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Weekly Roundup: March 28
Weekly Roundup: March 28

Weekly Roundup: March 28

Chris Essert on homelessness and property; Ganesh Sitaraman, Sanjay Jolly, Zephyr Teachout, Nikolas Guggenberger, Anupam Chander, and Elettra Bietti on the pending TikTok ban; and Meredith Whittaker on regulating social media in a time of rising illiberalism. Plus, upcoming events on Law and American Empire and Law and Marxism, as well as new pieces by Sanjukta Paul, Bryce Tuttle, and Felicia Wong.

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Should Higher Education Ratify Privilege or Public Service?

Campus culture wars over DEI programs, gender nonconformity, and student debt cancellation might seem like distractions from the real problems facing higher education. However, they all tell us something important about the purpose of higher ed, because they all concern the central questions of hierarchy and its reproduction.

The Vicious Spiral of Political and Economic Inequality

Reagan’s 1986 Tax Reform Act, which slashed the highest marginal tax rate from 50 to 28 percent, was one of the largest and most regressive tax cuts in the history of the United States. New research shows that it also caused an increase in campaign contributions among the wealthy – demonstrating how rising economic and political inequality reinforce one another through public policy.

Emancipatory Horizons in Tenant Organizing

Earlier this year, a landlord presented a group of Kansas City tenants with the following choice: renew their leases at triple the rent or move. But rather than accept these terms, the tenants came together and declared “we won’t go.” This rejection of the options presented to them, originally a reflection of their desperation, soon became an expression of their power.

Upon the Conviction of the Villain Sam Bankman-Fried

Earlier this month, Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. His conviction should not, however, be seen as any kind of victory. For the past three years, SBF successfully exploited a financial regulatory system stuck in older ways of thinking and increasingly incapable of averting illicit finance in the platform economy. To prevent such predation in the future, LPE scholars must help accelerate the turn to proactive planning, including via the day-to-day, direct supervision of major financial institutions.

Recent

Social Media, Authoritarianism, and the World As It Is

Disagreement over recent TikTok legislation reveals a deep divide about our current political moment. Should we, like many of the bill’s proponents, assume the existence of a functional, liberal state whose machinery tends toward justice? Or do recent illiberal trends give us reason to reject this assumption? Before we move to further concentrate global. . .

Weekly Roundup: March 22

Sara Rankin on the most consequential homeless rights case in decades, Marshall Steinbaum on the material basis for the culture war over higher education, and Marc-William Palen on recovering the left-wing free trade tradition. Plus, so many upcoming events this excerpt simply can’t do them justice: Empire and Constitutional Law, Historical Approaches to. . .

Recovering the Left-Wing Free Trade Tradition

Since the late 20th century, free trade has been defended primarily by neoliberals who cared little about social justice or democracy. However, a longer examination of free trade’s relationship to left-wing politics paints a very different picture. Recovering the history of those who defended free trade from the left may help us envision an alternative to. . .

The Unavoidable Consequences of Being Human

Next month, the Supreme Court will decide whether it is constitutional for cities to punish unsheltered people for sleeping outside, even when the city fails to provide any safe alternative. Yet, no matter how the court rules, homeless people will still face significant threats from cities.

Weekly Roundup: March 15, 2024

Julieta Lobato on Milei’s labor governance, Evan Bernick on the role of the Constitution in freedom struggles, and Jonathan Glater & Adriana Hardwicke on the fracturing of higher education. Plus, the next session in our Courts open course, a call for recently accepted LPE-relevant articles, pieces on the destruction of the Covid social safety net,. . .