Bidenomics Caused Inflation, But the Left Remains Committed

Mike Konczal, former top economist in the Biden administration, recently published a report, “The Affordability Framework,” that purports to offer a new vision for the economy. Written with his colleague Becky Chao, the report is “largely a repeat of the Bidenomics playbook,” Judge Glock writes.

The authors point out that between 2020 and 2024, grocery prices rose 24 percent, while over the past five years, home prices have risen 50 percent. “The main causes of these increases are clear: a lax Federal Reserve and an exploding federal deficit,” Glock writes. “Yet the report pays little attention to either.”

Instead, the authors point to “broken markets,” arguing that they can be fixed through antitrust action and regulation, and “broken incomes.” To fix low pay, they “call for expanding transfer payments—including a guaranteed income and single-payer government health care—to raise incomes,” Glock observes. “Yet they overlook the simplest way to help lower- and middle-class families: letting them keep more of what they earn.”

Read his analysis.

New York City appears ready to elect Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor. The self-described democratic socialist has promised, among other things, to freeze the rent, make buses free, and build government-controlled housing.

Christopher F. Rufo imagines what a Mayor Mamdani would mean for New Yorkers and their city. Read his take.

Earlier this month, Vice President J. D. Vance lamented on social media that the six New England states have no Republican representatives in Congress despite voting about 40 percent Republican.

There’s a simple solution to this problem, Jack Santucci writes: proportional representation. “In a PR system, a party with 40 percent of the votes gets 40 percent of seats,” he explains, noting “it’s a smart way to ensure that Republicans in blue states get their voices heard.”

Read his take on what such a system might look like.

Earlier this month, the Oxford Union voted to remove president-elect George Abaraonye over his celebration of Charlie Kirk’s murder. Abaraonye had debated Kirk back in May about toxic masculinity.

The controversy may seem very 2025, but it draws parallels to the early career of Frank Meyer, remembered today as an important conservative thinker but who “acted in an even more obnoxious manner during the 1930s at Oxford than George Abaraonye does now,” Daniel J. Flynn writes. Meyer had depicted himself as a free-speech martyr even as he showed contempt for free expression, and he was considered the founder of Great Britain’s student Communist movement. He conspired with Krishna Menon to rig a vote that elected him president of the student government at the London School of Economics. The list of his offenses goes on.

“Yet he eventually asked the bravest question: What if I’m wrong?” Flynn points out. “If lifetime Oxford Union member Frank Meyer could change after shouting down campus speakers, then the group’s 20-year-old former president-elect can, too.”

Read more about Meyer’s transformation here.

When City Journal reporter Adam Lehodey arrived at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Sunday to report on Zohran Mamdani’s rally, he was told that his ticket had already been scanned. After he requested to speak with a supervisor, they told him his ticket had been “cancelled” and that he would be escorted out by security.

“I can only speculate as to why my ticket was cancelled, and whether it was deliberate or a genuine error,” Lehodey writes. “The Mamdani campaign did not respond to my request for comment.”

Read about his experience here.

“Socialism does not work no matter how it is packaged. The fundamental premise is fatally flawed: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The fatal flaw is that abilities are finite but needs are infinite.”

Photo credit: ROBERTO SCHMIDT / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images