David Dayen

David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect. His work has appeared in The Intercept, The New Republic, HuffPost, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and more. His first book, "Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud," winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize, was released by The New Press in 2016. His book, "Fat Cat: The Steve Mnuchin Story," with Rebecca Burns, was published in 2018.
Articles by this author
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Views Wednesday, August 21, 2019 How Elizabeth Warren Works the Political System I get a little annoyed by trendy, overused terms like “theory of change” that always seem to me more like after-the-fact justifications for how leaders manage to succeed than a premeditated idea. But you can build that thread with Elizabeth Warren, and take some lessons from her approach to... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, July 31, 2019 CNN's Debate Fail E veryone working for CNN should walk into network president Jeff Zucker’s office and resign en masse on Wednesday morning. A “debate” that spent its opening 25 minutes less efficiently than a Super Bowl pre-game show got dramatically worse as the actual questions got started. Jake Tapper then... Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 25, 2019 Trump’s Antitrust Cops Fail to Police Big Business—Again With public attention directed to the Mueller hearings, the nation’s antitrust authorities have quietly declared their continued abandonment of the American public this week, allowing giant corporations to accrue power and dodge responsibility for significant and serious harm. These actions make... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, July 10, 2019 Conservatives Grasp at Straws After CBO Minimum Wage Analysis Shows Clear Benefits Corporate interests invented cost-benefit analysis as a way to delay progressive policy through studies and weigh it down by equalizing, for example, the burden on business with the benefits for citizens. But now we’re seeing a new genre: cost-cost analysis. When the benefits become too obvious,... Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 27, 2019 Warren's Medicare for All Moment Was Critical The most important moment in last night’s Democratic debate wasn’t a word or a phrase. It was the raising of Elizabeth Warren’s hand. When moderators asked who on stage would be willing to abolish the health insurance industry and enact Medicare for All her hand shot up, with only Bill de Blasio... Read more |
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Views Friday, May 10, 2019 Trump's Most Nakedly Corrupt Tweet Yet It used to be that I was concerned that the media was paying too much attention to Donald Trump’s tweets; now I’m concerned that they’re not paying enough. This week a random tweet from the president sunk a congressional bill destined for passage, all to please a friend and lobbyist whose clients... Read more |
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Views Friday, February 15, 2019 Amazon’s Decision To Pull Out of NYC Is a Massive Blow To Corporate Welfare Amazon announced Thursday the company has canceled its bid to acquire nearly $3 billion in public dollars to locate a facility in New York City—the most substantial setback for corporate welfare in recent memory. Significantly, Amazon states in its announcement of the decision that it will continue... Read more |
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Views Sunday, February 10, 2019 Meet the Militant Flight Attendant Leader Who Threatened a Strike—And Helped Stop Trump's Shutdown The government shutdown introduced America to an audacious new voice in the labor movement: Sara Nelson. While receiving the MLK Drum Major for Justice Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFL-CIO on January 20, Nelson, the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, called... Read more |
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Views Saturday, February 09, 2019 Amazon Threatens to Cancel New York City Headquarters If It Doesn’t Receive $3 Billion in Subsidies Fearful of losing nearly $3 billion in subsidies for its expansion in New York City, Amazon has moved to a new strategy, one involving threats. The Washington Post (owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos) reported on Friday that the company is “reconsidering” its plan to place an office facility for up to... Read more |
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Views Thursday, December 20, 2018 Steve Mnuchin’s Path of Destruction Leads From Wall Street to Trump’s Treasury The following is an adapted excerpt from the new book Fat Cat: The Steve Mnuchin Story by Rebecca Burns and David Dayen (Strong Arm Press, 2018), available for purchase from Amazon and IndieBound : In February, two months after the Trump administration pulled off one of the biggest wealth transfers... Read more |