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LPE Blog

Weekly Roundup: Dec 20

Rohan Grey and Amanda Parsons on the law and political economy of cryptocurrency, Sandeep Vaheesan on antitrust reform as an instrument for democratizing economic life, Zohra Ahmed and Madiha Tahir on the Trump administration’s escalation against Venezuela, and Quinn Slobodian on the dim prospects of centrist post-neoliberalism. Plus, a “freedom from. . .

Why Antitrust Reform Matters

In the recent exchange between the Marxists and the antitrusters, much of the disagreement has turned on different understandings of the project of antitrust reform. What is its animating goal? Is antitrust a substitute or complement to other forms of regulation? And how does antitrust relate to broader political movements? Identifying rival stances that. . .

The Anarchist Currency with a Government Sponsor

Despite its professed commitment to radical libertarianism and a non-state theory of money, the crypto industry is actively cultivating government intervention in markets on its behalf. From recruiting states to accept cryptocurrency for tax payments to pushing for the establishment of a Bitcoin reserve, crypto interests are partnering with the government to. . .

Weekly Roundup: Dec 12

A call to join the ranks of the Association for Law and Political Economy, an interview with Bench Ansfield about the business of arson, and a new entry by Amna Akbar in our symposium on Free Gifts. Plus, Andrew Elrod and Marshall Steinbaum lay out a vision for rebuilding higher ed, Katie Wells and Lindsay Owens examine algorithmic pricing at. . .

Facing the Limits

In Free Gifts, Alyssa Battistoni explores capitalism’s persistent failure to value the natural world. Yet the lesson of this exploration is much broader: that capitalism imposes fundamental limits on our collective freedom.

Weekly Roundup: Dec 5

Madison Condon on climate change and externalities-thinking, Colleen Carrol on MAGA’s attempt to outflank democrats on college affordability, and Alvin Velazquez and Christopher Hampson on what LPE and the Bible have in common. Plus, Zephyr Teachout on the rise of MLMs, Susannah Glickman and Nic Johnson on the political economy of Trump’s second. . .

The Dark Doppelganger of Affordable Higher Education

In the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, the Trump administration included a brilliant bit of faux-populism: a five-year tuition freeze. The proposal creates the illusion that the right is taking decisive action to address affordability, while obfuscating its larger plan to abandon higher education as a public good. To prevent MAGA from. . .

Is Climate Change an Externality?

Environmental harms are often cast as externalities, even by those seeking to emphasize their urgency. Yet the major modern environmental statutes, written before America’s neoliberal turn toward Coasean thinking, expressly rejected the use of economic analysis in designing pollution regulation. What does this history teach us, and how might our. . .

What Can Politics Make of Nature?

Alyssa Battistoni’s Free Gifts argues that capitalism limits our freedom to decide how to value the nonhuman world. Politics, as the domain in which we choose the terms of our collective life, has a special role to play in moving beyond these limitations. But what is Battistoni’s conception of politics, and how big is the effective space that. . .

Weekly Roundup: Nov 21

Alyssa Battistoni on the free gifts of nature, Rob Hunter on value form theory and the accelerating climate crisis, and Reshard L. Kolabhai on what LPE can learn from the Global South. Plus, a CFP on Lawyering Without the Law, Advait Arun on the capital structure of the AI sector, Sabeel Rahman on the case for a third reconstruction, Brett Christophers on. . .