The hottest Political Economy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

📈 Democracy's growth dependence

Faster, Please! • 548 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Liberal institutions tend to do well when living standards rise, and research suggests they may weaken if economic growth stalls.
  2. Economic growth plus democracy is a very recent historical experiment; for tens of thousands of years, stagnation and tyranny were the norm.
  3. It's unclear whether our modern political and economic model can be sustained—current gains look remarkable but may be fragile, so it may be too soon to know.

Top Links 987 The slow burn of uncertainty. The war of position at Starbucks. News-flow in 1848 & the (nasty) history of "Hammerskins".

Chartbook • 472 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Economic uncertainty can be dramatic without immediately hurting the economy; its negative effects often unfold slowly and are easy for forecasters and investors to misread.
  2. Long-running internal battles at big companies — a "war of position" — can reshape workplace policy, labor relations, and public perception over time.
  3. Looking at historical news flow and the violent history of groups like the Hammerskins shows how media and extremist movements interact, and that past context helps explain today’s political and social tensions.

Money and Politics

Points And Figures • 719 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Shrinking the size and scope of government is the clearest way to reduce the incentive for special interest money, since less government means fewer funding targets.
  2. Fraudulent fundraising practices like "smurfing" drive up the cost of elections and force rivals to raise ever more money to compete.
  3. High and rigged campaign costs discourage people from running, shrinking the candidate pool and protecting entrenched interests.

Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4

Bet On It • 70 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
📖 Philosophy Political Economy
  1. Government is the root cause of many social problems because it directly controls or monopolizes the institutions involved.
  2. When the state supplies services or owns resources—like streets, police, courts, and the air—it tends to perform poorly and fail to protect property rights, producing issues like crime and pollution.
  3. Listing problems and blaming government without laying out the underlying theory is unconvincing, especially because it overlooks the economic successes that markets have produced, making the critique seem one-sided.

The Incredibility of Credibility

Bet On It • 322 implied HN points • 29 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. People and politicians often reject bold policy reforms not because credible commitments are impossible, but because they emotionally dislike the reforms; they'd rather avoid humiliating or unpopular steps than implement effective but distasteful changes.
  2. Radical changes usually demand loud public promises, cultural shifts, or rules that feel unfair (for example to immigrants or seniors), so leaders expect voter backlash and won’t pursue them even when they might work.
  3. Credibility and institutional fixes matter mainly for technical, low-salience issues (like central bank policy); for high-emotion, “juicy” issues feelings and politics, not clever commitments, decide outcomes.
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Wittman Versus the Last 25 Years of American Democracy

Bet On It • 140 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. An influential academic challenge shifted debate from standard public-choice critiques to focusing on voter irrationality and the idea of "rational irrationality."
  2. Optimism about democratic capitalism was strong in the mid-1990s, but events in the 21st century have made the claim that democracy reliably manages markets and government much harder to defend.
  3. Even long-time defenders of democratic efficiency are now rethinking their views, with recent conversations showing growing disillusionment about how well American democracy works.

Economics Links, 12/16/2025

In My Tribe • 561 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. There’s a deep political-economics mismatch in health care: voters want broad, low-cost access so politicians promise it, and that demand makes cost control nearly impossible without unpopular rationing or higher out-of-pocket costs.
  2. A direct primary care model with a monthly membership plus catastrophic insurance can make routine care affordable and accessible for generally healthy people and small-business owners, but it won’t cover regular specialist or chronic-care needs.
  3. Growth requires willingness to accept risk, and stripping risk out of people’s lives can drag down growth; meanwhile, current entitlement programs direct large benefits to retirees (often the wealthier), creating intergenerational imbalance and political barriers to reform.

A Tax Proposal Against Progress And Democracy

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 30 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Taxing the rich and their wealth discourages saving, investment, and innovation, which lowers productivity and real wages and so harms ordinary and vulnerable workers.
  2. Large taxes on income and wealth expand state power and fuel rent-seeking, patronage, and corruption, which undermines equality before the law and weakens democracy.
  3. The proposed solution is low, simple taxes with no levies on savings or wealth, plus strong property rights, deregulation, and strict limits on public spending to protect prosperity and democratic health.

Public Choice Links, 1/9/2026

In My Tribe • 258 implied HN points • 09 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Basic goods and services like housing, healthcare, childcare, education, and electricity are getting less affordable even while the economy grows, and many argue the root causes are supply-restricting regulations and demand-boosting subsidies.
  2. Policies that subsidize consumers or providers can raise overall demand and costs, shift burdens to taxpayers, and create opportunities for fraud or misuse.
  3. Effective cooperation and lasting policy fixes depend on careful systems of monitoring and incentives rather than goodwill alone, but political realities — like tax rules that penalize rentals and powerful interest groups opposing liability reforms — make those fixes hard to implement.

Top Links 950 America's short-lived green boom. China's labour costs. West African coups & the Republican rogue elephant.

Chartbook • 515 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. A recent surge in U.S. green manufacturing investment was short-lived and has already faded, showing limits to policy-driven industrial shifts.
  2. Rising labour costs in China are changing global manufacturing decisions and weakening its position as the go-to low-cost producer.
  3. Coups in West Africa are fuelling regional instability, while a disruptive faction within the U.S. Republican Party is creating political unpredictability at home.

Why Are There "Academic Marxists" Who Do Not Follow in Marx's Footsteps at All?

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 207 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
📖 Philosophy Political Economy
  1. Very few academics today make arguments that actually follow Marx's six claims; most of those claims (teleology, stage theory, ideology-as-master-key, utopia) have weak empirical support, and only two threads still have useful traction: that relations of production must fit technology and that technological change can destabilize property orders.
  2. What people call “academic Marxism” is often a post-1960s humanities phenomenon — a left-progressive toolkit or methodology that diverged from Marx’s political-economic aims and focuses more on cultural critique and theory than on organizing working-class politics.
  3. Long-run social and economic change looks more like uneven, sectoral waves of creative destruction with institutional lag and complementary investments than synchronized stage-based revolutions, and humanities departments need a clear, defensible case for why we study literature rather than relying on implicit ideological frameworks.

Public Choice Links, 12/29/2025

In My Tribe • 334 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Nonprofits can operate with less public scrutiny and often rely on government subsidies to preserve affordable housing, which effectively shifts costs onto taxpayers.
  2. India’s pre-1991 policy reserving many consumer goods for small firms blocked large-scale manufacturing and stunted growth, and the 1991 liberalization was a major turning point for the economy.
  3. If the public is disarmed, policing becomes the primary means of protection and that tends to expand government power, a risk that many libertarians find especially worrying.

Jon Stewart is Right

a newsletter for infovores. • 132 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26
💼 Business Political Economy
  1. Economics usually models people as rational, self-interested agents and often prioritizes shareholder value, so it emphasizes market efficiency more than fairness or direct help for the poor.
  2. Behavioral nudges can move behavior a bit, but many problems—like healthcare or climate—need stronger interventions such as taxes, regulations, or system redesigns rather than only subtle nudges.
  3. Political feasibility and public sentiment matter a lot: an economically optimal policy can still fail if voters reject it, so persuading people and designing politically realistic solutions is essential.

*Unbeatable* Round-Up

Bet On It • 196 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
📖 Philosophy Political Economy
  1. A wide-ranging, original case that free markets deserve stronger defense and often produce better outcomes than government alternatives.
  2. Many popular government policies sound appealing but often do real harm, and most market failures trace back to human irrationality rather than fundamental flaws in markets.
  3. The argument confronts mainstream assumptions and offers bold policy challenges—like revisiting Friedman's abolition ideas and accounting for social-desirability bias—to persuade unconvinced skeptics.

Top Links 959 Dodgy numbers. Black unemployment. Varoufakis fake. Embracing decline.

Chartbook • 400 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
💰 Finance Political Economy
  1. America’s official inflation numbers look dodgy and probably understate actual price pressures, so they need closer scrutiny.
  2. High Black unemployment is highlighted as a major ongoing economic and social problem that demands attention.
  3. There are claims that figures like Varoufakis are inauthentic, and a broader theme warns that some people or institutions are calmly embracing economic decline rather than resisting it.

Top Links 953 The fiscal politics of gambling. Sanctions are biting. Ubuntu and the "Table of Drops".

Chartbook • 357 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. US states have dramatically increased revenue from sports betting, with takings roughly quintupled; that boom is reshaping state budgets and the politics around gambling.
  2. Economic sanctions are starting to have real, tangible effects; they are biting and changing the leverage and dynamics in international relations.
  3. Ubuntu and the "Table of Drops" are highlighted as notable topics, pointing to a focus on communal or procedural ideas worth closer attention.

Energy Policy | Lunch Money with Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American • 8 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Economics and politics used to be closely connected and were openly debated by politicians, editors, and everyday people.
  2. Since World War II, politicians have often disguised or misdescribed the real economic effects of policies, which has made it harder for the public to see how politics affects the economy.
  3. Clear, expert conversations can help untangle big-picture policy changes and make economic debates easier for ordinary people to follow.

Public Choice Links, 12/11/2025

In My Tribe • 334 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Having many veto points makes it easy for projects to be blocked and reduces building. Eliminating even one veto point can meaningfully increase development and deliver more affordable housing.
  2. Rent control tends to help a lucky few but shrinks the overall housing supply and doesn’t make housing more affordable for society as a whole. Policies that restrict supply while subsidizing demand push prices up.
  3. EU institutions and incentives reward making laws, so bureaucrats and politicians are pushed to produce lots of regulation regardless of social costs. That creates agenda control, opaque deal‑making, and weak accountability, pointing to fixes like unanimity rules, sunset clauses, cost‑benefit tests, and greater transparency.

Economics Isn't "About" Anything

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 22 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
📖 Philosophy Political Economy
  1. Economics isn't 'about' a single theme or object like a novel; it's a science that explains why people make choices by linking causes and effects.
  2. Economics provides neutral, causal explanations of choices and is distinct from ethics, law, or medicine, which judge whether choices are good, legal, or healthy.
  3. Understanding economics is vital for preserving civilization because it reveals how policies (like price controls) change incentives and outcomes, helping citizens avoid demagoguery and harmful decisions.

Guest post: Iran

Random Minds by Katherine Brodsky • 154 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Long-term political repression and a collapsing economy have pushed many Iranians past the point of fear, sparking large, sustained protests led by women and young people. People are risking arrest, injury, and death because daily survival and dignity have been stripped away.
  2. The regime holds power through violence, information control, and an IRGC-run economic empire, but those pillars are weakening as inflation soars and social trust erodes; if security forces fracture, the regime’s hold could quickly unravel.
  3. External pressure can influence outcomes, but real change will come when internal legitimacy collapses and insiders refuse to repress; many Iranians and the diaspora want a secular, democratic future and are seeking symbols and leaders to guide a transition.

The Shallowness of Garett Jones’ Immigration Research

Heterodox STEM • 298 implied HN points • 30 Nov 25
🔬 Science Political Economy
  1. A major critique is that some immigration research adds little original empirical or theoretical insight and omits important peer‑reviewed studies that directly bear on its claims.
  2. The common measure of "generalized social trust" used to link trust and economic growth is argued to be flawed — problems include questionable survey validity, weak prediction of real trusting behavior, sample bias, omitted variables, and a lack of incorporation into formal growth models; when addressed, the purported trust–growth relationship can vanish.
  3. Scholarly disputes are criticized for relying on vague accusations, deleted public comments, and a failure to make specific, formal challenges to peers or journal editors, highlighting a need for clearer, evidence‑based engagement.

Six Analytical Threads in Search of Useful Empirical Traction: On Karl Marx's 1859 "Preface"

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 123 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
💾 History Political Economy
  1. Material productive forces tend to shape how people organize work and property, and that organization in turn constrains laws, politics, and ideas; this soft form of historical materialism is broadly reliable.
  2. Big technological shifts cause major social stress and force institutional reworking, but change more often happens as rotating sectoral churn with institutional lag than as synchronized social revolutions.
  3. Grand stage theories and millenarian claims about history’s inevitable arc toward a single utopia are weak, and ideological or non-economic conflicts often matter on their own, so anyone using a broad theoretical label should say which specific claim they are defending.

☀️ A California dream that should come true

Faster, Please! • 365 implied HN points • 20 Nov 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Neom, the ambitious megacity in Saudi Arabia, is facing serious financial and engineering challenges, leading many to doubt its feasibility. What was once a grand vision is now more about managing expectations as costs spiral out of control.
  2. California Forever aims to build a new city for 400,000 people and shift its focus from just housing to creating jobs and workforce opportunities. This approach could make the project more appealing and practical for future residents and investors.
  3. The project must navigate a complicated political and regulatory process to succeed. Delays caused by environmental reviews and local governance could hinder its progress, showing that growth initiatives often struggle in California's bureaucratic landscape.

Contra Marx, the Record Since 1870 Is Rotating Upheavals in Leading Sectors, Not Synchronized Economy-Wide Revolutions

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 92 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
💾 History Political Economy
  1. Since about 1870, economic change looks more like rotating upheavals in leading sectors—sector-by-sector creative destruction—rather than a single, synchronized economy-wide Marxian revolution.
  2. Marx’s argument bundles several ideas: a stage theory of history, the claim that productive forces conflict with relations of production, and the view that economic shifts reshape legal, political, and ideological life.
  3. It’s useful to keep the insights about technology, institutional lag, and ideological conflict, but reject the millenarian, deterministic claim that a final social revolution is inevitable.

Too much or not enough of Ricardo?

Global Inequality and More 3.0 • 1102 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
💰 Finance Political Economy
  1. David Ricardo's economic ideas are still influential, but they often ignore important social classes and conflicts. It's crucial to consider how class affects the economy.
  2. The effects of globalization are often viewed just through a Western lens, which can overlook the benefits it has brought to many people in other parts of the world. This creates a skewed understanding of economic progress.
  3. Critiquing historical economic figures like Ricardo should include recognizing their contributions to understanding social dynamics, not just focusing on their abstract theories.

The Epstein Files Tell the Institutional Story of Our Time

European Straits • 25 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. The Epstein files spotlight a system where powerful people often avoid accountability, and that lack of justice has eroded trust in courts, media, and elite networks.
  2. Economic and technological cycles reach maturity and create deep imbalances that make long-standing institutions brittle, so once they stop serving stability they can collapse quickly.
  3. When political leaders fail to deliver real systemic change, public anger turns to radical levers like scandals, using outrage to push for a sweeping institutional reset.

CROSSPOST: ADRIAN MONCK [NIE HUIHUA]: How to Get a Job in the Chinese Communist Party

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 115 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. To get ahead in the Chinese bureaucracy you mostly need political survival skills: spot who’s rising, keep secrets, run errands, write well, hide your feelings, and take the blame.
  2. China’s long meritocratic civil service built competence and stability, but exams teach the wrong signals for real jobs: promotions follow patrons not performance, so officials behave risk‑averse and avoid telling hard truths.
  3. Recent structural strains — collapsing land‑sale revenue, poor local investment incentives, and intensified central inspections — make discretion costly and squash local experimentation; without more transparency, longer tenures, accountable budgets, and permissioned risk, China will struggle to adapt.

The Tariff Game

Points And Figures • 1918 implied HN points • 03 Feb 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Tariffs are often more about politics than economics, and many believe they don't help growth. They're seen as special favors rather than economic tools.
  2. While tariffs can raise prices, their real impact on the economy isn't as severe as some think. They could even lead to slower growth, which might help reduce inflation.
  3. There are concerns that government job cuts could hurt people who lack skills for other jobs. However, adapting and reinventing oneself is crucial, as others have had to do in tough situations.

When Abundance Becomes Anti-Evolutionary

apxhard • 76 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Sustained abundance flattens selection pressure. Societies then prioritize reliability, procedure, and administration over risky experimentation, which makes them anti‑evolutionary.
  2. Diffuse procedural rules become an invisible, unaccountable elite that blocks learning; federalism can preserve local experimentation but shared currency and bailouts tend to collapse failure domains back into central control.
  3. To restore evolvability you must remove procedural overhang, concentrate responsibility, and make failure personally costly for elites; real evidence of success would be falling federal obligations, permanent deletion of institutions, legally protected state divergence, and local failures that are allowed to propagate.

The Prigozhin Parable

Diane Francis • 1518 implied HN points • 24 Jul 23
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. The Prigozhin affair shows that Russia is controlled by a group of wealthy oligarchs who care more about money than the well-being of their people. This makes it hard to negotiate or find solutions to the ongoing war.
  2. Putin's response to the Prigozhin situation reveals his weakness and the corruption within the military. Despite military losses, he continues to escalate the conflict instead of seeking peace.
  3. To effectively end the war, the West needs to take strong actions against Russian oligarchs and their assets. The future of Russia may involve breaking it into smaller states, similar to what happened with the Soviet Union.

Ju Jiandong reimagines the Chinese local state: a new blueprint for Chinese modernisation

Pekingnology • 67 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. Delegate real economic power to counties by turning them into professional "holding companies" with a stable revenue stream (about 6.5% of local GDP from VAT) so they can raise funds on capital markets; shares would sell income rights, not ownership of local assets.
  2. Build a much stronger social safety net by raising basic pensions, creating publicly funded childcare and eldercare, extending compulsory schooling to 12 years, and establishing a university in every county; these measures could be financed with long-term bonds costing roughly 140 billion yuan a year.
  3. Aim to create roughly 2,000 "small Singapores" within a unified national market by 2060, shifting to a knowledge-based economy with community clinics, more teachers and nurses, and pro-child policies (like pension multipliers) that together could generate about 30 million professional jobs.

Top Links 810 The shape of globalization. MAGA's parallel economy. Balochistan and thinking about 危机。

Chartbook • 500 implied HN points • 25 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Trade uncertainty has increased a lot, making it harder to predict economic trends. This uncertainty can affect businesses and investors worldwide.
  2. Global imports are holding steady and not falling, but they aren't getting larger compared to the overall economy either. This means that trade is stable, but not growing as it used to.
  3. The map of globalization shows changing patterns and connections between countries. This can help us understand how economies interact today.

Capitalist strategy when capital doesn't need capitalists anymore

Philosophy bear • 171 implied HN points • 08 Nov 25
💼 Business Political Economy
  1. As technology advances, it might become possible to automate capital management just like labor, possibly making the role of capitalists unnecessary.
  2. If automation leads to widespread job loss, people may push for the state to take control of capital to ensure fair access to resources and prevent democratic instability.
  3. Capitalists might try various strategies to protect their assets and power, but this could lead to increased tensions and challenges in society.

Homework and Slop

Some Unpleasant Arithmetic • 22 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Liberal democracy is in deep trouble: growing state violence, elite deference to strongmen, and declining civic trust show the system is weakening.
  2. Identity politics and a culture of authenticity have shifted politics from individual rights toward group-based, tribal thinking, and technology plus weakened education standards encourage shallow, surface-level thought that amplifies those problems.
  3. Markets, democracy, and civic society are deeply interconnected, and treating markets as if they stand above democratic control has increased inequality and hollowed out civic life; rebuilding liberalism means re-linking economic policy, social rights, and civic institutions.

China’s Rural Reform: A History Not Designed but Discovered

Pekingnology • 113 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. China's rural reform was not planned but happened by chance. Farmers' actions led to changes that officials didn't expect.
  2. The reforms showed that farmers were the real drivers of change, as they started using new methods and stood up against outdated rules.
  3. Policymaking during this time was reactive and focused on listening to farmers instead of following strict plans. This helped create a more flexible and innovative agricultural system.

What Manufacturing Production Is Not Good For

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 468 implied HN points • 08 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. Chasing factory jobs is not a good solution for job creation anymore. Most manufacturing is highly automated now, so there are fewer jobs that don’t require a degree.
  2. Unions play a key role in improving job quality in manufacturing. Strong unions can make even lower-skill jobs more stable and better paying.
  3. The future of work is shifting away from manufacturing jobs. Instead of looking to bring back old factory jobs, we should focus on rebuilding institutions that support workers across all industries.

Top Links 809 About that dam in Tibet. Supermarketisation. The history of political arithmetic & China's "Five Major Homes".

Chartbook • 400 implied HN points • 24 Jul 25
🌍 World Politics Political Economy
  1. The post discusses a dam in Tibet, highlighting its significance and impact. It's an interesting look at how such projects can shape regions and communities.
  2. It mentions supermarketisation, which refers to the trend of making goods and services more widely available and accessible. This can change how people shop and interact with local businesses.
  3. The history of political arithmetic in China and its concept of 'Five Major Homes' is explored. This can help us understand China's governance and economic strategies better.

Chartbook 328 An economics Nobel for Biden's neocon moment. On AJR's "Whig" philosophy of history.

Chartbook • 1473 implied HN points • 19 Oct 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. The recent Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three economists who stressed the importance of societal institutions in achieving economic prosperity. Their work highlights how fairness and rights can drive economic growth.
  2. The Biden administration supports this view, aligning their economic strategies with the theories of these Nobel winners. They believe government policies can help bridge gaps like inequality and support innovation.
  3. The traditional ideas of free-market economics are becoming less popular, and the current trend leans towards more government intervention in the economy. This shift reflects a broader skepticism about past economic policies.

Politics and Capitalist Stagnation

Unpopular Front • 73 implied HN points • 04 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Economy
  1. The economy has been stagnant for about 50 years, with profits declining because of competition from newer capitalist countries like China. This situation has left too much supply and not enough demand, which is bad for businesses.
  2. As a result of this stagnant economy, many capitalists are focusing more on politics to make money, rather than investing in actual production. This shift is called 'political capitalism' where they seek profits from political connections instead of traditional means.
  3. Workers are divided into different groups, mainly between those with professional credentials and those without. This split affects how they relate to political parties and policies, making social and economic agreements harder to achieve.

Levelling up my MMT (Part 1)

Altered States of Monetary Consciousness • 99 implied HN points • 18 Nov 25
💰 Finance Political Economy
  1. The piece emphasizes deepening practical and conceptual understanding of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) to 'level up' how the idea is used.
  2. It reflects on the tension between technocratic, expert-driven knowledge and democratic, public-facing uses of knowledge, and why that difference matters for policy.
  3. The write-up is presented as the first part of a paid, subscriber-focused series, signalling an ongoing, deliberate exploration rather than a one-off note.