Summer 2019, No. 53

As dark as our time is in so many ways, there exists one great ray of hope: that we may finally have reached the end of the line for neoliberal economics, the theories advanced by Milton Friedman and others in the 1960s and 1970s that replaced Keynesianism as the country’s reigning economic philosophy (and that, frustratingly and for some confusingly, have nothing whatsoever to do with liberalism).

The economy is doing very well at the moment, it’s true; but increasingly, recognition that it’s doing especially well for only a few has grown and grown. More and more people have come to see that the market, left to its own devices, does not distribute goods equitably, that lack of public investment hurts our economic position in the world and our communities, and that all the philanthropy in the world can’t address problems like climate change on anywhere near the scale required. We need taxes, investment, and public purpose.

But if we are to replace neoliberalism, we must have an answer to the question: with what? That’s the question this symposium seeks to answer. With the support of the Hewlett Foundation, we assembled a prominent group of contributors who are deeply engaged in finding that answer. Together, these essays describe what this new economics would look like, and the support structures that would be needed to nurture and sustain it. Let’s get to work.

Back Issues Archive

Symposium

Beyond Neoliberalism

By The Editors

1 MIN READ

A New Economic Paradigm

By Heather Boushey

18 MIN READ

The Moral Vision After Neoliberalism

By K. Sabeel Rahman

16 MIN READ

Building Post-Neoliberal Institutions

By Felicia Wong

24 MIN READ

Growing the Grassroots

By Dorian Warren

12 MIN READ

Philanthropy's Role

By Jennifer Harris

17 MIN READ

Raise My Taxes!

By Chris Hughes

15 MIN READ

Neoliberalism and Race

By Darrick Hamilton

12 MIN READ

Features

The Empire Strikes Out

How American empire is a net drain—even for Americans.

By Ryan Cooper

20 MIN READ

Bringing Truth to the Internet

Efforts to treat individual disinformation outbreaks, rather than the underlying systemic design flaws, are doomed to fail. Here’s what we need.

By Karen Kornbluh Ellen P. Goodman

26 MIN READ

Race, Ethnicity, and the Job Market

No wonder white workers are so mad. They really are falling behind.

By Robert Shapiro

20 MIN READ

Book Reviews

Socialism's Comeback

Liberals should be glad that the left's renewal is taking place under the banner of democratic socialism rather than another variant.

By Patrick Iber

14 MIN READ

Antitrust Deficit

The current paradigm isn’t working. At this potentially exciting moment, we need a much stronger approach.

By Zephyr Teachout

15 MIN READ

Democracy's Death Knell?

Europe has been the ground zero of democracy’s triumph. But will it be short-lived?

By Edward Luce

13 MIN READ

Back Issues Archive