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J. Bradford DeLong

J. Bradford DeLong

Writing for PS since 2002
251 commentaries

J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the author of Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 2022). He was Deputy Assistant US Treasury Secretary during the Clinton Administration, where he was heavily involved in budget and trade negotiations. His role in designing the bailout of Mexico during the 1994 peso crisis placed him at the forefront of Latin America’s transformation into a region of open economies, and cemented his stature as a leading voice in economic-policy debates.

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  1. America’s Broken Civic Bargain
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    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    Sep 28, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

  2. Investment Theory in Practice
    delong253_Spencer PlattGetty Images_stock Spencer PlattGetty Images

    Investment Theory in Practice

    Aug 1, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong notes that the long-term mathematical attractiveness of stocks belies the risk of ruin.

  3. Can America Escape Its Second Gilded Age?
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    Can America Escape Its Second Gilded Age?

    Jun 5, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong recalls how the country overcame a previous era of extreme income and wealth inequality.

  4. Neoliberalism’s Final Stronghold
    delong251_JACK TAYLORAFP via Getty Images_theeconomist Jack Taylor/AFP via Getty Images

    Neoliberalism’s Final Stronghold

    Apr 27, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong pours cold water on a recent Economist essay that reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of US history.

  5. The Algorithm Society and Its Discontents
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    The Algorithm Society and Its Discontents

    Mar 6, 2023 J. Bradford DeLong warns that an emerging new mode of human organization will cater to our worst impulses.

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  1. khrushcheva171_MIKHAIL METZELPOOLAFP via Getty Images_putinkim Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    Putin and Kim’s Cartoon Summit

    Nina L. Khrushcheva thinks that Russia's recent meeting with North Korea was intended primarily as a warning to the South.
  2. haykel18_MANDEL NGANAFP via Getty Images_mbs Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Saudi Arabia’s New Nationalism

    Bernard Haykel explains the reasoning behind the Kingdom's ongoing domestic- and foreign-policy transformation.
  3. wagner22_Lukas SchulzeGetty Images_pollution Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

    The Green Growth Mindset

    Gernot Wagner sees doctrinaire debates about capitalism as irrelevant or even deleterious to the decarbonization effort.
  4. mallochbrown17_GIANLUIGI GUERCIAAFP via Getty Images_africawomenpolitics Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa Is the Future of Multilateralism

    Mark Malloch-Brown explains why the continent should be at the forefront of efforts to bring about international reforms.
  5. op_yi2_PEDRO PARDOAFP via Getty Images_chinahousing Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

    A Chinese Bubble Long in the Making

    Yi Fuxian

    The Chinese government is very good at covering up small problems, but these often pile up into much bigger ones that can no longer be ignored. The current real-estate bubble is a case in point, casting serious doubts not just on the wisdom of past policies but also on China's long-term economic future.

    traces the long roots of the country's mounting economic and financial problems.
  6. bp industrial policy Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Industrial Policy Is Back

    From semiconductors to electric vehicles, governments are identifying the strategic industries of the future and intervening to support them – abandoning decades of neoliberal orthodoxy in the process. Are industrial policies the key to tackling twenty-first-century economic challenges or a recipe for market distortions and lower efficiency?

  7. fischer208_DrAfter123Getty Images_AIhuman DrAfter123/Getty Images

    Is AI a Master or Slave?

    Joschka Fischer wonders whether humanity can even hope to maintain control in an era of “mega-crisis.”
  8. haldar25_BettmannGetty Images_friedmanreagan Bettmann/Getty Images

    Laying Chicago Economics to Rest

    Antara Haldar

    From breakthroughs in behavioral economics to mounting evidence in the real world, there is good reason to think that the economic orthodoxy of the past 50 years now has one foot in the grave. The question is whether the mainstream economics profession has gotten the memo.

    looks back on 50 years of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the damage it has wrought.
  9. delong254_ Samuel CorumGetty Images_january6riot Samuel Corum/Getty Images

    America’s Broken Civic Bargain

    J. Bradford DeLong worries that Republicans have abandoned one of the core principles that sustains a democracy over time.

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