Columbia University’s “Crisis”
A political economy sketch map
Questions of political economy are at the heart of the Columbia University protests....
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Platforms, Payments, and Ponzi Schemes
A review of Rachel O’Dwyer’s Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform
Electronic platforms can also be thought of as a distinctive type of “terrain” that, like land, can define specific types of revenue and power for those who control them. ...
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The Evolution of America’s (Un)protected Consumer
From government oversight to “financial literacy”
Consumer protection started to be seen as a responsibility that individuals, deemed rational and capable, were expected to shoulder themselves, assuming they were provided adequate information about the terms of exchange. ...
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From “Boring” to “Roaring” Banking
A review of Gerald Epstein’s Busting the Banker’s Club
Harder to measure, but no less crucial, is Epstein’s identification of the intellectual “capture” of both the academy and policymaking institutions—their infiltration by financial interests and the economic paradigms that prop them up. ...
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Home Ownership and the History of Mortgages
Episode 402
In this episode of Past Present, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss Americans’ attachment to the thirty-year mortgage...
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Radical Care and the Making of a New World
What is a truly caring society?
Few people would disagree with an aspirational goal of a truly caring society—but what is a truly caring society? And what is the role of the state in a radical future? What kinds of reforms move us closer to a goal of a caring world, rather than setting us back? ...
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How Mary Mattingly’s Floating Barge Tackled Food Deserts in New York City
What foraging can teach Americans about solving national food insecurity
Mattingly’s Swale came before the foraging boom, but it suggests that foraging may hold a permanent place in New York. Foraging is not just another fashionable affectation, but a path to addressing the deep-rooted issues embedded in our current food systems. Swale represents how our understanding of food access is ...
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Right To Repair, Rising
The movement to let you fix your own stuff is winning
At the end of the day, people just want to be able to fix their stuff....
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How Minnesota Took on Hospital Monopolies and Won
HF 402 creates a “public interest standard” for mergers
Across the country, health care workers have seen both their pay and their working conditions head down a slope thanks to the increasing power of the large health systems that employ them....
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Taking on Ticketmaster
A California bill would eliminate a key tactic Ticketmaster uses to rip you off
Pat Garofalo writes about a California bill that would eliminate a key tactic Ticketmaster uses to rip you off....
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A World to Win
Talking with socialist feminist Nancy Fraser about her recent book, Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do About It
Claire Potter sits down with New School for Social Research political theorist Nancy Fraser to discuss her latest book, Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do About It (Verso, 2022)....
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The Public Wants to Ban Secret Deals
New polling shows voters think secret corporate subsidy deals are shady and corrupt
NDAs were a key part of Amazon’s push for its subsidized HQ2, and have popped up in states all across the country....
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