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Airplane tail with a bar code on it.

Who Gave Away the Skies to the Airlines?

In 1978, Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act. It gave rise to some truly miserable air travel—and neoliberalism.
Photo of E.P.A Headquarters, shot through a bush

How Government Ends

Through an assault on administrative agencies, the Supreme Court is systematically eroding the legal basis of effective governance.
A worker sits with his head in his hands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 24, 2008, as the markets endured losses.

How The Neoliberal Order Triumphed — And Why It’s Now Crumbling

Historian Gary Gerstle lays out an era's policies and ideologies, and what undermined them.
Freight train traveling through grasslands.

Forty Years After Surface Freight Deregulation

The regulatory reforms of the railroad and trucking industries are models for evidence-based, bipartisan policymaking.
Historian Timothy Naftali being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on television.
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The Federal Agency That Few Americans Have Heard Of And Which We All Need To Know

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs wields enormous power and is key to President Trump's deregulatory agenda.

The Craft Beer Explosion: Why Here? Why Now?

The crucial decade was the 1970s, when the industry’s increased consolidation and ever-blander product collided with key social and economic changes.
Picture of a truck stop.

Every Which Way but Regulated: The “Free Market” Trucking Industry

No longer home to the open-road outlaws and concrete cowboys of the ’70s, becoming a trucker is now the equivalent of operating a sweatshop on wheels thanks to deregulation.
Trucks and cars moving on the highway

Keep on Truckin’

The road to right-wing deregulation began on our nation's highways.
Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation

The Trumpist Legacy of Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation

Ideological entrepreneur, architect of ruin.
Cargo ships at a U.S. shipyard with cranes in the background.

How America Lost Control of the Seas

Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.
Headshots of Charles Murray, Friedrich Hayek, and Elon Musk in front of a red backgrounds.

Free Markets and Fixed Natures

How neoliberals fell in love with “human nature”—the glue that still unites the divergent factions of the new right.
An illustration of a government building holding up an American home with a stylized hand.

The Good Society Department

Once upon a time, there was a federal government department that helped design and distribute tools for living the good life. What happened to that vision?
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon at the Reagan Library opening.
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Jimmy Carter Was a Successful (Conservative) President

Common conceptions of Carter are all wrong because they don’t acknowledge a crucial reality: he was a conservative.
A boarded-up food center.

The Great Grocery Squeeze

How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert.
Scale with hundred-dollar bills weighing down one side.

Markets and the Law

Neoliberalism isn’t just a set of economic precepts—it’s also an architecture of laws passed to reinforce those precepts. Those laws must be changed.
The 59th Street electric powerhouse, New York City, 1904.

The Utility of Utilities

Climate activists are no fans of electric utilities. But the alternatives that they often prefer will not deliver infrastructural change at the scale we need.
The Hollywood sign replaced with the words "The End."

The Life and Death of Hollywood

Film and television writers face an existential threat.
Fleet of Spirit Airways planes on airport tarmac

The Spirit Airlines Paradox

Without smart regulation, price competition turns into a race to the bottom.
Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) tries unsuccessfully to hail a taxi as cabbies stage a rolling protest against app-based ride-hailing services.

Uber and the Impoverished Public Expectations of the 2010s

A new book shows that Uber was a symbol of a neoliberal philosophy that neglected public funding and regulation in favor of rule by private corporations.
Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on tax reduction legislation from the Oval Office
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History Explains the Racial Wealth Gap

Ronald Reagan's economic policies exacerbated the racial wealth gap— and they've guided all his successors.
Political cartoon depicting busts of Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, and Alan Greenspan on a mantle with spider webs.

The End of Milton Friedman’s Reign

The Chicago school ruled supreme over economics—until recently.
ACT UP protesters demanding the release of experimental medication for those living with HIV/AIDS.

Patient Rights Groups Are Learning the Wrong Lessons From ACT UP

These groups are invoking ACT UP's legacy to push for further deregulation of the FDA. Here's why they're wrong.
2024 Republican presidential debate on Fox News.
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How Cable News Upended American Politics

Cable TV's backers sold the technology as a boon to democracy, but embraced a business model that chased niche audiences.
Cover of the book "24/7 Politics," featuring photos of Nixon and Carter.

The Battlefields of Cable

How cable TV transformed politics—and how politics transformed cable TV.
Richard Nixon on a television screen.

The Problem With Fox News Goes Way, Way Back

Richard Nixon decided a powerful new medium should appeal to the marketplace, not to citizens.
Ronald Reagan with James Watt

Good Riddance to the Architect of the GOP’s Environmental Culture Wars

James Watt was a fiery evangelical, a cultural laughingstock—and instrumental in shaping modern GOP rhetoric on the environment.
Shredded "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism

As a movement, it has imploded. As a credo, it’s here to stay.
Agosto Pinochet and Milton Friedman edited to appear as two sides of the same coin.

When Milton Friedman Met Pinochet

Chicago economists had free rein in Chile. The country is still recovering.
A First Republic Bank sign.
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First Republic and Our Undemocratic Bailout System

Regulators with no democratic accountability keep bailing out banks and big depositors — at the cost of billions to taxpayers.

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