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LPE Originals

A Call To Defend Free Speech From Weaponized Allegations of Terrorism Ties

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When students, staff, or faculty are accused of being associated or “aligned” with terrorist organizations, universities may be pressed to take immediate and harsh action, if only to quell media attention and appear compliant with this lawless Administration’s wishes. Universities must prepare for this possibility, learn about the underlying legal frameworks, and refuse to operate on the basis of fear rather than legal necessity or moral principle.
LPE Originals

Between Slavery and Incarceration: an Interview with Christopher Muller

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An expert on the history of mass incarceration explains why the Black incarceration rate was lower in the South than in the North for much of the 20th century, why recent decades have witnessed rising class inequality in prison admission rates, and why functionalist explanations of incarceration often cloud our scholarly and political thinking.
LPE Originals

“Business Goes To The Wage Cutter”: Abusive Labor Practices And Unfair Competition

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Antitrust enforcers have recently begun to treat abusive labor practices — such as worker misclassification and noncompete agreements — as unfair methods of competition. But this approach is not new. Since the early twentieth century, labor advocates, legislators, and judges have all recognized that when employers mistreat their workers to obtain cost advantages, they harm both workers and their competitors.
LPE Originals

Did More Competition Make Meatpacking Fairer?

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According to a common antimonopoly narrative, prior to the merger wave of the 1980s, antitrust enforcement kept the meatpacking industry competitive and relatively decentralized — a situation that enhanced farmers’ autonomy and bargaining power. Yet a closer look at the historical record reveals that this fierce midcentury competition also undermined the unionized labor force and New-Deal regulatory regimes that previously dispersed power. Correcting this narrative should encourage antimonopolists not to become too starry-eyed about “competition” as a market regulator.
LPE Originals

The Political Economy of the Urban-Rural Divide

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Though the urban-rural divide can sometimes appear like a primordial fault line in American political life, it is a relatively recent development. The Democratic Party’s collapse in the countryside was the predictable consequence of decisions to prioritize certain constituencies to the neglect of others, as it championed the shift to the metropolitan knowledge economy.
LPE Originals

The Promise of America’s Forgotten Labor Law

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Given threats to the current system of labor rights protection — as well as unions’ increasing willingness to take an active role in addressing controversial political issues — the often overlooked Norris-LaGuardia Act is primed to take on new relevance in coming years.