Fall 2024

Mainstream capitalist economics has become, among other things, a language. I do not mean simply that economists employ a professional jar- gon. How could they not? Between Economese and ordinary English there are more than differences of vocabulary; there are …

Mainstream capitalist economics has become, among other things, a language. I do not mean simply that economists employ a professional jargon. How could they not? Between Economese and ordinary English there are more than differences of vocabulary; there are different …

When we talk politics at home, in a bar, or at a party—that is, wherever there are no bulbs flashing or cameras rolling—there’s at least a good chance we’ll speculate, “Will the Democrats/Republicans raise/lower taxes and the Congress vote in/out …

The idea—I think it’s fairly common—that a profession of liberal or social democratic politics implies a profession of faith in the innate and prior goodness of human nature strikes me as a beggarly question. And so does its obverse, that …

A mental arrogance seems to afflict us when we consider Spain. When Americans read of right-wing plots in Spain against the new democracy every several weeks or so, if they are wise they know the old Spanish right must somehow …

Three assumptions of popular political wisdom often heard since the November 1980 debacle do rob one of patience: (1) the Democratic party must learn to forgo the temptations of “ideological politics”; (2) the Democratic party and liberalism in general have …

American conservatism has not been, by and large, intellectually very precise. Lionel Trilling’s judgment in 1950?which every conservative writer or anthologist seems dutybound at some time to mention in rebuttal? remains apt: “with some isolated and ecclesiastical exceptions” conservative impulses …