Oh no. Is Jeff Bezos preparing to run for office? | Hamilton Nolan

When an unaccountable billionaire starts putting himself out in the world as a Public Policy Thinker, alarm bells should ring

Jeff Bezos is getting nervous. You can tell because he's going on Twitter more, the universal activity of those who are channeling their restlessness in an unhealthy way. This should make the rest of us nervous, too. This is a big, flashing warning sign that America's richest union-buster is about to throw himself more forcefully into politics - an inevitability that could have many bad outcomes, but only one good one.

For the past week, the centi-billionaire Amazon founder has been firing off tweets not about his typical, anodyne interests - improved penis-shaped rocket design, luxury head wax - but rather about his policy opinions. Though Bezos (or whichever PR drone drafts his tweets) writes with the bloodlessness of a man who has attended too many management consulting meetings, it is easy to imagine the seething anger that must have been present in order to prompt him to produce them in the first place. On May 13, he criticized one of Joe Biden's economic pronouncements, tweeting that Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection."