J. W. Mason is an associate professor of economics at John Jay College, City University of New York and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He blogs at The Slack Wire.
The capitalist system may be turbulent, inequitable, and antisocial. But there is no “iron law” of capital standing in the way of a program of economic planning for sake of the climate.
How “thinking like an economist” has thwarted progress in America.
More than 150 years ago, when the corporation as we know it today was still new, Marx saw in it both the essence of capitalism and a prefiguration of socialism: “The abolition of the capitalist mode of production within the capitalist mode of production itself.”
A whole range of goods should be publicly provided, financed by taxes, and free of charge to all — regardless of whether it’s the affluent or the poor who use them most. College is one of those goods.
Neoliberals are wrong: rent control protects tenants, is good for the housing market, promotes lively cities, and reduces one of the biggest sources of rising inequality today. We need to expand it dramatically.
How a decade of crisis changed economics.
Financial markets are adjusting to a “new, new normal.” But the old rules of class conflict still apply.
Finance isn’t just an industry. It’s a system of social control.
What would be the impact of Trump’s proposed 20 percent tariff?
We already live in a planned economy. Why not make it a democratic one?
Liberal wonks aren’t afraid of Bernie’s “inexperience.” They’re afraid of an economy where working people have power.
Beltway wonks are dismissing Bernie Sanders’s economic plan as unserious and unrealistic. Here’s why they’re wrong.
What’s behind the Fed’s recent interest rate hike? A desire to keep workers insecure and wages depressed.
Greece could ease the crisis by establishing control over its central bank. Here’s how.
Austerity won’t collapse under its own contradictions. We’ll need a movement for that.
