Hamilton Nolan

New York

Writer and Columnist at Freelance

Labor writer, @InTheseTimesMag. My site, How Things Work: https://t.co/P5BG1ZNpba Author of "The Hammer." Email: [email protected]

Featured in: Favicon

msn.com

theguardian.com Favicon

nytimes.com Favicon

wsj.com

washingtonpost.com Favicon

yahoo.com (+4) Favicon

gizmodo.com Favicon

nydailynews.com Favicon

fastcompany.com Favicon

news.com.au + 50 more

Articles

Technology Does Not Solve Political Problems

6 days ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

If you are fortunate or unfortunate enough to spend time around people who work for big tech firms, you will find that their views on every issue tend to be rooted in the assumption that the tech industry itself will determine the future of said issue.
Infinite Contempt For Working People Is Not an Acceptable Default Position

1 week ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Corporations are granted many advantages in America that have allowed them to amass great wealth and power for their executives and shareholders. Some of these advantages are codified on paper: Favorable regulations, favorable tax laws, the ability to be treated as persons for the sake of political donations, and so on.
Free Advice For Rich Idiots Who Have Some Bright Ideas About Media Ventures

2 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Like milling elephants mourning a deceased member of the herd, each unsuccessful election season will produce a scrum of wealthy donors wringing their hands over how to turn things around. Some portion of these people will, inevitably, fixate on the media.
Strongman Economics Are Piss

2 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

A basic but accurate model of investor capitalism is: Companies have expenses, and they have profits. The job of company managers is to minimize expenses and maximize profits, to the extent possible. The huge pools of capital controlled by investors will flow to the firms that produce the highest profits, with the same inexorable logic of a river flowing where gravity leads it. In return for their capital, investors want as much of a company’s profits to be given to them as possible.
What to Get in the Next Uprising

3 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

This week, Verizon became the latest major company to end its internal DEI program—a move made in order to win government approval for a $20 billion acquisition. In scrapping its diversity program, it joins a long list of corporations, universities, law firms, and government contractors of all types. Many of these organizations were doubtlessly happy to have an excuse to get out of the equity business. Some, perhaps, were upset. All are cowardly. None are a surprise.
It's Interesting How the Past Can Make You Think About the Present

3 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

I’ve been reading Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker, a history of the years leading up to World War 2. The entire book takes the form of short, stylized, factual items of a few paragraphs or less, presented in chronological order, which taken together tell the story of societies sliding—often unwittingly—into very dark places. While reading the book, I found over and over again that certain entries would vividly remind me of things happening today.
You Are Not Religious

4 weeks ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

When asked about your religious belief, the correct response is “agnostic.” It means “I don’t know.” That’s a fact: You don’t know. I don’t know. Nobody knows. The origin of the universe? The true nature of reality? Existence after death? Please. We only discovered atoms a couple of hundred years ago. Quantum physics, a hundred years ago.
Hamilton Nolan on How To Write Op-Eds

1 month ago | lithub.com | Hamilton Nolan

Writer Hamilton Nolan joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V Ganeshananthan to talk about opinion journalism. Nolan, who writes frequently about labor and politics, discusses how and why he entered journalism, the myth of objectivity, and how he views the relationship between activism and journalism. He explains how long it took for him to make money on Substack, reflects on what it means to share an opinion in the current political environment, and considers the importance of unions for writers.
The Failure of Warren Buffett

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

Warren Buffett, 94, has announced that he is planning to retire. He will go down as history’s greatest investor. Berkshire Hathaway, the company that Buffett spent six decades nurturing, began as a fading textile firm. Today, it is a sprawling conglomerate worth more than a trillion dollars. Buffett racked up a cumulative investment return of over five million percent during his long career. His own net worth today stands close to $170 billion.
Talking Our Way Forward

1 month ago | hamiltonnolan.com | Hamilton Nolan

“The average voter” is a term that exists primarily for political consultants to commandeer as an avatar of their own advice. “The average voter believes things have gone too far. The average voter cares about kitchen table issues. The average voter wants common sense solutions for his family.