Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, and the coauthor (with Anne Case) of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. It's this sort of persistent loss of wages, which causes things like loss of marriage,... Continue Reading →
Deaths of Despair As we celebrate the holidays, it’s important to also remember those less fortunate than ourselves. I expect most of those reading this blog or listening to the podcast have a college degree or attend college at the moment. It’s a fortunate group, because the economy favors those with a college education. Indeed,... Continue Reading →
Justice is an Option Rarely do I read a book that leads me to think differently about economics, but Robert Meister’s effort to quantify the price of historical justice has done exactly that. His latest book, Justice is an Option, builds on the debates surrounding distributive justice. It builds on the work of John Rawls,... Continue Reading →
Neoliberalism as a Political Philosophy Neoliberalism is more than a school of economics. It incorporates a broad political philosophy surrounding its ideas about economics. The neoliberal package of reforms is often presented as a toolkit for economic development, but its earliest theorists associated free markets and capitalism with human freedom and liberty. They saw themselves... Continue Reading →
Thomas Piketty argues economic inequality is an obstacle for economic growth in his latest book Capital and Ideology. Justin Kempf reflects on the implications of this idea as he works to develop his own ideas of economics compatible with a political theory of democracy. An Institutional Theory of Economics It has never been clear for me... Continue Reading →
It is a challenge to read through the three volumes of Marx’s Capital. Few people do it anymore. Political scientists and philosophers of past generations were intimately familiar with the writings of Marx. The existence of the Soviet Union gave Marx a perpetual relevance in the politics of the era. The fall of the Soviet... Continue Reading →
John Maynard Keynes is widely misunderstood not because he is misread, but because so few take the time to read him. His economic theory goes beyond mathematical formulas to establish a philosophy. It is the philosophy of Keynes which ought to catch the attention of political theory. There is a historical element to Keynes’ ideas,... Continue Reading →
It is impossible to fully recognize the genius of Marx without the acknowledgement of his absurdity. The second volume of Capital involves the circulation of capital. In this text, Marx takes socialist economics to a space where few of his adherents can travel. He explains how economic systems increase overall wealth despite a limited supply... Continue Reading →
CIRCA 1865: Karl Marx (1818-1883), philosopher and German politician. (Photo by Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images) My mother recalls how I supported Ronald McReagan as a child. I was a young child in the eighties. When the Berlin Wall fell, I was still too young to understand its implications. I learned of the Cold War as... Continue Reading →
Microsoft was never in danger of bankruptcy. But it had become irrelevant as a new group of companies had emerged as the vanguard of the technological revolution. It is not unusual for a company to struggle after the departure of the founder. Apple had also declined after the departure of Steve Jobs in the eighties.... Continue Reading →
