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Class & Inequality

The Gadfly of American Plutocracy

Far from a marginal outsider, a new biography contends, Thorstein Veblen was the most important economic thinker of the Gilded Age.

Simon Torracinta

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Class & Inequality

Class & Inequality, Politics

Whose Liberalism?

With its elite decision-makers and opinion-formers—and over 1.5 million copies sold per week—the Economist has exerted tremendous influence on popular liberal discourse for more than a century.

Ben Jackson

Class & Inequality

Selling Keynesianism

In the 1940s and ’50s, the general public understood and agreed upon Keynesian economic principles. Today, we can learn a lot from the popularizing efforts that led to that consensus and long-lasting economic success. 

Robert Manduca

Class & Inequality, Politics

The Long History of Debt Cancellation

Moral thinking about debt has fluctuated throughout U.S. history. Today’s calls for cancellation suggest it may be poised for transformation once again.

Olivia Schwob

Arts in Society, Class & Inequality

Zero Hour: The First Days of New Berlin

30 years after the Wall, the story of Berlin's anarchist utopia.

Paul Hockenos

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

How Not to Argue for Tax Justice

Economists are taking aim at the unfairness of the U.S. tax system. But a just society won’t be won by arguing about taxes alone.

Liam Murphy

Class & Inequality, Philosophy & Religion

Bad Romance

Capitalism hasn’t disenchanted the world, a new book argues. Like a bad lover, it beguiles us into spiritual desolation—and only the most utopian politics will break its spell.

James G. Chappel

Forum

The American Corporation is in Crisis—Let's Rethink It

For decades, shareholder primacy has obscured the fact that employees should do well when businesses do well.

Lenore Palladino

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

A judge has ruled in favor of Harvard in a high-profile case about affirmative action. But recent admissions scandals all point to a deeper problem—the presumption that elitism could ever be democratized.

Richard Ford

Class & Inequality, Global Justice

Perpetual Debt in the Silicon Savannah

Kenya's poor were among the first to benefit from digital lending apps; now they call it slavery.

Kevin P. Donovan, Emma Park

Class & Inequality

Games Economists Play

The hostile reaction to Binyamin Appelbaum's new book reveals the tensions within the economics profession over some of its most self-serving myths. 

Marshall Steinbaum

Class & Inequality

Homes for Citizens

New York public housing is plagued with problems, but it possesses a democratic advantage that voucher systems lack: residents can hold the state accountable not only as tenants but as constituents.

Salonee Bhaman, Pedro A. Regalado

Class & Inequality

Everyday Economists

The postwar generation understood why a prosperous working class is crucial to the economy. Can economics be accessible again to ordinary Americans?

Samuel Bowles, Joshua Cohen

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