JACOBIN

JUNE 18. 2025

Materialists Tries to Update the Rom-Com for the Tinder Generation

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.

Big Pharma Can Tweak Drugs to Keep Generics Off the Market

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.

The Bad Argument Against Zohran Mamdani’s Free Bus Proposal

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.

JUNE 17. 2025

Israel Is Inflicting New Horrors on the People of Gaza

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.

Dems Are Being Pushed to Support Crypto for Political Gain

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.

Are We Still in Neoliberalism?

Vivek Chibber on why Trump II signals the end of an era — but not capital’s unchecked rule over our society.

The New York Times Is Wrong on Zohran Mamdani

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.

Israel’s Attack on Iran Is Reviving Regime Change Mania

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.

To Get Abundance, We Need to Discipline Capital

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.

JUNE 16. 2025

“No Kings” Was a Rebellion in Trump Country

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.

Marc Andreessen’s Manifesto for Rule by the Few

Drawing on a century-old theory about the inevitability of elite control, billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen champions Silicon Valley as a new ruling class. His worldview revives the reactionary dream of greatness unencumbered by the masses.

A Forgotten Sci-Fi Novel Predicts Trump’s Greenland Fixation

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.

The Limits of Family Abolition

Family abolitionists see the family as the beating heart of capitalist social reproduction. But this view of the family misunderstands both the structure of capitalist reproduction and the complexity of how people survive within it.

New York Moves to Stop Vulture Fund Exploitation

After many failed attempts to rein in vulture funds, New York lawmakers are trying an obscure medieval legal defense to stop them from profiting off the debt of poor nations. This last resort option faces stiff resistance from Wall Street’s lobbying machine.