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Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: February 23, 2024

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Daniel Morales analyzes the “crisis” at the US-Mexico Border, while Ganesh Sitaraman and Matthew Buck discuss the history of airline regulation. Plus, research grants from the HPE project, a CFP on labor and the law, Willy Forbath on the Taft Court, Zephyr Teachout on Netchoice, a new episode from Fragile Juggernaut, a conference on the future. . .
Essay

The U.S.-Mexico Border as a Crisis of Social Reproduction

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Despite what you may have heard on Fox News or read in the New York Times, the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico is neither about the border, nor about migrants’ impact on the country. Rather, the staging of a border crisis is an attempt by Republicans (and unwitting democrats) to put in place new machinery of social reproduction.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: February 16, 2024

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Jed Kroncke on territorial labor in the American Empire, and Megan Wachspress on how workers can divest their labor from war. Plus, the second session of our Courts reading group, a conference on neoliberalism, a cool new job building out the LPE-cinematic universe, and two new pieces on that old chestnut, the State.
Essay

Can Workers Bargain Over Bombs?

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In their statement calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, the UAW International Executive Board raised a tantalizing possibility: What if UAW workers were to divest their labor from the construction of weaponry? Under current labor law, how might workers make their complicity in the military-industrial complex a mandatory subject of bargaining?. . .
Essay

Territorial Labor and the Political Economy of American Empire

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From Afro-Diasporic laborers building the Panama Canal to contemporary Micronesians trafficked to work in Iowa’s pork industry, the labors of “territorial peoples” have been central to America’s economic rise. This often overlooked history is both an indictment of our constitutional tradition and a harbinger of the tactics of legal disempowerment deployed. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: February 9, 2024

By LPE Editors

John Mark Newman grades the progress of the new antimonopoly era, and Valentino Larcinese and Alberto Parmigiani describe new research about the mutually reinforcing nature of political and economic inequality. Plus, upcoming events with Vincent Bevins, Hila Shamir, Tim Schwab, new papers from Karen Tani, Katie Eyers, and Gali Racabi, and an interview with. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: February 2, 2024

By LPE Editors

Victor Pickard on taking media out of the market, as well as the launch of our hit reading group, What To Do About the Courts. Plus, a feast of upcoming events: Administering a Democratic Political Economy (today!), LPE Night School (Tuesday), Two LPE@HLS event series (on supply chains and social reproduction), a private law series on globalization, RebLaw. . .
Essay

Taking Media Out of the Market

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The recent spate of job losses in journalism make evident the need for systemic alternatives to commercial media. Tweaking market mechanisms and scrambling for new business models is futile when the market itself is a core part of the problem. Our democracy requires that we disentangle news and information from capitalism — we need a horizon for journalism. . .
Announcement

No One Court Should Have All That Power

By LPE Editors

Here’s the terrifying reality: our power-hungry, ultra-conservative Supreme Court will stifle attempts by the government to address climate change, gun violence, racial inequality, and many other pressing problems. Democrats, meanwhile, are unlikely to win back control of the Court until 2065. Given this, it’s past time to take seriously the. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 26, 2024

By LPE Editors

Brian Callaci on the limits of anti-monopsony antitrust, and Julia Tomassetti on the political economy of employment status disputes. Plus, a call for applications for the 2024 Law and Organizing Academy, T-3 days until the launch of our open course on the Supreme Court, a new podcast on the CIO, a new global LPE syllabus in our syllabus bank, two amici. . .
Essay

The Political Economy of Employment Status Disputes

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Regulators at both the NLRB and Department of Labor have recently rolled back Trump-era employment status rules. To an outsider, these changes can seem pedantic and inconsequential. A political economy perspective, however, reveals a deeper logic to the new rules, which address three pernicious trends in employment classification — the ability of businesses. . .
Essay

The Limits of Anti-Monopsony Antitrust

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The Biden administration’s antitrust policy has been the most pro-labor in decades. And yet, the response from labor advocates and the labor movement has been rather muted. Why the disconnect? And what can it teach us about the limits of antitrust policy that takes the ideal of perfect competition as its normative benchmark?