economic history

Isabella Weber and the Historical Case for Price Controls

by Zachary Carter

Her calls for exploring the efficacy of targeted caps on prices was widely mocked in 2021. A year and a half later, are caps precipitated by the war in Ukraine proving her point? 

Neoliberalism: Not Dead Yet

by Brett Christophers

The reassertion of state power over economies during the COVID pandemic shouldn't yet be taken as a sign of a turn away from the dominance of finance capital over the global economy and politics – market fundamentalism is only one part of the system. 

Clara Mattei on the History of Austerity Politics

A decade before the Great Depression, capital responded to a serious crisis of legitimacy by adopting measures that punished a restive working class through scarcity, argues a new economic history; maintaining hierarchy, not growing the economy, is the objective.

The Bitter, Contested History of Globalization

Tara Zahra's book places the conflicts of the middle of the 20th century in the context of profound global debates about how interconnected the world should be, and on whose terms. 

The First Global Deflation is On—How Bad Will it Get?

by Adam Tooze

Worldwide, central banks are following the lead of the Federal Reserve and tightening their monetary policy. `It's unclear if policymakers have thought through the effects on employment, debt, and political stability. 

Economics is Power, not Math: Why the Dems Should Attack Monopoly

by Barry C. Lynn

Until the Reagan Revolution, American politics reflected the understanding that concentrated economic power was corrosive to democracy. Today, the Democrats need to revive that story as a political argument. 

Inflation Opened the Door to American Neoliberalism

by Thom Hartmann

An inflationary crisis proved to be the justification for reworking the American political economy in the direction of the vast inequality we observe today. 

Brad DeLong's "Slouching Toward Utopia" Calls a Close to the Prosperity of the Long 20th Century

Particularly for Americans, the period between 1870 and 2010 was a miracle of sustained and growing prosperity. But Brad DeLong also says that it's over. 

Is Jerome Powell Following History to Fight Inflation?

by Adam Tooze

Jerome Powell has drawn history into his public rationale for raising interest rates, arguing that his Fed won't repeat the problems of inaction of the 1970s. Is he risking a recession by ignoring the different causes of inflation today? 

Historians Respond to Biden's Student Debt Relief Order

How are historians responding to the Biden administration's order to forgive $10,000 of student debt for borrowers with incomes under $125,000?

Marc Gallicchio on Truman and the Transition to a Peacetime Economy

As victory over Germany approached, Truman's economic and military advisors debated whether to begin to divert resources back into civilian production to ease what promised to be a difficult economic reconversion. 

The Crisis Historian Has Bad News About the Crisis

"Wherever our current catastrophe is headed, it has been good to Adam Tooze, he tells me with some bewilderment."

How Economic Historian Adam Tooze Pushed the "Dirtbag Left" Off the Podcasting Throne

For a certain left-leaning online audience, Tooze's rigorous approach is beating out ironic smartassery and the shallower efforts of some self-styled "explainers" to build a potent public intellectual brand. 

Bad Economics

by Simon Torracinta

A historian of science reviews three books on the history of economic thought, which support the conclusion that the ideas animating the mainstream of the discipline and enabling it to dominate discussions of policy are badly in need of reexamination. 

The Economy is Good, Actually

by Zachary D. Carter

An economic historian says that the recovery from the pandemic is historically good in terms of the share of gains going to low-income workers, but the politics are not working in the Democrats' favor. 

After 20 Years, Enron Still Haunts Us

by Gavin Benke

Despite Enron's bankruptcy and the resulting economic fallout, American business media is still dangerously credulous toward promises of "innovation" and "disruption" without asking whether the latest hot entrepreneur is using smoke and mirrors. 

Lizabeth Cohen: Why Americans Buy So Much Stuff

As holiday shopping overlaps with historic supply chain disruptions, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Lizabeth Cohen on the economy's reliance on spending and the culture of consumerism in the U.S.

"The Ivory Tower is Dead": An Interview with Davarian Baldwin

Davarian L. Baldwin's work interrogates how universities in postindustrial cities exemplify new models of economic development and are implicated in the problems of labor exploitation, gentrification and inequality. 

Land of Capital: Jonathan Levy's "Ages of American Capital" Reviewed

by Steven Hahn

"Ages of Capitalism" is one of the first synthetic accounts of the relationship of capitalism and American politics and society, and provides an important vocabulary for a developing field of inquiry. It also, oddly, resonates with the older consensus history that assumed capitalism as a core part of American life.

Indentured Students: Elizabeth Tandy Shermer on Student Debt (Monday, October 4)

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer shows that Democrats and Republicans intentionally wanted to create a student loan industry instead of generously funding colleges and universities, which eventually left millions of Americans drowning in student debt. Zoom, Monday, Oct. 4, 4:00 PM EDT.