From NYRB, Sue Halpern reviews Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil and Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy by Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke. There’s a devastatingly simple explanation for America’s economic mess. The productivity paradox: Timothy B. Lee on why we're getting more innovation but less growth. Why poor people stay poor: An excerpt from Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado. Dean Baker on how the “free market” is actually structured for the rich. America’s concern for the poor is about to be tested. The long-term jobs killer is not China — it’s automation. Jobs for all: In an age of precarity, a left-wing demand for full employment could be massively popular — but liberalism can’t deliver it.
Democracy against domination: K. Sabeel Rahman on overcoming economic power and regulatory failure in the new Gilded Age. What is “fiscatary policy” and why is it so important? Deficits matter again: Why the Trump-Putin economy isn’t like Obama’s. In crucial ways, Donald Trump is the second coming of George W. Bush.
