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LPE Blog

The Limits of Anti-Monopsony Antitrust

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: January 19, 2024

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. . .

The Demand for Transparency as Non-Reformist Reform

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: January 12, 2024

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. . .

Weekly Roundup: December 15, 2023

David Adler and José Miguel Ahumada on anarcho-capitalism in Honduras, Zoe Tucker on why unions should join the housing fight, and Jamelia Morgan on the tensions of non-reformist reform. Plus, make big money writing about LPE, make less (though still good) money working for LPE, Tim Wu on the draft merger guidelines, a much anticipated book on democratic theory,. . .

Abolition in the Interstices

Within prison abolitionist movements and discourse, the idea of non-reformist reform often serves as a litmus test for assessing campaign goals and strategies. Yet even here, activists need to think holistically about their obligations and strategies, as pursuing non-reformist reforms will sometimes conflict with our duties to mitigate harm in the here. . .

Why Labor Unions Should Join the Housing Fight

Every union has reason to address the high cost of housing, which diverts wage raises into profits for landlords, acts as a structural constraint on labor actions, and generally makes life worse for its members. And as UNITE HERE Local 11 has demonstrated, unions are well-positioned to address the problem: from spearheading local tenant ordinances to. . .

Weekly Roundup: December 8, 2023

Seven tech wizards discuss Biden’s EO on AI, Tara Raghuveer recounts one of her favorite tenant union fights, and Mariana Pargendler describes an unheralded revolution in heterodox corporate law. Plus, a new issue of the JLPE, an event with our favorite Marxists, James Galbraith on productivism, Thad Williams reviews Justice by Means of Democracy. . .

Heterodox Corporate Laws in the Global South

In the face of increasing inequality, legal regimes in the Global North have started to grapple with the distributive consequences of corporate law. They would do well to look to the Global South, where several jurisdictions have pioneered heterodox approaches to corporate law that take into account a broad range of public policy and distributional objectives.. . .