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  • 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.
  • 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.

  • Civilian participation Labor Force

    America’s labor crisis

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on November 5, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    We face a multifacited labor crisis. One of the most important aspects of this crisis is the U.S. economy’s diminishing capacity to provide employment. This development is highlighted in the chart below, which shows the trend in civilian employment over the last thirty years. Civilian employment includes all individuals who worked at least one hour for […]

  • CARES Act

    COVID-19 economic crisis snapshot

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on October 17, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Workers in the United States are in the midst of a punishing COVID-19 economic crisis.

  • OSHA trends

    There is a union difference: mortality rates from COVID-19 are lower in unionized nursing homes

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on September 19, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    We need strong unions, all of us. Tragically, even during the pandemic, businesses continue to aggressively resist worker attempts at unionization. And recent decisions by the NLRB only add to worker difficulties.

  • Growth in median usual weekly earnings

    Times remain hard, especially for low-wage workers

    Originally published: Report from the Economic Front on September 8, 2020 (more by Report from the Economic Front)

    The current economic crisis has hit workers hard. Unemployment rates remain high, with total weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits continuing to grow.

  • If companies were people

    Big tech support for racial justice is more talk than action

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on August 19, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    In the month following the May 25th death of George Floyd, the largest technology companies collectively pledged more than a billion dollars in support of racial justice. Sounds like a lot of money, but for these companies it is pocket change.

  • Man in White Shirt Using Macbook Pro (Photo: Piqsels)

    The pandemic, technology, and remote work: the corporate push for greater control over workers’ lives

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on August 11, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    The U.S. economy is undergoing a major transformation largely driven by the coronavirus pandemic. One hallmark of that transformation is the explosion in what is called “remote” work.

  • Korean Peninsula en - Wikimedia Commons

    Seeking peace on the Korean Peninsula

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on August 3, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    Although the date drew little notice in the U.S. media, July 27, 2020 marked the 67th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement, an agreement that ended the fighting but not the war between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

  • "end police brutality" (Photo: Jamelle Bouie)

    Defunding police and challenging militarism, a necessary response to their “battle space”

    Originally published: Reports from a Economic Front on July 18, 2020 (more by Reports from a Economic Front)

    The excessive use of force and killings of unarmed Black Americans by police has fueled a popular movement for slashing police budgets, reimagining policing, and directing freed funds to community-based programs that provide medical and mental health care, housing, and employment support to those in need. This is a long overdue development.

  • Flickr - we the PEOPLE... blah, blah, blah." -- Death with Headphones.

    Racism, COVID-19, and the fight for economic justice

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on June 20, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    While the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the United States were triggered by recent police murders of unarmed African Americans, they are also helping to encourage popular recognition that racism has a long history with punishing consequences for black people that extend beyond policing.

  • Pixabay Business Closed Bankrupt Pandemic - Free photo on Pixabay

    The economy: we are still in big trouble

    Originally published: Reports from the Economic Front on June 9, 2020 (more by Reports from the Economic Front)

    The announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the federal unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent in May, from 14.7 percent in April, took most analysts by surprise. The economy added 2.5 million jobs in May, the first increase in employment since February. Most economists had predicted further job losses and a rise in the unemployment rate to as high as 20 percent.

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Also By Martin Hart-Landsberg in Monthly Review Magazine

  • Planning an Ecologically Sustainable and Democratic Economy: Challenges and Tasks July 01, 2023
  • U.S. Economic Planning in the Second World War and the Planetary Crisis February 01, 2023
  • 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

Books By Martin Hart-Landsberg

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

Monthly Review Essays

  • US Imperialism in Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges to a Global Community with a Shared Future
    Sam-Kee Cheng A late 1940s Soviet poster showing a US military service member lounging on top of a German factory, smoking a cigar. The text beneath reads DER DOLLARIMPERIALISMUS [dollar imperialism].

    1. Introduction The predominance of US economic, political and military power in the world was established at the end of the Second World War.1 With just 6.3 percent of global population, the United States held about 50 percent of the world wealth in 1948. As the only power which had used nuclear weapons on civilian […]

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    Robert W. McChesney Bob McChesney on Saving Journalism

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