rent seeking
Uber, the Mayor’s Private Email, and the Underground Lobbying Complex
The recent revelations regarding the interactions between Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Uber executive and Obama adviser David Plouffe suggest that the real action in...
Could Blockchain Technology Alter the Balance of Power Within the Financial System? Q&A with David Yermack
"Blockchain technology is threatening to remake the financial system from the top down in a way that threatens the existence of all the banks,...
Nobel Laureates: Eliminating Rent Seeking and Tougher Antitrust Enforcement Are Critical to Reducing Inequality
Angus Deaton: "A lot of the inequality in the U.S. comes from rent seeking. It comes from firms and industry seeking special protection or...
Managing Political Risk
A recent working paper suggests that firms react to political risk, both passively by cutting investment and employment, and actively by ramping up lobbying efforts.
From Trump...
The Trump Tax
Will Donald Trump follow through on his populist campaign promises? The stock market can tell us a lot about the President-elect's economic policies.
President-elect Donald Trump broke...
Is China Succeeding in the War Against Corruption? Q&A with Bernard Yeung
In the past four years, China has been waging the biggest anticorruption campaign in its modern history. Is it working?
In the past four years, the...
When Did Americans Stop Being Antimonopoly? Q&A with Richard R. John
Columbia professor Richard R. John explains the history of U.S. monopolies and why antimonopoly should not be conflated with antitrust.
For more than two centuries,...
Meet the Sugar Barons Who Used Both Sides of American Politics to Get Billions in Subsidies
Meet the Florida-based Fanjul brothers, who inject money to both political parties and dominate an industry that enjoys billions of dollar's worth of subsidies and protections.
Last week,...
(God Knows) Wall Street Isn’t Perfect, But It Has Helped Make the World A Lot Better Off
If the criticisms against Wall Street had been accurate, the U.S. corporate sector today would be ailing. Instead, corporate profits are at historical highs...
Does Wall Street Do “God’s Work”? Or Even Anything Useful?
Bank executives frequently proclaim that Wall Street is vital to the nation’s economy and performs socially valuable services by raising capital, providing liquidity to...
