• Monthly Review
  • Monthly Review Press
  • MR (Castilian)
  • Climate & Capitalism
  • Money on the Left
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
MR Online
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact/Submission
  • Browse
    • Recent Articles Archive
    • by Subject
      • Ecology
      • Education
      • Imperialism
      • Inequality
      • Labor
      • Literature
      • Marxism
      • Movements
      • Philosophy
      • Political Economy
    • by Region
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Australasia
      • Europe
      • Global
      • Middle East
    • by Category
      • Art
      • Commentary
      • Interview
      • Letter
      • News
      • Newswire
  • Monthly Review Essays

About Martin Hart-Landsberg

Martin Hart-Landsberg is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; and Adjunct Researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. His areas of teaching and research include political economy, economic development, international economics, and the political economy of East Asia. He is also a member of the Workers' Rights Board (Portland, Oregon) and maintains a blog Reports from the Economic Front where this article first appeared.
  • Slip slidin’ away—the disappearing practice of overtime pay

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on June 12, 2022 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Slip slidin’ away—that is what tends to happen to pro-worker reforms in our economic system. Things are structured so that without constant vigilance and struggle on our part, gains are gradually undone. A case in point: overtime pay.

  • Trump's new Medicaid rule prohibits automatic payment of union dues.

    Labor law failings, workplace organizing challenges, and possibilities for union renewal

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on May 9, 2022 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    If you follow the news it must seem like joining a union is a step outside the norms of U.S. law.

  • $15 federal minimum wage

    It’s past time for a $15 federal minimum wage

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on April 22, 2022 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    President Biden’s 2022 State of the Union Address included a call for a $15 federal minimum wage. According to an Economic Policy Institute study, a phased increase to a $15 federal minimum wage by 2025 would raise the earnings of 32 million workers—21% of the workforce, no small thing. 

  • Plant in lightbulb

    Don’t believe the hype, big finance continues to threaten our survival

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on February 21, 2022 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    According to defenders of the status quo, the best response to our most serious problems is to let markets work their magic; government regulation of private business activity only makes things worse.

  • Job shortfall

    Once again austerity proponents tell it like it isn’t

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on January 17, 2022 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    There appears to be growing consensus among economists and policy makers that inflation is now the main threat to the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve Board needs to start ratcheting up interest rates to slow down economic activity.

  • The following infographic includes the actual number of lives that could have been saved.

    The U.S. experience: racism and COVID-19 mortality

    Originally published: Reports for the Economic Front on December 15, 2021 (more by Reports for the Economic Front)

    Not only did all the racial and ethnic populations, with the exception of Asians, experience far higher COVID-19 mortality rates than did whites, their respective rates were at least twice that of whites.

  • Income distribution

    The dollar costs of inequality: they are greater than you think

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on November 29, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Pretty much everyone accepts that inequality is a big problem in the U.S. But it is doubtful that most people truly grasp how successfully U.S. elites have captured the benefits of economic growth and, as a result, how much the resulting inequality has cost them.

  • Movement in average real weekly earnings of private sector production and nonsupervisory workers–about 84 percent of the private sector labor force.

    U.S. workers in motion: an assessment of labor’s gains

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on November 15, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    The reality is that the labor movement has a long struggle ahead and it should not be distracted by unwarranted fears of inflation.

  • For Sale signs

    Economic inequality means retirement insecurity for most U.S. households

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on October 31, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    This is far from a “hot take”: financial wealth in the United States is highly concentrated, with most households, especially Black and Hispanic households, owning few financial assets

  • Personal Income Dynamics

    Pandemic economic woes continue, but so do deep structural problems, especially the long-term growth in the share of low wage jobs

    Martin Hart-Landsberg

    Many are understandably alarmed about what the September 4th termination of several special federal pandemic unemployment insurance programs will mean for millions of workers.

  • Noncompete Agreement

    Playing the capitalist game: heads they win, tails you lose

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on August 19, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    According to an Economic Policy Institute report, between 28 and 47 percent of U.S. private sector workers are subject to noncompete agreements.

  • Price tag

    Creating a democratically run economy: lessons from World War II price control struggles*

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on July 21, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Many activists in the United States are working to build a movement for a Green New Deal transformation of the economy. Not surprisingly, a growing number look to the World War II conversion of the U.S. economy from civilian to military production for inspiration and policy ideas. 

  • After WWII, parents organized demonstrations, like this one in New York on Sept. 21, 1947, calling for the continuing funding of the centers. The city’s welfare commissioner dismissed the protests as “hysterical.” Credit: The New York Times

    Learning from history: community-run child-care centers during World War II

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on June 9, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    We face many big challenges. And we will need strong, bold policies to meaningfully address them. Solving our child-care crisis is one of those challenges, and a study of World War II government efforts to ensure accessible and affordable high-quality child care points the way to the kind of bold action we need. 

  • Wage trends

    The latest argument against federal relief: business claims that workers won’t work

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on May 15, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    In reality there is little support for the argument that expanded unemployment benefits have created an overly worker-friendly labor market, leaving companies unable to hire and, by extension, meet growing demand.

  • Corporate Profit Rate

    Time to put the spotlight on corporate taxes

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on March 27, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    A battle is slowly brewing in Washington DC over whether to raise corporate taxes to help finance new infrastructure investments.

  • BLM protest in New York City on June 9, 2020 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

    Black Lives Matter protests are saving lives

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on March 11, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    The research is pretty clear that oppressive economic and social conditions are bad for one’s mental and physical health. And there is also research showing that protesting is good for one’s mental and physical health.

  • Long Term Unemployment

    The failings of our unemployment insurance system are there by design

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on January 23, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Our unemployment insurance system has failed the country at a moment of great need. With tens of millions of workers struggling just to pay rent and buy food, Congress was forced to pass two emergency spending bills, providing one-time stimulus payments, special weekly unemployment insurance payments, and temporary unemployment benefits to those not covered by the system.  

  • Agricultural Hauler Starlite Trucking of California Closes Abruptly (Photo: Transport Topics)

    The U.S. recovery on pause, December brings new job losses

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on January 12, 2021 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    A meaningful working-class recovery from the recession seems far away.

  • Source: U.S. Bureau of the Budget, The United States at War, Development and Administration of the War Program by the Federal Government, Washington DC: The U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947, p. 104.

    The planning and politics of conversion: World War II lessons for a Green New Deal—Part 1

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on December 7, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    This post highlights the successful government directed wartime reorientation of the U.S. economy from civilian to military production, an achievement that both demonstrates the feasibility of a rapid Green New Deal transformation of the U.S. economy and points to the kinds of organizational capacities we will need to develop.

  • Hourly wages

    Profits over people: Frontline workers during the pandemic

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on November 24, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    It wasn’t that long ago that the country celebrated frontline workers by banging pots in the evening to thank them for the risks they took doing their jobs during the pandemic.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
Next →

Also By Martin Hart-Landsberg in Monthly Review Magazine

  • Lessons from Iceland October 01, 2013
  • ALBA and the Promise of Cooperative Development December 01, 2010
  • The U.S. Economy and China: Capitalism, Class, and Crisis February 01, 2010
  • Learning from ALBA and the Bank of the South: Challenges and Possibilities September 01, 2009
  • The Promise and Perils of Korean Reunification April 01, 2009
  • China, Capitalist Accumulation, and Labor May 01, 2007
  • Neoliberalism: Myths and Reality April 01, 2006
  • China and Socialism: Introduction July 01, 2004
  • Challenging Neoliberal Myths December 01, 2002

Books By Martin Hart-Landsberg

  • Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives May 31, 2009

Monthly Review Essays

  • The Struggle between the Future and the Past: Where Is Cuba Going?
    Editor Cuban Flag, Museum of the Revolution, Havana, Cuba, 2012

    I have 2 favourite sayings. One draws upon the dialogue in Shakespeare’s Henry the VI part 2 when Jack Cade envisions that the effect of his plot will be that “all the realm shall be in common.” To this, comrade Dick responds, “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Lost & Found

  • Russia and the Ukraine crisis: The Eurasian Project in conflict with the triad imperialist policies
    Samir Amin State flag of Ukraine behind a wall of anonymous protesters in Kyiv, Ukraine

    We wanted to draw readers attention to this piece by Samir Amin, which was written at the time of the Maidan Coup in 2014. —Eds. 1. The current global stage is dominated by the attempt of historical centers of imperialism (the U.S., Western and Central Europe, Japan—hereafter called “the Triad”) to maintain their exclusive control […]

Trending

Popular (last 30 days)

RSS MR Press News

  • New! ‘Work Work Work’ by Michael Yates (EXCERPTS) June 13, 2022
  • Listen: A book to refer to for years to come (“The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans” reviewed by ‘The People’s Voice’) June 13, 2022
  • James Boggs’ “The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Workers Notebook” (Black Agenda Report excerpts Chapter 6) June 10, 2022
  • From the hard right and the political parties of Capital, to the crisis of centrism (Marxist Education Project features ‘Socialist Register’ 2022) June 9, 2022
  • The poisonous fruits of white supremacy: The rise of the right (Horne, on the De Facto Podcast) June 8, 2022

RSS Climate & Capitalism

  • The Inequality Pandemic July 3, 2022
  • For ecosocialist degrowth July 2, 2022
  • Indigenous organizations in Peru declare state of emergency June 24, 2022
  • Ecosocialist Bookshelf, June 2022 June 9, 2022
  • A forgotten revolutionary: Thomas Spence on saving the commons June 4, 2022

RSS Monthly Review

  • July-August 2022 (Volume 74, Number 3) July 1, 2022 The Editors
  • Socialism and Ecological Survival: An Introduction July 1, 2022 John Bellamy Foster
  • The Limits to Growth: Ecosocialism or Barbarism July 1, 2022 Alberto Garzón Espinosa
  • Surviving Through Community Building in Catastrophic Times July 1, 2022 Sit Tsui
  • Climate Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century July 1, 2022 Jayati Ghosh

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License

Monthly Review Foundation
134 W 29TH ST STE 706
New York NY 10001-5304

Tel: 212-691-2555