Branko Milanovic is a Research Professor at the City University of New York and a Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality. He served as the lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department for almost 20 years. His most recent book is Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End... Continue Reading →
By Mehmet Yaşar Altundağ and Abdullah Esin Amid the turmoil in Turkish politics triggered by viral videos on social media that show how Afghan-Pakistani immigrants easily pass the Turkish borders, President Erdogan gave a very clear speech on May 9th 2022: “We will protect these brothers who have fled war to the end... They may... Continue Reading →
By Thomas P. Vartanian Financial Stability in a Digital Economy I was invited to the White House in March 2017 to discuss being nominated as Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Based on my five decades of experience as a bank regulator and financial services lawyer, I suggested that the regulatory system badly needed... Continue Reading →
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 →
