Spotify’s excesses — ghost artists, boring mood playlists, and AI — don’t indicate some evil inherent to streaming. They stem from the major labels’ effective oligarchy over the music industry. Daniel Ek, CEO and cofounder of Spotify, speaking during a news conference...
Writer-director Celine Song’s Materialists follows a professional NYC matchmaker split between two charming suitors. It’s yet another attempt to update the Jane Austen formula, but without the poignancy and beauty of Song’s acclaimed Past Lives. Dakota Johnson and...
Taking advantage of a broken patent system, Big Pharma is making minor tweaks to medications just to keep affordable generics off the market, a new report suggests. They’ve made billions of dollars in the process. (Jens Kalaene / picture alliance via Getty Images)...
In his campaign for NYC mayor, Zohran Mamdani has proposed making city buses fare-free. Critics of the proposal say this would deprive buses of needed funds, but their argument is based on a mistaken understanding of government revenue. Zohran Mamdani campaigning in...
While the Israeli attack on Iran dominates the headlines, Israel has been accelerating its campaign of mass killing in Gaza. Israeli soldiers have repeatedly gunned down people lining up for food as they stand on the brink of starvation. Palestinians wounded in an...
Despite their reservations about the impacts of crypto on consumers and the financial system, Democratic Party operatives and crypto industry advocates are secretly coordinating to push Democratic senators to back the pro-crypto GENIUS Act. A Bitcoin Accepted Here...
Vivek Chibber on why Trump II signals the end of an era — but not capital’s unchecked rule over our society. Donald Trump raises a fist as he steps off of Air Force One in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 15, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images) The past...
There is so much off base in yesterday’s New York Times editorial on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Let us count the ways. Zohran Mamdani during a mayoral Democratic primary debate in New York, on June 4,...
Israel can inflict massive damage on targets in Iran thanks to its US-supplied technological advantages. But the old neocon fantasy of building a new Middle East through endless war is still as delusional as it is destructive of human life. Extensive damage from...
Concerned with increasing the supply of housing and improving infrastructure, some on the Left have come to embrace the “abundance agenda.” But what capital needs is discipline, not deregulation. Construction continues on a mixed-use apartment complex that will hold...
It wasn’t just large, liberal cities but the heart of Trump country that formed the base of last Saturday’s “No Kings” protests. Together with his underwhelming military parade, they’re a warning of the softness of his support. At between two to six million people...
Novelist Joseph Conrad’s singular foray into sci-fi uncannily anticipates an unsettled world order in which Greenland, placed under the control of a clownish minor aristocrat, represents the new imperialist frontier. President Donald Trump prepares to speak after the...