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Eugene Debs speaking to a crowd.

A Brief History of American Socialism

A look at socialism’s far-reaching influence on American thought.
Statue of Liberty's torch.

Why the Philosophers Libertarians Love Always Come Out Worse for Wear

Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek have been through the wringer.
Photograph of protesters and text from a 1944 edition of "Are You An American?"

The Failure of a Public Philosophy

How Americans lost faith in the possibility of self-government.
Lithograph of federal troops crushing an 1877 rail strike.

Freight-Halting Strikes Are Rare, and This Would be the First in 3 Decades

Some rail unions are resisting government pressure to accept a new employment contract, but history suggests the authorities will keep the trains running.
Pew Research chart showing rising earnings disparity between young adults with and without college degrees

Pushing Everyone Into College Was a Policy Response to Other Policy

None of it happened by mistake.
Picture of a gas pump.
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High Transportation Costs Limit Mobility, Fueling Inequality

The absence of robust transportation infrastructure hurts us — and not only at the gas pump.
Turbulent drawing evoking mass strikes, urban decay, gas shortages, police in riot gear, chainsaw massacre, and disco.

We’re Haunted by the Economy of the 1970s

Politicians across the political spectrum warn of a return to the decade of stagflation, urban decay, and labor mutiny; but their solution misses the mark.
A Coca-Cola billboard in Moscow in 1997.

Capitalism Triumphed in the Cold War, but Not by Making People Better Off

In the wake of economic crises, liberal democracies proved most adept at imposing austerity.
Federal Reserve Note featuring Salmon Chase held by the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

The War with Inflation and the Confederacy

During the Civil War, the Lincoln administration demonstrated that a progressive agenda and effective anti-inflationary measures could overlap.
Ronald Reagan pointing at a graph explaining his tax policy.
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Inflation Opened the Door to American Neoliberalism

An excerpt from "The Hidden History of Neoliberalism."
Newspaper lithograph of people fleeing the yellow fever epidemic on a boat in Mississippi.

The Sick Society

The story of a regional ruling class that struck a devil’s bargain with disease, going beyond negligence to cultivate semi-annual yellow fever epidemics.
Robert F. Kennedy on the presidential campaign trail in 1968.

Beyond GDP: Changing How We Measure Progress is Key to Tackling a World in Crisis

Amid the global threats posed by climate change, energy costs, unemployment and inequality, the need to rethink progress is now an urgent priority.
Picture of a calculator and a shopping basket of fresh produce.

What Online Inflation Calculators Can—and Can't—Tell Us About the Past

Most of these tools are based on the Consumer Price Index, a measure of changing prices in the U.S. over time
Whole Wheat Shell Pasta on Grey, by artist Rachel Doom, 2019.

Wielding Wheat

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.
Still from The Wire (HBO): two detectives, McNulty and Bunk.

20 Years Later, "The Wire" Is Still a Cutting Critique of American Capitalism

The Wire — both stylish and smart, follows unforgettable characters woven into a striking portrait of the depredations of capitalism in one US city.
Poster with women pledging to "pay not more than top legal prices" and "accept no rationed goods without giving up ration stamps"

Politics and the Price Level

On inflation, institutions, and the governance of the price level.
Picture of former President Bill Clinton looking downtrodden.

The Disastrous Legacy of the New Democrats

Clintonites taught their party how to talk about helping people without actually doing it.
Farmers harvest wheat near the village of Tbilisskaya, Russia, July 21, 2021. That nation’s farmers produce nearly a fifth of world wheat exports.

How High Energy Prices Emboldened Putin

Rupert Russell’s new book shows how the financialization of commodity prices worsens volatility and destabilizes geopolitics. It couldn’t be more timely.
BP is trying to divest its share of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft.
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Western Oil Companies Ditching Russia is a New Twist on a Familiar Pattern

For more than a century, Western oil companies have cycled into and out of Russia.
People gathered around an electronic contraption with lightbulbs.

Ideas of the PMC

A review of three new books that in various ways track the rise of the "Professional Managerial Class."
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

The Modern History of Economic Sanctions

A review of “The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War."
WWII Advertisement that highlights price controls.

Price Controls, Black Markets, And Skimpflation: The WWII Battle Against Inflation

To control inflation during WWII, the U.S. government resorted to wide-ranging price controls. Unintended consequences may be the reason they aren't used today.
Artistic depiction meant to represent the global supply chain. At center is planet Earth, which has a hole in the middle. Earth is surrounded by 3 intersecting rings of various colors. The rings depict freight transport (transporting goods by rail, sea, and truck).

How We Broke the Supply Chain

Rampant outsourcing, financialization, monopolization, deregulation, and just-in-time logistics are the culprits.
Pile of US paper currency.

Austerity Policies In The United States Caused ‘Stagflation’ In The 1970s

U.S. government policies must continue to support physical and social infrastructure spending amid the continuing pandemic to avoid ‘stagflation’.
Drawing of Smedley Butler in front of a map background.

The Marine Who Turned Against U.S. Empire

What turned Smedley Butler into a critic of American foreign policy?
Aerial view of trees in Tongass National Forest, Alaska.

This Tree has Stood Here for 500 Years. Will it be Sold for $17,500?

Old-growth trees in Alaska's Tongass National Forest are embroiled in the politics of timber and climate change.
Statue of Stonewall Jackson, on its side in slings and propped up by tires, in front of its graffiti-covered pedestal.

What the 1619 Project Got Wrong

It erases the fact that, for the first 70 years of its existence, the US was roiled by intense, escalating conflict over slavery – a conflict only resolved by civil war.
Three black students holding hands though the smoke during the Children's Crusade

The Authoritarian Right’s 1877 Project

As the GOP undermines Black political rights in the present, some right-wing intellectuals are rationalizing Black disenfranchisement in the past.
President Harry Truman at a podium, giving a speech at NATO's inception in 1949.

Containment Can Work Against China, Too

There are important differences between Xi Jinping’s China and the Soviet Union, but the Cold War still offers clear strategic guidance for the U.S.
A naval cap with Soviet and American flags beneath the Pepsi logo

The Doomed Voyage of Pepsi’s Soviet Navy

A three-decade dream of communist markets ended in the scrapyard.

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