economic history

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/25/2021
  

  The Missing Piece of the Minimum Wage Debate

  by Colleen Doody

  Historical perspective on the origins of the federal minimum wage shows that critics of a $15 minimum ignore the positive economic effects of increased purchasing power. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/10/2021
  

  The New Deal’s Capitalist Lessons for Joe Biden

  by Louis Hyman

  An economic historian argues that the greatest impact of the New Deal came from programs that guided the investment of private capital to social ends, rather than direct expenditure on public works. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/28/2021
  

  Fixing the Economy Requires Giving Power to People Who Answer to the Public

  by Jonathan Levy

  The economy does not exist on a plane separate from politics; the power of the Federal Reserve for the past four decades has been directed at increasing inequality and the power of the financial sector. 

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• SOURCE: Public Books
  1/25/2021
  

  J. M. Keynes and the Visible Hands

  by Kent Puckett

  John Maynard Keynes's disgust at the outcome of the peace negotiations at the end of the Great War led him to write a scathing and influential book about the economic impact of the Treaty of Versailles. Unfortunately, the account, which overstated the economic devastation imposed on Germany, fueled Hitler's propaganda and made the rest of Europe unable to perceive the threat of German rearmament. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/26/2021
  

  How Mexico Reshaped the Global Economy: Interview With Christy Thornton

  The Mexican government demanded a program of economic reparations to the developing world, but the system of international aid and trade that emerged worsened exploitation. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/21/2020
  

  The Libertarian Ideas That Wrecked the Fed

  by Bruce Bartlett

  Friedman’s ardent libertarian faith was central to his monetarist thinking; like all libertarians, he was always extremely wary of anything that would cause the size of government to grow.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  9/2/2020
  

  What Liberals Get Wrong About Work

  by Michael J. Sandel

  Michael Young, who coined the term meritocracy in the late 1950s—and who used it as a pejorative—observed four decades later: “It is hard indeed in a society that makes so much of merit to be judged as having none. No underclass has ever been left as morally naked as that.”

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• SOURCE: David Harvey
  9/3/2020
  

  David Harvey and David Graeber Discuss "Debt" (Video)

  Political theorists David Harvey and David Graeber discuss Graeber's book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2012. 

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• SOURCE: BBC
  9/3/2020
  

  In Memory of David Graeber, Listen to A BBC Interview on the History of Debt

  Anthropologist David Graeber, whose works included the influential book Debt: The First 5,000 Years has recently passed away. This 1996 BBC interview explores the terrain of that book and the significance of debt as a political force. 

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• SOURCE: The Economic Historian
  8/3/2020
  

  Capitalism and Slavery: A Discussion with Caitlin Rosenthal, Tom Cutterham, and Eric Hilt

  "Much has been made about how much historians can learn from economists, and I think that this is an area where economists could learn a lot from historians. We are trained to look at things from multiple perspectives and to understand complex contexts."--Caitlin Rosenthal

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/23/2020
  

  Good News: The Economy Usually Recovers Quickly Once Pandemics End

  by Laird M. Easton

  Since the Black Death of the mid-14th century, no major pandemic appears to have had a long-lasting, negative economic impact, at least in Europe and North America.

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• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  7/22/2020
  

  A Job Guarantee Costs Far Less Than Unemployment

  The bold policy for not just weathering the crisis, but coming out better.

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  7/22/2020
  

  Senate GOP Votes to Put U.S. Back on Gold Standard, One of the Worst Ideas Ever

  by Michael Hiltzik

  Trump's Federal Reserve Board nominee Judy Shelton's advocacy for returning to the gold standard reflects her hostility to government spending at a time when the COVID-19 outbreak demands resources for public health and economic security. 

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• 6/21/2020
  

  After Those Cruel Wars Were Over: Lessons from Two Economic Recoveries

  by Hugh Rockoff and Mark Wilson

  An economist and economic historian argue that a well-planned response to the economic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in economic recoveries like those that followed the two World Wars.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  6/16/2020
  

  It Didn’t Have to Be Like This

  The New Deal, per historian Eric Rauchway, illustrates the relationship between the American economy and American democracy.

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• SOURCE: World Economic Forum
  5/29/2020
  

  Don't Assume There'll be a 'Post-COVID-19 Era' - Historian Niall Ferguson Tells World vs Virus

  "I don't think we should assume there'll be a post-COVID-19 era, any more than there's a post-influenza era, or a post-tuberculosis era, or a post-AIDS era," says historian Niall Ferguson.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/28/2020
  

  The Great Depression, Coronavirus Style: Crashes, Then and Now

  by Nomi Prins

  Monetary policy responses to the current crisis can't fix either the structural problems that make the economy vulnerable to severe disruption or the virus and public health crisis that underlie that disruption. Governments must choose to take coordinated action on multiple fronts. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/27/2020
  

  The Unluckiest Generation In U.S. History

  Economic data suggest that Millennials aren't just complaining. Their early years on the job market have been affected by the Great Recession and COVID and seen less growth than any other generation.

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• SOURCE: NC Policy Watch
  5/25/2020
  

  Duke University Professor of Economic History Dirk Philipsen: Re-Consider how We Measure Economic Success (Audio)

  An economic historian contends that GDP is not the best indicator of economic success. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  5/18/2020
  

  Is Capitalism Racist?

  Nicholas Lemann considers Walter Johnson's new book The Broken Heart of America in light of recent debates among historians about the relationship of slavery, capitalism and racism.