Marxism: The Idea that Refuses to Die
It’s been almost a century and a half since Karl Marx’s death, and decades since the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and elsewhere. In the still nominally…
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Economics
43 posts
It’s Class, Not Race
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. — Mark Twain In 2018, Raj Chetty and his…
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Direct Cash Aid to Palestinians Would Be a Win-Win
It would benefit both Israel and Palestine if people could donate to a non-profit programme that made direct, unconditional cash payments to impoverished Palestinians living in the Palestinian territories. The…
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Putin’s London People: Dirty Russian Money in the UK
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has united liberal, democratic nations in a way few thought possible. And there is now a growing effort to erode support for the Russian president…
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Sympathy for the Devil
One unavoidable rite of passage for children growing up in Singapore is a trip to the Haw Par Villa. Built by the brothers who invented Tiger Balm, the main attraction…
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The Empire That Wasn’t: The German Hanse
More than fifty years after its first publication—and now in its sixth (posthumous) edition—The German Hansa, by the French historian Philippe Dollinger, remains a classic. Written in a scholarly yet…
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Covid-19: The Serpent in a Globalized Paradise
It was once fashionable to speak of globalisation as an inexorable force. Given the promise of free trade, an unlimited labour market and, of course, McDonald’s hamburgers, it was the…
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Why Don’t We Have a Spotify Model for News?
I’ve never really needed to pay for my news. When I was a teenager, I’d buy magazines to learn about the latest in gaming, but by the time I reached…
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Social Control and Oppression in Cuba and Venezuela
In 1999, when I was 14 years old, I visited Cuba for two weeks with my mother. In my country, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez had just been elected president for the…
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Robert Reich’s “The System: How We Rigged It, How We Fix It”
Robert Reich, a lifelong Democrat, served in the Carter, Ford, Clinton and Obama administrations, and his views have moved progressively leftwards over time: he endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in…
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The Utilitarian Roots of Populism
Globalisation, powered by free trade and immigration, has produced unprecedented economic progress all around the world, led to enormous advances in all spheres of human endeavour, and lifted billions out…
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Crescent Capitalism: Islam and the Birth of the Free Market
Islamists, leftists and conservatives have long debated whether Islam is compatible with western liberal capitalism. Many have framed the history of capitalism as beginning in medieval Genoa and Venice, and…
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When the Village Is Too Expensive to Raise the Child
The debate about how best to raise children has long centred on the pros and cons of different family structures. Many conservatives believe that the nuclear family is the best…
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Why the US Needs a Just Two-Tier Healthcare System
Does access to adequate and affordable healthcare require a trade-off between equality and liberty? What kind of health care system is most effective? Benjamin J. Krohmal and Ezekiel J. Emanuel’s…
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The Real Price of the Covid-19 Vaccine
Every year, the leaders of the G20 meet to assess the financial state of the world. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic was, unsurprisingly, a major point of discussion. Since the…
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Karl Marx on Value
Many conservative pundits love to attack Karl Marx without really engaging his work in any depth. This is unfortunate since Marx deserves high calibre critics—and once received telling critiques by…
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Inequality and Civic Integrity: A Proposed Solution
Image by Hilary Clark The concept of participation income (PI) was first introduced by Anthony Atkinson in his 1996 paper, “The Case for Participation Income,” as a basic income given to…
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Game Theory and the Politics of Coronavirus
The coronavirus caught us off guard. Republicans blame China. Democrats blame Trump. President Trump blames Governor Cuomo and he slams Trump in return. Fox News defends the president’s actions, while…
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