The Tyranny of Homo Economicus
How “thinking like an economist” has thwarted progress in America.
19707 Articles by: Frances Abele
Frances Abele CM is Distinguished Research Professor and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy Emerita at Carleton University. She is a research fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation and the Broadbent Institute. Much of her work focuses on indigenous-Canada relations.
Build Back Better Wasn’t So Great
Moderates claim that Biden’s BBB failed because it simply “went too far.” The truth is that even if it had passed, it would have excluded scores of working families.
Yanis Varoufakis, What Are You Reading?
What’s sitting on the nightstand of the legendary Greek economist?
The Crypto Bro President
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, had a mandate for change. He used it to build a police state and buy coin.
The Fabric of Civilization
Taiwan leads the world in the production of semiconductor material, the basis of the microchips found in everything from cell phones to medical equipment. Washington and Beijing aren’t happy about it.
Taking Shelter Under the Price Ceiling
For decades, American governments that were far from socialist embraced extensive use of price controls during times of inflation.
New York Times Watch
The paper of record has had some amazing headline edits in recent years. Here’s a selection.
Expensive Taste
Foodways dependent on factory farming and global monocultural agriculture might be cheap in the short term, but we could pay heavily in the future.
All In at the Crypto Casino
How America got high on the crypto bubble — and lost it all.
The End of History Was a Hell of a Drug
The collapse of the Soviet bloc led to a flowering of utopian thinking among our best and brightest.
Songs About Getting By in America
Misery has inspired some great art.
The Wizard of Oz’s Greenback Conspiracy
Many of the fantastical elements of The Wizard of Oz were drawn directly from the monetary debates of the 1890s.
Barbara Ehrenreich Made Socialist Ideas Sound Like Common Sense
Barbara Ehrenreich was driven by both her undying anger at the profound injustices of life under capitalism and a fervent hope that the world doesn’t have to be this way.
Making Ends Meet in the Cinematic Apocalypse
The radioactive mutants have taken the highways, and the microchips have been implanted in us, but there are still bills to pay.
Germany’s Funny Money
After World War I began and the imperial German government withdrew coins from circulation, local municipalities and businesses printed their own “emergency money” featuring striking imagery from German history, culture, and politics.
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Three Thousand Years of Longing Is the Genie-Professor Love Story You Never Asked For
Three Thousand Years of Longing, director George Miller’s whimsical follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road, finds him returning to the gentle storytelling he perfected in the Babe films. Too bad this one’s a slog.