David Leonhardt: The young are being robbed

Also: Nancy Pelosi and federal workers, victorious over President Trump View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, January 28, 2019 [NYTimes.com/David-Leonhardt »]( [Op-Ed Columnist] Op-Ed Columnist Pete Buttigieg’s notion of “intergenerational justice” — the subject of [one of my newsletters last week]( — sent me on a data hunt. I dug into the numbers on income, wealth and other issues to see how millennials, baby boomers, my own Generation X and others are faring. The results tell a clear story, and it’s the story I tell in my column today: The fleecing of millennials. If you don’t have time to read the full column right now, [check out the first two charts.]( Is Nancy Pelosi tired of winning yet? President Trump’s disconnection from reality is sometimes a big political advantage for him. Without any apparent interest in the facts, he is often able to persuade his supporters to believe whatever story is most favorable to himself. Other times, however, this disconnection from reality ends up hurting Trump. The now-paused government shutdown is a good case study. Trump never had a good plan for ending the shutdown. He evidently figured he could bluff his way out of a political trap. But Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, knew better. She knew that the politics favored the Democrats, not Trump. She understood that the shutdown was hurting him and that he would ultimately need to fold. On Friday, fold he did. It was one more reminder that Pelosi is [the most effective speaker of modern times](. [In New York magazine, Sarah Jones]( notes that Pelosi wasn’t the only protagonist in the story. So were the federal workers — especially air traffic controllers, flight attendants and T.S.A. and I.R.S. employees — who began missing work in large enough numbers to create problems for the rest of the country. “Workers bore the cost of the shutdown, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they began to revolt. By withholding their labor, they redirected the pain the Trump administration had inflicted upon them,” Jones writes. The Mueller report, a preview Over the weekend, Jennifer Taub of Vermont Law School put together an [excellent summary]( of the findings that Robert Mueller’s investigation has produced. “Pay attention to documents already filed,” [Taub tweeted](. “Through them, we’ve seen much of the Mueller Report. And it is spectacular.” Taub’s list: - George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign adviser, lied to the F.B.I. about his extensive contacts with a London-based professor who said he was close with Russian officials and had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos then informed higher-ranking campaign officials of these contacts. - Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, lied to the F.B.I. about phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States. He had coordinated those calls with at least one other member of the Trump transition team. - Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, lied to Congress about a planned Trump business deal in Moscow. - Paul Manafort, shortly before becoming Trump’s campaign chairman, shared campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian with apparent ties to Russian military intelligence. - Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, lied to Congress about his attempts to communicate with WikiLeaks, which is closely linked to 12 Russian intelligence officials who hacked Democrats’ emails. - During the 2016 campaign and after, Trump repeatedly lied about his own Russian contacts. ADVERTISEMENT If you enjoy this newsletter, forward it to friends! They can [sign up for themselves here]( — and they don’t need to be a Times subscriber. The newsletter is published every weekday, with help from my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick. David’s Morning NYT Read [A New Home for Extreme Poverty: Middle-Income Countries]( By ROHINI PANDE, VESTAL MCINTYRE AND LUCY PAGE Redirecting global aid away from places like India and Nigeria ignores the hundreds of millions of desperately impoverished people who live there. David’s Latest Column [The Fleecing of Millennials]( By DAVID LEONHARDT Their incomes are flat. Their wealth is down. And Washington is aggravating future threats. The Full Opinion Report [Stone-Cold Loser]( By MAUREEN DOWD Will the dawn raid on the Prince of Darkness shine a light on the Trump campaign’s original sin? [The Loneliness of the Moderate Democrat]( By FRANK BRUNI ‘It takes a lot of spine to be a centrist in America today.’ [The Trump Administration Is Making a Mockery of the Supreme Court]( By BETSY FISHER AND SAMANTHA POWER It promised to create a ‘robust’ waiver process for visa applicants from countries affected by the travel ban. The process is a sham. [Putin’s Next Playground or the E.U.’s Last Moral Stand?]( By IVAN KRASTEV The Balkans has once again become a playground for great power politics. [Trump’s Border Wall for Asylum Seekers]( By STEPHANIE LEUTERT AND SHAW DRAKE Families fleeing danger have been told to go to a U.S. port of entry, where border agents have been instructed to turn them away. [The Blessing of a Rescue Dog]( By MARGARET RENKL She looks like a cross between Groucho Marx and a dust mop, and she’s a bulwark against despair. [France Has Millions of Muslims. Why Does It Import Imams?]( By KAMEL DAOUD State secularism works in funny ways. [Two-Factor Authentication Might Not Keep You Safe]( By JOSEPHINE WOLFF The online security “best practice” is still vulnerable to phishing attacks. [He Helped Jews Escape the Holocaust. He Died Unknown.]( By RICHARD HUROWITZ Aristides de Sousa Mendes was his name. We should remember his courage. [Paths to Power: How Every Member Got to Congress]( By SAHIL CHINOY AND JESSIA MA Most members of the House, even the new ones, made it to Washington by way of institutions and professions that are out of reach for most Americans. [The Real Wall Isn’t at the Border]( By ATOSSA ARAXIA ABRAHAMIAN It’s everywhere, and we’re fighting against the wrong one. [Should We Care About a Writer’s Personal Ethics?]( Readers see a threat to artistic freedom in so-called morality clauses. How am I doing? I’d love your feedback. Please send thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=David%20Leonhardt%20Newsletter%20Feedback). 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