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Essay

Progressive Democracy and Legislative Form

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Adrian Vermeule recently made a stir with his proposal for a “common-good constitutionalism.” He argued that originalism had “outlived its utility” now that the right had gained power on the federal bench. Instead it was time for a “substantively conservative approach to constitutional law and interpretation.” We got only a few peaks at the. . .
Weekly Roundup

LPE on COVID-19 (vol. 4)

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Dear Readers,  As part of our ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis from an LPE perspective, we bring you a round-up of recent work from our LPE community. We’re aiming to make these a (semi) regular feature of the blog throughout the crisis. Above all, we hope you are as well as can be expected. …
Essay

Money in Context: Part 2

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This is the second post on ‘Money in Context.’ You can read the first post here.  The observation with which I closed Part 1 implicates a challenge – or perhaps better put, it extends an invitation. In light of the inherently infrastructural role played by payment systems and their associated monies in any ‘exchange economy’…
Essay

Money in Context: Part 1

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This is the first of two posts on Money in Context. Read Part II here.  We’ve all heard the adage. ‘Time is money.’ The utterer usually means that time can be spent earning money, so that to ‘waste time’ is to incur a pecuniary opportunity cost. But there’s another sense in which money is time – or…
Symposium

Are We Prisoners of Technological Fate?

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The Meritocracy Trap’s account of the relationships among elite education, skill-biased technical change, and rising economic inequality is, in my mind, one of the book’s most important arguments, even as it is undoubtedly one of the least discussed. I’m therefore delighted and grateful that Gordon chose to focus his attention on these matters.
Symposium

Are the Rich Rentiers or Superordinate Workers?

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This is the third post in our series discussing The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits. Click here to read all posts in the series.  I am grateful to the LPE Blog for hosting this exchange about The Meritocracy Trap. Today’s post will take up Hart’s and Steinbaum’s post and focus on facts, and tomorrow’s will turn to Gordon’s post…
Essay

Two Timelines of Covid Crisis

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We often hear that the current COVID crisis came “out of the blue,” that “nobody” was expecting it.* But anyone with a decent grasp of pressing issues in public health knew the risks of pandemics. As I wrote in 2014: [R]eduction in hospital facilities and other resources, although “efficient” in normal times, may prove disastrous if. . .
Essay

Gideon and the Promise of Right to Counsel

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This week, we’re sharing two discussions on John Whitlow’s recently published article reflecting on New York’s right to counsel in evictions proceedings. Our contributors share visions of right to counsel that move beyond due process rights. The contributors show that right to counsel campaigns are part of broader movements that seek. . .
Essay

The Truth about Buybacks

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People claim to be worried about stock buybacks. In fact, the buybacks are a stand-in for what we can all see: business in this country works for wealthy shareholders, not workers, customers, or communities.
Essay

LPE on COVID (vol 2)

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Today, as part of our ongoing effort to bring you the best LPE work on COVID-19, we’re reposting a letter from Professor Noah Zatz to his City Counsel regarding evictions during the pandemic.
Weekly Roundup

LPE on COVID 19

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We’re living in strange times. As we try to make sense of the moment, LPE Blog wants to offer some COVID 19 coverage from our regular contributors. We’re starting today with some work that Amy Kapczynski has done with various colleagues.
Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup, March 12, 2020

By LPE Editors

…on Thursday! Because time is just a social construct, man. Plenty of action on the blog since we last rounded up. We hosted symposia on money bail reform, on interdisciplinary methods in political economy, on Ganesh Sitaraman and Anne Alstott’s book on public options, and on Daniel Markovits’s book on meritocracy and inequality. Amy. . .