Capitalism Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/capitalism/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:10:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Capitalism Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/capitalism/ 32 32 It’s Not Optimal https://www.publicbooks.org/its-not-optimal/ Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:00:59 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59966 Four books about a new age of AI tell stories of sluggish processes, ambiguous outcomes, emotionally charged issues, and generous margins for error.

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]]> Toward a Realpolitik for AI https://www.publicbooks.org/toward-a-realpolitik-for-ai/ Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:00:22 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59931 Today’s AI arms race demands a healthy dose of realism.

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]]> America’s Pernicious Rural Myth: An Interview with Steven Conn https://www.publicbooks.org/americas-pernicious-rural-myth-an-interview-with-steven-conn/ Wed, 09 Apr 2025 15:00:44 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59304 “Narratives about rural crisis seem to trap American discourse in a cycle of crisis and myth.”

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]]> Kafala in the Time of the Flood https://www.publicbooks.org/kafala-in-the-time-of-the-flood/ Tue, 25 Mar 2025 15:00:05 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59223 The opposite of Kafala is being alive.

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]]> Money for Nothing: Finance and the End of Culture https://www.publicbooks.org/money-for-nothing-finance-and-the-end-of-culture/ Tue, 11 Feb 2025 16:00:38 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58872 Art continues to get made—that’s what human beings do—but capital devours it.

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]]> Bad Beef https://www.publicbooks.org/bad-beef/ Thu, 09 Jan 2025 16:00:48 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58627 Rap beef is form of capitalist accumulation that enriches artists—and, most of all, the corporate suits that run their record labels.

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]]> To Counteract Apocalyptic Technoscience, We Need New Myths https://www.publicbooks.org/to-counteract-apocalyptic-technoscience-we-need-new-myths/ Tue, 26 Nov 2024 16:00:54 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58157 If there is contentment on the artist’s face, it is because she knows that she has left Babylon behind and is on her way to Zion.

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]]> Asset Managers (Against) Society https://www.publicbooks.org/asset-managers-against-society/ Wed, 23 Oct 2024 15:00:48 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=57770 A new book shows that asset manager ownership exacerbates the risks that they socialize—harming, rather than benefitting, users and governments.

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]]> Public Thinker: Infrastructure Tells Us That We Need One Another https://www.publicbooks.org/infrastructure-tells-us-that-we-need-one-another/ Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56665 “Seeing infrastructural systems for what they are requires us to understand them as the product of massive collective investment and to reflect on the value of that.”

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]]> Philanthropy’s Power Brokers https://www.publicbooks.org/philanthropys-power-brokers/ Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:00:06 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56650 An in-depth reckoning with the Gates Foundation as a discrete actor is long overdue.

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