Fred’s Blog
How Conservatives Made Socialism Attractive
The right has set the terms of the economic debate. Now it's backfiring. In the wake of primary victories by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, two avowed socialists are likely to win House races in November.
A Different Strategy for Economic Renewal
Every week there seems to be more news on American trade. This past Friday, for example, the Trump administration’s trade war with China took a big leap forward – the first round of tariffs were imposed on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Making Deals: From Big City Bosses to Autocrats
There is a surprising connection between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ upset primary victory last Tuesday and the announcement of a Trump-Putin summit to be held in Helsinki on July 16th. The connection is that Trump’s understanding of politics is based on dealing with...
To Reform Capitalism, Look to Marx
200 years after Marx’s birth, many elites have taken unabashed pride in capitalism, a term that originally had negative connotations. To make our economy more just, we must reclaim Marx’s understanding of capitalism’s contradictions.
Latest Book Release
Fred Block's latest book, Capitalism: The Future of an Illusion, explains how U.S. politics got caught in a loop that alternates between center-left Democrats and increasingly extreme-right Republicans. In the book, he argues that to exit this cycle of raised hopes...
Academic Freedom Under Threat
The academic community is global and it is diminished whenever or wherever there are attacks on academic freedom. The last global wave of democratization that overturned autocratic regimes in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union greatly...