Rethinking Political Economy
This series asks how we build a new world after forty years of market fundamentalism. We debate new ways to think about protecting the planet, the relationship of equality and democracy, the need for racially inclusive prosperity, the promise of industrial policy, the dangers of concentrated economic power, and a revival of investment in public goods.
Generously supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Budgeting Justice
Cities must empower historically marginalized communities to shape how public funds are spent.
The Fight for Reparations Cannot Ignore Climate Change
Racial redress should be modeled on the global anticolonial tradition of worldbuilding.
A Path to Neighborhood Power
Well-meaning nonprofits don’t go far enough in the fight against gentrification. Residents themselves must be in charge, and neighborhood trusts point the way.
Demand the Imaginable
Intrinsic to what we hate about work is that we can’t imagine life outside of it.
What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about Innovation
To generate local, inclusive prosperity, cities must think beyond tech accelerators and science parks.
How Emerging Markets Hurt Poor Countries
Financial globalization was supposed to spur development. Instead it transfers money to the Global North and exacerbates existing inequalities.
Is Nuclear Power Our Best Bet Against Climate Change?
Beyond carbon emissions and safety, the debate must also confront how the choices we make now constrain the kind of world we can build in the future.
Industrial Policy’s Comeback
We need a mission-oriented approach to the economy that embraces an active role for government in spurring growth and innovation.
The Specter of Inflation
Democrats don’t lose elections because of rising prices. They lose when they cut spending and raise interest rates, sacrificing other goals at the altar of price stability.
Beyond Neoliberal Trade
With globalization under increasing scrutiny, national governments are poised to exert more power over markets.
Here Come the Robot Nurses
The pandemic increased demand and possibilities for automating care, but doing so may deliver racist stereotypes and unemployment for women of color.
Workplace Training in the Age of AI
To support the work of the future, we must promote workers’ skills as crucial to technological progress.
We Don’t Know, But Let’s Try It
For economist Albert O. Hirschman, social planning meant creative experimentation rather than theoretical certainty.
Stop Building Bad AI
Justice demands that we think not just about profit or performance, but above all about purpose.
Why Neoliberalism Needs Neofascists
We’re witnessing the last-ditch effort of neoliberal capitalism to rescue itself from crisis.
What Is Infrastructure, Anyway?
The fight over the American Jobs Plan reflects a long history of competing visions of public works—and, most of all, who should benefit from rebuilding.
Neoliberalism’s Bailout Problem
Mainstream economics ignores the massive government interventions that “free market” capitalism requires.
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