As New York City Rebuilds, Business Can Be Part of the Solution

Higher taxes are necessary, but who will have the political courage to make it happen?

Early in September, more than 160 executives from companies like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, the white-shoe corporate law firm Skadden Arps, and a host of real estate developers and financial firms sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio. They expressed their fear that “deteriorating conditions” in the city might slow ...
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As New York City Rebuilds, Business Can Be Part of the Solution

Remembering and Resisting the Age of Reagan

An activist historian advises his students that the choices they make now will shape their future

______ It was November 1980, two months after my girlfriend and I moved to New York City from Boston, where we had met a year before. I had just started in the M.F.A. program at Columbia and she had just started a job at a small press, managing the production of ...
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Remembering and Resisting the Age of Reagan

COVID-19 Hits the Dual Economy

Incomes Destroyed at the Bottom, Profits Supported at the Top

This note presents broad brush illustrations from a simple accounting model of the impacts of the coronavirus epidemic on macroeconomic balance, with emphasis on fiscal interventions. The premise is that supporting effective demand is essential for sustaining economic activity. The COVID-19 epidemic created mass unemployment by shutting activity down. The ...
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COVID-19 Hits the Dual Economy

Elijah Cummings, Homelessness, and Amusement Parks

Episode 202

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:  U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings has died. Niki referenced this Atlantic article about Cummings’ reluctant partisanship.Homelessness is on the rise, especially visible in Los Angeles. Natalia referred to this Washington Post article about the rise of “business improvement districts” and to ...
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