I’ve written about the phenomenon of ‘fandom’, especially how it was fetishised and commercialised in the early 1990s, in the latest London Review of Books, in a review of Paul Campos’s A Fan’s Life.
‘A dog in the fight’
‘Do we really need John Rawls?’
Review essay in The New Statesman on Free and Equal by Daniel Chandler, a book which uses John Rawls as a blueprint for policy reform.
‘The Reaction Economy’
An edited version of my recent LRB Winter Lecture, The Reaction Economy, has now appeared in the new issue of the London Review of Books. You can also listen to me discussing the piece on the LRB podcast or watch the original lecture.
‘The business-lounge intellectual’
Review of Martin Wolf’s new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, published in The New Statesman
‘Fascism’s liberal admirers’
Review essay on Clara Mattei’s The Capital Order, published in The New Statesman
‘In Britain today, it seems your suffering only counts if you have a mortgage’
Comment piece in The Guardian on the hypocritical responses to Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget”
‘Madman Economics’
Article in London Review of Books about the new economic turmoil in Britain, and how the Tories have abandoned traditional neoliberal reverence for ‘the markets’.
‘The era of low interest rates is ending – its legacy is inequality and toxic politics’
Comment piece for The Guardian, on the end of the era of ultra-cheap money, and who ultimately benefited from it.
‘Thank who?’
An essay for the LRB Blog, on the bizarre outpouring of “thanks” to Queen Elizabeth.
Trussonomics will be a reckless exercise in slashing the state when there’s nothing left to cut
Opinion piece in The Guardian on the revival of failed ‘supply-side’ economic dogma, as the inspiration of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.
‘There’s a gaping hole at the centre of British politics where ideas used to be’
Article for The Guardian on how ideas, once considered integral to policy reform, are mysteriously absent from the current crisis
‘Stagnation Nation’
Article in the London Review of Books on the decline of the UK economy as the backdrop to the current Tory leadership election.
‘Destination unknown’
Review of books by Mike Savage, Gurminder Bhambra & John Holmwood and Thomas Piketty, published in the London Review of Books, which considers the relationship between sociology and history in the present global conjuncture.
‘This age of inflation reveals the sickness ailing Britain’s economy: rentier capitalism’
New comment piece in The Guardian on the cost-of-living crisis and how the economy and society has been remade to serve capital at every turn.
William Davies 