David Leonhardt: A capitalist is worried

Also: Different views on the allegation against Joe Biden. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Monday, April 1, 2019 [NYTimes.com/David-Leonhardt »]( [Op-Ed Columnist] Op-Ed Columnist I met Peter Georgescu more than 20 years ago. I was a young reporter for BusinessWeek magazine, and part of my beat was the advertising business. One of my editors suggested that I profile Georgescu, because the firm he ran — Young & Rubicam — was doing well and because he had an amazing life story. He certainly does. He spent more than seven years effectively as a child prisoner of the Soviet empire, in his native Romania. He then became an American cause célèbre, was released from Romania, reunited with his parents in New York and was ultimately [photographed with President Dwight Eisenhower](. Today, Peter is 80 years old, and he is profoundly worried about the state of his adopted country. “Capitalism is a brilliant factory for prosperity. Brilliant,” he told me recently. “And yet the version of capitalism we have created here works for only a minority of people.” My column this morning is about Peter, his fears and his proposed solution. [I hope you’ll read it.]( If you’re interested in the broader topic of capitalism, my colleague [Nick Kristof]( wrote this weekend about a small company that isn’t trying to minimize its workers’ pay. The Biden accusation Joe Biden’s penchant for touching people — rubbing their shoulders, nuzzling their hair and so on — was always going to present a problem for his presidential campaign. However he intends the behavior, it is at least a bit strange and no doubt has made some people feel uncomfortable. One of them came forward on Friday: Lucy Flores, a former candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada, [who said]( Biden planted an extended kiss on the back of her head. The internet is full of video montages of Biden engaging in such behavior. Will this have a major effect on Biden’s likely campaign? Should it? I don’t know, and I generally try to spend some time thinking about these issues of personal behavior before coming to a conclusion. To take another example, I still haven’t decided how to put [Amy Klobuchar’s treatment of her staff]( in perspective. Here are a few pieces on Biden, with different perspectives, that may help you make up your mind: Biden’s conduct is in line with a mixed policy record on women’s issues, says New York magazine’s [Rebecca Traister]( “He has provided liberal cover to anti-feminist backlash, the kind of old-fashioned paternalism of powerful men who don’t take women’s claims to their reproductive, professional, or political autonomy particularly seriously, who walk through the world with a casual assurance that men’s access to and authority over women’s bodies is natural,” she writes. The Washington Examiner’s [Philip Klein]( compares Biden’s situation to Al Franken’s, where visual evidence helped to back up allegations against Franken. “Given how much awkwardness we’ve seen publicly from Biden, it would be surprising if Flores were the only woman to come out and say he made her feel uncomfortable, and the ample visual evidence of him acting creepy will make it hard to dismiss any accusers,” he writes. [Stephanie Carter]( the wife of a former secretary of defense, whose 2015 photo with Biden has been cited as evidence of his inappropriate touching, disputed those characterizations of the image: “I absolutely support [Flores’s] right to speak her truth and she should be, like all women, believed. But her story is not mine. The Joe Biden in my picture is a close friend helping someone get through a big day, for which I will always be grateful.” “I think he can survive it. And this is why he survives it: comfort,” [Cornell Belcher]( argued on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Democrats are very, very comfortable with Joe Biden.” 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 [Should We Worry About the Slowing Economy?]( By RUCHIR SHARMA Across the world, economists have had to downgrade growth forecasts. Get used to it. David’s Latest Column [A C.E.O. Who’s Scared for America]( By DAVID LEONHARDT Capitalism, he says, is slowly committing suicide. The Full Opinion Report [Who Should Be Embarrassed?]( By CHARLES M. BLOW If Jussie Smollett’s racists were imaginary, then conservatives can argue the racists we all see are imaginary. [Trump’s Circus Maximus]( By MAUREEN DOWD King Donald’s subjects came from the rivers to bend the knee to their victorious Vulgarian. [The House Must See the Whole Mueller Report]( By JERROLD L. NADLER Someday, Trump will not be in office. Congress needs a full accounting of his misdeeds to ensure they don’t happen again. [Waking Up to History]( By MARGARET RENKL At new museums, the past is finally becoming more than the story of men and wars. [How Blackface Feeds White Supremacy]( By BRENT STAPLES A racist caricature from 19th-century minstrel theater still haunts America. [Why Courtrooms Are Kryptonite for Alex Jones]( By CHARLIE WARZEL Shock jocks lose their power when forced to tell the truth, the whole truth. [Trump’s Acts Show the Urgent Need to Curb the Imperial Presidency]( By IAN BASSIN AND JUSTIN FLORENCE The end of the Mueller investigation reveals that post-Watergate guardrails set up against executive overreach have been smashed and need replacing. [Who Counts as a Woman?]( By CAROL HAY The attempt to exclude trans women from the ranks of women reinforces the dangerous idea that there is a right way to be female. [The Real Roots of ‘Black Capitalism’]( By MEHRSA BARADARAN Nixon’s solution for racial ghettos was tax breaks and incentives, not economic justice. [April Fools’: A Quiz]( By KEITH WILLIAMS Test your knowledge of famous jokes, hoaxes and pranks. Are any of these questions made up? Of course not! This is The New York Times. [Can an Archaeological Dig Change the Future of Jerusalem?]( By BARI WEISS The City of David is being unearthed on land that much of the world does not believe belongs to Israel. [What Happens When Women Stop Leading Like Men]( By TINA BROWN Jacinda Ardern, Nancy Pelosi and the power of female grace. [The Irish Border Is a Scar]( By PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE Could Brexit reignite the Troubles in Northern Ireland? [Rwanda’s Children of Rape Have Come of Age]( By JONATHAN TORGOVNIK Twenty-five years after the genocide, its effects are shaping a new generation. [Homage to a Dying Breed: Stick-Shift Cars]( Readers describe the joys of a manual transmission and some benefits: harder to text while driving and a deterrent for car thieves. ADVERTISEMENT FEEDBACK and HELP If you have thoughts about this newsletter, email me at [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=David%20Leonhardt%20Newsletter%20Feedback). 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