From The Nation, a special issue on capitalism. From Dissent, a special section on capitalism’s past, present, and future — from slavery to the transformations wrought by globalization — and novel ideas for reform. Eric Foner reviews Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America’s First Gilded Age by Noam Maggor. How did America’s banks get so much political power? Isaac Kaplan reviews Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics by Kim Phillips-Fein. End of a golden age: Unprecedented growth marked the era from 1948 to 1973; economists might study it forever, but it can never be repeated — why? Harvey Cox on his book The Market as God (and more).
From Boston Review, K. Sabeel Rahman on the return of vulture capitalism. America is regressing into a developing nation for most people. The introduction to The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty by Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider. “The sense that the system is rigged relates to governments’ failure to address inequality and concentration”: An interview with Anat Admati on the role of corporations and governments in the market. The people have spoken: They want more government.
When it comes to economic policy, be direct: If we want to help people with public policy — a big “if” — we must do so in a straightforward way. Alexia Fernandez Campbell on what Congress can learn from Kansas’s failed tax experiment.
