This paper suggests that contemporary economics is characterized by three key features. First, it is focused on 'big questions' in political economy and is willing to look outside economics to search for these questions and their answers. Second, contemporary economics is empirically focused....

Is a monopolized banking sector a threat to democracy? While Oskar Lange and Abba Lerner (1944) recognized that socialism was a threat to democracy, they also held that a tendency towards banking sector monopolization under capitalism would undermine democracy through the inevitable...

Can an electorate use the projected life expectancy of a lifetime-appointed executive to enforce binding, informal term limits? Informal term limits, based on the life expectancy of an executive candidate at election, would enable an electorate to exercise discretion in adjusting tenure lengths...