the general public. Moulton is a top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
Barack, Your Country Needs You
If you haven’t yet seen this sketch featuring Barack Obama from the final episode of Larry David’s HBO series, you owe it to yourself. In it, Obama plays himself as president, and David plays himself as a White House aide. The skit is set in 2014. The premise is that a famous, tempest-in-a-teapot episode where Obama was criticized for wearing an “unpresidential” tan suit to a press conference was really Larry David’s fault.
Dems’ Dilemma, From the Mountains to the Prairies
On Tuesday, Julian Beaudion, the Democratic Senate nominee challenging South Dakota Republican incumbent Mike Rounds, dropped out in favor of independent Brian Bengs. This followed similar actions in Idaho and Nebraska. In Idaho last week, Democratic nominee David Roth stood aside in favor of Todd Achilles, a former Democratic state legislator and an Army veteran, who is running as an independent against Republican Sen. Jim Risch. Both Bengs and Achilles are long shots.
The Democratic Brand and the DNC Mess
As you have undoubtedly read, the Democratic National Committee is in debt and in turmoil, at a time when a June Supreme Court decision has liberated party committees to funnel unlimited sums to candidates. To be precise, the Republican National Committee has $128.5 million in cash on hand, while the DNC has a debt of over $2 million.
Republican Senators Pretend to Constrain Trump
Over the weekend, it looked as if President Trump had backed himself into a corner in his efforts to get Todd Blanche confirmed as attorney general. Texas Sen.
Seth Moulton’s Sweetheart Deals
Rep. Seth Moulton, who represents Massachusetts’s Sixth Congressional District, will debate incumbent Sen. Ed Markey Monday evening in the second of three televised debates ahead of the September 1 Democratic primary for Senate. Polls show Markey narrowly leading. Markey, a progressive who recently turned 80, has served in Congress since 1976. Moulton, 47, a former Marine who is more of a centrist, has sought to primarily frame the contest as youth vs. age.
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