This note revisits Thomas Frank's concept of "market populism" with an eye to its significance in the decades since his initial presentation of the idea. First describing the concept's character, premises and manifestations, it then acknowledges that it remains a powerful, pervasive cultural...

This note examines the statistical data on overall manufacturing employment and manufacturing value added in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area, in conjunction with other data (the existence and closure of major plants and industries in the past, data on major area employers,...

In the wake of the Russo-Ukrainian War's escalation, and the vagaries of the conflict (e.g. reports of NATO "running out of weapons") the military-industrial balance between NATO and Russia has acquired a new topicality. This note attempts a comprehensive comparison of NATO (and more...

This working paper considers the changing weight of the Group of Seven's continued salience from the standpoint of the broad distribution of general economic and manufacturing output globally. In doing so the author of this paper considers their collective and individual aggregate and per capita...

This brief note addresses the recent discussion of American college degree as an "asset category" which has become the scene of a "bubble." In doing so it utilizes economic historian Charles Kindleberger's theory of how they emerge, develop and "burst" to consider the increased acquisition of...

This note examines the four major West European military powers--namely Britain, France, Germany and Italy--with a focus on their post-Cold War contraction and restructuring; the numerous driving pressures and rationales of that process; and, in today's differing circumstances with their higher...

This working paper draws together the author's prior discussion of the situation of the "middle class" in the United States between the mid-twentieth century and the present by way of four theses, emphasizing that the "middle class" as commonly construed (rather than merely persons of "middle...

This brief working paper, a follow-up to the author's prior "Revisiting Richard Hofstadter's "Status Politics": A Note," argues for the significance of the decline of the "old left" as a key factor in the ascent of such "status politics" as a part of American political life as manifest in its...

This working paper considers the case for the use of the Consumer Price Index as a measure of inflation, and its use in calculating real Gross World Product (GWP). The discussion accords particular attention to the way in which the computation of GWP in CPI-adjusted dollars over time more fully...

This working paper extends the analysis of U.S. deindustrialization on the basis of Consumer Price Index-adjusted estimates of per capita value added in the U.S. manufacturing sector and its categories via the presentation and discussion of decade-by-decade averages in selected areas of value...