economic history

• 
• 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.”

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  5/19/2020
  

  When the Economy Collapses, Talk Is Cheap—Just Look What Led Up to the Great Depression

  by Robert Dallek

  For American leaders, the Great Depression is as much a lesson in what not to do as it is in what to do.

• 
• SOURCE: Marketplace
  5/13/2020
  

  What Postwar America Can Tell Us About Today’s Record Unemployment

  Economic historians Caroline Fohlin and Gary Richardson discuss the nature of government support for employment to preserve World War II's economic gains. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  4/27/2020
  

  If the Great Depression Is Any Indication, Things Won’t Just Go Back to ‘Normal’ After the Coronavirus Pandemic Ends

  by James C. Cobb

  New Deal programs had difficulty returning the United States to "normal" life because FDR had difficulty persuading many Americans that the federal government was supporting their economic security. This failure makes a comprehensive response to COVID-19 less politically feasible.

• 
• SOURCE: Associated Press
  4/25/2020
  

  Out of Pandemic Crisis, What Could a New New Deal Look Like?

  The COVID-19 crisis has served up a rare opportunity to galvanize Americans for change.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  4/18/2020
  

  What History Can Teach Us About Building a Fairer Society After Coronavirus

  Local protests and uprisings against landlords had happened before, but after the Black Death they became more common.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/13/2020
  

  If Biden Wins, He’ll Have to Put the World Back Together

  If Joe Biden wins the election in November, he will likely be sworn in—perhaps virtually—under the most challenging circumstances since Harry Truman became president in 1945.