Capitalism
A Global History
Analysis
AI, Antitrust, and the Future of the Marketplace of Ideas
AI was sold as a tool to broaden the marketplace of ideas. Instead, a handful of platforms now control how truth travels, shaping what we see, starving journalism, and locking new AI rivals out of the data democracy needs to survive.
In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously wrote that truth prevails when ideas compete freely. This marketplace of ideas metaphor has shaped our democracy: when ideas circulate and compete, truth wins out.
Red Tech and American Politics: Nick French Interviews Thomas Ferguson
Venture-backed “tech capital” is reshaping U.S. politics through campaign finance, platform gatekeeping, defense/AI procurement, and policy entrepreneurship. In an interview with Nick French, INET's Research Director Thomas Ferguson discusses these channels of influence, examining their macro-distributional consequences, and outlining guardrails to restore democratic accountability and broadly shared gains.
Nick French
Hungry for Development: The leadership of the Global South from G20 to COP30
Since 2007, recurring food-price spikes reveal hunger as a problem of market design and underinvestment, not scarcity. With Brazil’s COP30 on the horizon, aligning climate commitments with food systems could cement policy space to manage markets and advance the right to food.
Elon Musk’s latest power grab: Will Tesla’s CEO become the world’s first trillion-dollar employee?
Elon Musk secured shareholder approval for a new stock-based package designed to double his voting power at Tesla, potentially making him the first trillion-dollar employee. As this plan cements Musk’s control it ties vesting to audacious market-cap and production targets and diverts focus from progressive value creation. Musk’s governance, layoffs, and politicization could imperil Tesla’s EV leadership and ambitions in AI and robotics.
Elon Musk is, once again, taking stock
Private Data, Public Danger? How the Shutdown Poses Risks to the Entire Economy
As the government shutdown drags on, official economic data has slowed to a crawl, leaving policymakers, markets, and citizens increasingly reliant on private-sector numbers. That’s a problem.
If the 2008 financial crisis proved anything, it’s that economic stability is not a given but a fragile construct – one that can collapse at warp speed when trust, transparency, and accountability erode.
Reality has a way of reminding us if we forget.
Mamdani’s Win and the Price of Urban Life: Why City Voters Are Seeking Change
The soaring costs of city life appear to be sending urban voters toward progressive leaders who promise relief, both in the U.S. and globally.
From New York to California and beyond, soaring costs seem to be rewriting city politics, as voters respond to candidates who promise to ease the financial squeeze. Zohran Mamdani’s historic win in NYC underscores a shift that has been emerging in recent years – both in the U.S. and globally -- and could extend to other major cities.
Economics and History Are Inseparable
How can history help us understand the world economists study—and change how we confront the climate crisis?
Law, Economics and Policy Conference (LEPC)
The LEPC is a flagship initiative, designed to bring together leading voices in Law, Economics, and Public Policy to engage with complex, real-world challenges in a comprehensive and interdisciplinary manner.
The Flawed Welfare Foundations of Pro-Free Trade Arguments
The argument that free trade is always the correct policy is based on a flawed welfare analysis. Free trade results in winners and losers and economists are not competent to analyze the impact on well-being as a whole or the spillover social consequences of the discontent of the losers.
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