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Katharina Pistor

Katharina Pistor

Writing for PS since 2000
38 commentaries

Katharina Pistor, Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia Law School, is the author of The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality (Princeton University Press, 2019).

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  1. Capitalism Is Driving Democracy’s Death Spiral
    pistor38_Beata ZawrzelNurPhoto via Getty Images_capitalismprotest Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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    Capitalism Is Driving Democracy’s Death Spiral

    Nov 15, 2024 Katharina Pistor argues that the financialization of the global economy has come at the expense self-governance.

  2. Outsourcing Our Future to For-Profit AI
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    Outsourcing Our Future to For-Profit AI

    Oct 17, 2024 Katharina Pistor worries that we have already ceded control to self-interested private corporations and their shareholders.

  3. To Google or Not to Google?
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    To Google or Not to Google?

    Aug 22, 2024 Katharina Pistor describes how the search-engine giant crossed the line in acquiring and maintaining its monopoly.

  4. American Business Will Regret Writing Off Democracy
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    American Business Will Regret Writing Off Democracy

    Jun 3, 2024 Katharina Pistor explains why endorsing Donald Trump is a bad bet for today’s titans of the US economy.

  5. Will Boeing Crash Shareholder Value?
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    Will Boeing Crash Shareholder Value?

    Apr 10, 2024 Katharina Pistor sees the troubled company as a textbook example of a broader problem afflicting corporate governance.

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    Multilateralism or Bust

    Mohamed ElBaradei urges political leaders to reaffirm their commitment to international law and cooperation.
  2. oneill128in McNameeGetty Images_trump Win McNamee/Getty Images
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    Trump’s Impossible Economics

    Jim O'Neill thinks the president-elect’s agenda is not only incoherent but also mathematically inconceivable.
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    Doing Development in the Polycrisis

    Yuen Yuen Ang argues that we need a fundamentally different way of thinking about our biggest global problems.
  4. krueger52_FREDERIC J. BROWNAFP via Getty Images_shipping port us FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
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    A Better Alternative to Trump’s Tariffs

    Anne O. Krueger

    US President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to impose across-the-board tariffs is unlikely to provide meaningful relief to workers displaced by import competition. A targeted adjustment program that combines retraining opportunities for younger workers and support for older ones would be more effective and less expensive.

     worries that the incoming US administration’s trade policies will harm, not help, American workers.
  5. johnson181_Alexander ManzyukAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_russian oil Alexander Manzyuk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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    Trump Can Win Against China – in Ukraine

    Simon Johnson & Oleg Ustenko

    A much lower price cap on Russian crude, backed up with stronger sanctions enforcement, would leave Russia with no choice but to withdraw from Ukraine. That, in turn, would send a powerful signal to Russia’s allies, and to the Chinese leadership in particular: Anyone who attacks a neighbor will suffer crippling economic consequences.

     argue that forcing Russia to withdraw would yield a clearer win for the US than tariffs on Chinese imports.
  6. deryugina2_ANATOLII STEPANOVAFP via Getty Images_ukraine ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images
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    Trump’s Best Hope for Peace Is to Support Ukraine

    Tatyana Deryugina, et al. warn that trying to appease Putin could cast the American president-elect as a modern-day Neville Chamberlain.
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    Should Ukraine Have Nuclear Weapons?

    Slavoj Žižek dismisses the idea that firing Western missiles at Russian targets represents a dangerous escalation.
  8. fischer122_NurPhotoGettyImages_berlin_wall_35th_leaders1 NurPhoto/Getty Images
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    The End of the Liberal West

    Joschka Fischer considers what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for Europe and the post-war world order.
  9. op_disparte1_SadikDemirozGetty Images_digitaldollar FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
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    Trump’s Inflationary Triple Threat

    Maurice Obstfeld warns that the incoming administration’s agenda would weaken the Fed and destabilize the financial system.

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