Socialists Will Never Understand Elizabeth Warren (I’d have chosen a different title)

The Democratic candidate is part of a long intellectual tradition that’s gone forgotten in the West: pro-market leftism.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s politics seem like a tangle of contradictions. She wants free markets, but also wants to tax billionaires’ capital. Her enemies on the right claim that she is a socialist, but Warren describes herself as “capitalist to my bones.”

Warren’s politics are so confusing because we have forgotten that a pro-capitalist left is even possible. For a long time, political debate in the United States has been a fight between conservatives and libertarians on the right, who favored the market, and socialists and liberals on the left, who favored the government.

Access the full article here.

Other Writing:

Essay

Binance and the End of Crypto’s Dream to Escape From Government – with Abraham Newman

On Nov. 21, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty to breaking U.S. anti-money-laundering laws. Its CEO has stepped down, and the company will pay $4.3 billion in penalties. While the eye-watering fine is getting the headlines, it’s the details of the agreement that really redefine the relationship between government and crypto. U.S. authorities ...
Read Article
Essay

Can Big Tech Serve Democracy? – with Glen Weyl

New tools and technology policy might help, but politics come first. Two new books about technology and the fate of democracy begin by describing the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. They are right to see that fateful day as a turning point and a benchmark for debates about the course of ...
Read Article