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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

By

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?
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 19, 2024

By LPE Editors

Zohra Ahmed concludes our symposium on non-reformist reforms, and the blog’s editors highlight some of their most anticipated books for 2024. Plus, the launch of What To Do About the Courts, an interview with Corinne Blalock about the left’s ideological infrastructure, an upcoming event with Sanjukta Paul and Nathan Tankus, John Mark Newman on. . .
Symposium

The Demand for Transparency as Non-Reformist Reform

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The heuristic of non-reformist reform can help avoid ultra-leftism and create the possibilities for coalition, such as across groups who care about transparency. It can help us salvage the transformative potential of demands that seem to have lost their teeth. But to realize these ends without falling back into reformist pieties, the framework demands rigorous,. . .
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: January 12, 2024

By LPE Editors

Amy Kapczynski offers a political economy analysis of the campus free speech wars, and Scott Cummings and Madeline Janis explain how a little-known Reagan-era competition rule continues to block innovative policy efforts by state and local governments. Plus, an upcoming talk with Nikhil Goyal, a conference on Administering a Democratic Political Economy, a. . .