BLOG | Louis Putterman

Race and Democracy, Part II: The Choice for Democracy, or Siding with our Better Angels

In Genesis 32, verses 24 to 28, the patriarch Jacob is briefly separated from his family, and he spends a night wrestling with a...

Racism and democracy: the horns of the American dilemma

Following last week’s vivid display of how far the United States had come in its slide towards fascism during the last few years, it’s...

Instead of Fearing Government, Let’s Make Government Our Servant

Unflattering comparisons of the United States to other so-called “advanced democracies” like Denmark, Germany, Japan and New Zealand, and...

Showing the Alpha Male the Door

Read "Mama’s Last Hug" and say goodbye to the gorilla in the room. #GoodbyeTrump #Elections2020 #USElectionResults2020 Having already...

Perfecting our democracy … not only that “republic, if you can keep it”

On the afternoon following election day, presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden gave remarks in which he said...

Turning point: Can we still save our society and build a better world?

The past few years have been an emotional roller-coaster for those of us who’d hoped to leave this world a better place than we’d found...

Predictions for 2020: Don’t count on them. Polls don’t vote. Make sure that YOU DO.

In the politics of economics, overconfidence can be deadly. One of the few predictions of the past four years that was certain to come...

A Meditation on RBG & the Jewish New Year

What do Rosh Hashanah and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have to do with the human condition? Every cultural tradition offers signposts and...

Trump: thinking about Covid deaths is for crybabies & losers

As the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 approaches the latest milestone of 215,000, it amazes some that the faithful are still coming out to...

Why a well-functioning government is critical for our quality of life

The economic theorist and political economist Daron Acemoglu of MIT and political scientist James Robinson of the University of Chicago...