Matthew Yglesias (/ɪˈɡleɪsiəs/; born May 18, 1981[2]) is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics.[3][4] Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as The American Prospect, The Atlantic, and Slate. In 2014, he co-founded the news website Vox.
In November 2020,[5] Yglesias left his position as an editor and columnist at Vox to publish the Substack newsletter Slow Boring. In the same month, he joined the Niskanen Center as a Senior Fellow.[6][7]
Early life and education
Yglesias is the son of Rafael Yglesias, a screenwriter and novelist. His paternal grandfather, novelist Jose Yglesias, was of Cuban and Spanish Galician descent, while his paternal grandmother, novelist Helen Yglesias (née Bassine) was the daughter of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from the Russian-controlled portion of Poland. His mother, Margaret Joskow, was the daughter of Jules Joskow, founder of National Economic Research Associates; economist Paul Joskow is Yglesias's uncle. His maternal grandparents were also of Eastern European Jewish descent.[8]
Yglesias started blogging in early 2002, while still in college, focusing mainly on American politics and public policy issues, often approached from an abstract, philosophical perspective. Yglesias joined the American Prospect as a writing fellow upon his graduation in 2003, subsequently becoming a staff writer. His posts appeared regularly on the magazine's collaborative weblog TAPPED.[11]
From June 2007 until August 2008, Yglesias was a staff writer at The Atlantic Monthly, and his blog was hosted on the magazine's website, The Atlantic. In July 2008, he announced that he would leave The Atlantic Monthly for the Center for American Progress where he wrote for its blog, ThinkProgress, because he missed "the sense of collegiality that comes from working with like-minded colleagues on a shared enterprise" and thought he could "help advance their mission."[12] On November 21, 2011, he left ThinkProgress to work as a business and economics correspondent at Slate's Moneybox.[13][14]
Vox
In February 2014, Yglesias left Slate and joined Vox Media to co-found Vox with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell.[15] On November 13, 2020, Yglesias announced that he would no longer be writing for Vox.com.[16] Yglesias moved to Substack for editorial independence.[17]
Controversy
In 2013, Yglesias garnered controversy for his statements about the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse, with Yglesias arguing that the lower building standards that partially led to the factory's collapse make "economic sense"[18] in developing countries, later tweeting that "foreign factories should be more dangerous than American factories"[19][20] and "the current system of letting different countries have different rules is working fine."[21] His comments were widely criticized in The Daily Beast,[22]Time,[23] and other outlets,[24][25] with The Guardian commenting that Yglesias is "confusing a person's human worth with their socio-economic status. That's wrong."[26] Yglesias later clarified some of his comments, but stood by his original position.[27]
Yglesias deleted his past Twitter feed in November 2018, after controversy over tweets which defended the motivation of protesters who gathered outside the house of Tucker Carlson. The tweets also expressed a lack of empathy for Carlson's wife, which caused outrage.[28]
Andrew Sullivan, a fellow blogger, takes nominations on his blog for the Yglesias Award, an honor "for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe."[32][33]
In 2011, The Economist wrote that Yglesias espoused "left-leaning neoliberalism" in his writing.[34] In 2017, Vice listed Yglesias among a group of political writers who were labelled "neoliberal shills" in left-wing Twitter communities.[35] Yglesias himself embraced the "neoliberal shill" label in a 2019 podcast.[36]
Yglesias initially supported the US invasion of Iraq. He referred to Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as "evil" and argued that "we should take them all out", although he criticized the term "axis of evil".[37][38] Reflecting on his support for the 2003 Iraq War in 2010, Yglesias identified several reasons for his "mistake" at the time. He cited his belief in a more assertive American foreign policy, shaped by the idea that the US should have intervened more decisively in conflicts such as those in Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo. This belief contributed to his predisposition toward military intervention. He was also influenced by the support of prominent political figures, including key Democratic leaders and Tony Blair, whose positions he largely deferred to. Additionally, Yglesias acknowledged that he had underestimated the political risk for the Bush administration, even in the absence of confirmed weapons of mass destruction.[39]
In or before 2010, Yglesias coined the term "pundit's fallacy" to denote "the belief that what a politician needs to do to improve his or her political standing is do what the pundit wants substantively."[40][41][42] In 2012, Yglesias stated that he voted for Mitt Romney when he won the office for governor of Massachusetts in 2002.[43]
Personal life
Yglesias is married to Kate Crawford. Yglesias and Crawford met in 2008, and have one son together. Crawford now serves as editor for his Slow Boring newsletter.[44]
Works
Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats, Wiley, April 2008, ISBN978-0-470-08622-3.[45]
"Long Philosophical Rant about Spider-Man 2", Ultimate blogs: masterworks from the wild Web, Editor Sarah Boxer, Random House, Inc., 2008, ISBN978-0-307-27806-7
"The Media", The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program, Gene Stone, Carl Pritzkat, Tony Travostino, Random House, Inc., 2008, ISBN978-0-8129-8036-3
The Rent Is Too Damn High, Simon and Schuster, March 2012, ASIN B0078XGJXO
^Friedersdorf, Conor (November 13, 2020). "Why Matthew Yglesias Left Vox". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
^Yglesias, Matthew (August 2, 2010). "The Pundit's Fallacy". ThinkProgress (blog). Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
^Krugman, Paul (May 24, 2012). "How to End This Depression". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
