The Clerk Problem

An excerpt from Accounting for Capitalism: The World The Clerk Made

The age abounded in loafers. There were literary loafers, Yankee loafers, French loafers, genteel loafers, common loafers, and country loafers— the latter observed by Nathaniel Hawthorne at the Brighton Cattle Fair “wait[ing] for some friend to invite them to drink.” Nevertheless, loaferism was most essentially a metropolitan phenomenon, strolling the ...
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The Return of “Capitalism”

And the limits of economics

As Democratic presidential hopefuls find themselves responding to the questions “are you a socialist?” and “are you a capitalist?,” it is useful to remember that for most of the post-War era, the word capitalism was taboo in economics, the discipline whose very role is to provide rigorous analysis of … ...
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Ideology is Dead! Long Live Ideology!

On the Ideological Character of Liberalism & Socialism

Something in the Night is Dangerous According to Jeffrey Goldfarb, founder and publisher of Public Seminar (PS), I am dangerous. I threaten to undermine democracy. While Goldfarb’s comments may not have been specifically targeted at me, they are targeted at the kind of socialist critical theory and practice for which I often argue (for just ...
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Ideology is Dead! Long Live Ideology!

Why I Want Nothing to do with the Green New Deal 

Conservatism, Environmentalism and Socialism

I was frequently humbled living in the small, oil-rich kingdom. Humbled by the clash between two of nature’s most inhospitable terrains: a great sandy desert meeting a great salty ocean. At the boundary where these two titans collide sits a different kind of marvel: a Starbucks. I would frequent the ...
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Why I Want Nothing to do with the Green New Deal 

Socialism and American Politics

A Brief Recollection (2009)

Note: I recently found the piece below on an old hard drive. It was written on March 2, 2009, exactly ten years ago this weekend. It was written for the brand-new blog that Dissent Magazine was then starting. It was never published. I’m publishing it now for three reasons: (1) ...
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Socialism and American Politics

Kamala Harris Is Not a Red-Baiter, She’s Just Not a Socialist (Like Most Americans)

Defeating Trump Politically, Part 4

In recent columns I have celebrated the energy and ideas brought into the Democratic party by newly-elected young leftists, defended them from criticism, condemned the red-baiting of the left, and explained how and why “socialism” has played an important role in the history of American democracy, and ought not to ...
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Kamala Harris Is Not a Red-Baiter, She’s Just Not a Socialist (Like Most Americans)

Upstaging the Trump Reality Show

How Montana’s socialist ‘Plaid Shirt Guy’ hacked a Trump rally

It isn’t easy to upstage Donald Trump, but Tyler Linfesty -- a 17-year old high school student from Billings, Montana -- managed to divert attention away from the president at a recent Trump rally in his hometown. Linfesty became an immediate internet sensation on September 6 as he stood on the ...
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Upstaging the Trump Reality Show

Labor Day

Writers Examine the Past, Present, and Future of the Labor Movement

Very few high schools, and not many colleges, teach students about labor history -- the struggles of working people for a better life and a more decent society. Only a handful of newspapers and on-line sites have reporters who cover labor (or even work) on a full-time basis.  Except when ...
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Labor Day

200 Years of Karl Marx

Some lessons on the politics of commemoration

This year marked the 200th anniversary of the birthday Karl Marx, a fierce critic of capitalism. In an effort to think through the legacy of—and the possible futures of—Marx’s influence, the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University hosted Marx@200, a program of more than two dozen lectures, performances, panels, and ...
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200 Years of Karl Marx

Navigating Finance and the Imagination

A walking tour event

On April 14, a temporary assembly of activists, artists and interdisciplinary academics will drift together through the City of London to explore the intersections of finance and the imagination in the historic district of English (and global) wealth and power. With over 15 presentations on topics ranging from algorithms to architecture, ...
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Navigating Finance and the Imagination

Solidarity is Not a Liberal Value

Feminism and collective struggle

On January 20, 2018, at the end of the Pioneer Valley’s Women’s March in Northampton, Massachusetts hundreds stood gathered in front of the imposing, castle-like City Hall. We were children, women, and men, trans and non-gender conforming people. We were black, white, and brown, gay and straight. We were rich and poor ...
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Solidarity is Not a Liberal Value

Memory, Fidelity, Appropriation

A Response to Jonathan Bach’s What Remains

And yet, the fact that all major parties refused to view the AfD as a legitimate contender -- let alone a potential coalition partner -- indicates that German public memory still somehow “works.” However, the attempts to make sense of the election through the prism of memory serve as a ...
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