Paul Graham is Still Asking to be Eaten

What Paul Graham Is Missing About Inequality

Before he published his essay on inequality, Paul Graham sent it to me for comment. I sent him some quick impressions and promised a more…

J. K. Gibson-Graham

J. K. Gibson-Graham is a pen name shared by feminist economic geographers Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson. The two professors' landmark first book The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It) was first published in 1996 (a second edition with a new Introduction was published in 2006), followed by A Postcapitalist Politics in 2006. The two scholars also founded the Community Economies Collective (CEC), the Community Economies Research Network (CERN) and the Community Economies Institute (CEI), all "international collaborative networks of researchers who share an interest in theorizing, discussing, representing and ultimately enacting new visions of economy."[1] Gibson-Graham's works focus on untying the economy from capitalism and the possibility of transforming economic relations within existing conditions.

How Paul Graham Is Wrong

I love Paul Graham’s essays and his latest is no exception: Let the Other 95% of Great Programmers In. I agree that the US deserves dramatically better immigration policies, but in the meantime I’m…

Global Inequality — Harvard University Press

Winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize, Karl Renner InstitutA Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year An Economist Best Book of the Year A Livemint Best Book of the YearOne of the world’s leading economists of inequality, Branko Milanovic presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, he explains the benign and malign forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations. He also reveals who has been helped the most by globalization, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice.“The data [Milanovic] provides offer a clearer picture of great economic puzzles, and his bold theorizing chips away at tired economic orthodoxies.”—The Economist“Milanovic has written an outstanding book…Informative, wide-ranging, scholarly, imaginative and commendably brief. As you would expect from one of the world’s leading experts on this topic, Milanovic has added significantly to important recent works by Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson and François Bourguignon…Ever-rising inequality looks a highly unlikely combination with any genuine democracy. It is to the credit of Milanovic’s book that it brings out these dangers so clearly, along with the important global successes of the past few decades.—Martin Wolf, Financial Times

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived ideological framework. Using examples from politics, film (Children Of Men, Jason Bourne, Supernanny), fiction (Le Guin and Kafka), work and education, it argues that capitalist realism colors all areas of contemporary experience, is anything but realistic and asks how capitalism and its inconsistencies can be challenged. It is a sharp analysis of the post-ideological malaise that suggests that the economics and politics of free market neo-liberalism are givens rather than constructions. New Edition includes:Forward by Zoe Fisher, Mark’s wife, talking about Mark as a personIntroduction by Alex Niven, his friend and colleague, talking about the political significance of the book thirteen years after it was writtenAfterword by Tariq Goddard, the original editor and publisher, describing the writing and editing of the book, its original reception, and Mark’s own view of it"A quick and entertaining read." Socialist Standard "A provocative and necessary read...for anyone wanting to talk seriously about the politics of education today. " Times Higher Educational Supplement

Profit, cost, price, learned societies; further thoughts on Samuel A. Moore's Publishing Beyond the Market

Since I last wrote, I have had a few more thoughts on Samuel Moore’s book. Again, these are not necessarily things that he does not discuss or things that he should have discussed. They are merely thoughts that occurred to me in response to reading his work.

Good food and nutrition for all – Victorian Socialists

Everyone deserves a decent meal. Good food should be affordable and easily available. We want to set up cost-price food hubs and cap supermarket prices.

The Divide — Jason Hickel

The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions Penguin Random House UK, 2017

The Metagame

Notes on Paul Graham's "How to Get Startup Ideas"

Here's Why I Wrote a Book When the World is on Fire.

Regenerative Economics: Revolutionary Thinking for a World in Crisis

The New Economic Security State

In April 2023, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan begged his listeners’ indulgence for straying out of his lane by delivering a major address about economics. But his actual argument—that decades of free-market zealotry had weakened the country’s national security—was anything but apologetic. “Ignoring economic dependencies that had built up over the decades of liberalization had become really perilous—from energy uncertainty in Europe to supply-chain vulnerabilities in medical equipment, semiconductors, and critical minerals,” Sullivan said.

So can we really feed the world? Yes -- and here's how

Nathanael Johnson spent six months asking if we could support small farmers, protect the planet, and end hunger. This is what he learned.

Craigslist, Wikipedia, and the Abundance Economy

You’ve heard it before. Maybe you’ve even said it. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” “You can’t get something for nothing.” “Somebody has to pay.” People recite these sayings with confidence, as though they were quoting Newton’s Laws of Motion...