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economic history

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.