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The LPE Project
@lpeproject.bsky.social
Legal scholars, students, & practitioners working to expose & transform law's role in the perpetuation of economic, racial, & gender inequality. & check out our Blog: @lpeblog.bsky.social
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Today, Mason Kortz explains how FOIA’s Exemption 4 has evolved into a powerful tool for corporate secrecy, allowing government agencies and private firms to thwart transparency through confidentiality pacts.

lpeproject.org/blog/public-...
Public Money, Private Secrets: Rethinking FOIA in the Age of Public-Private Governance
As public-private partnerships become central to modern governance, FOIA’s Exemption 4 has evolved into a powerful tool for corporate secrecy. After Argus Leader, government agencies and private firms...
lpeproject.org
November 25, 2025 at 5:24 PM
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Today, Jed Britton-Purdy continues our symposium on @alybatt.bsky.social's *Free Gifts.*

To what extent, he asks, can a turn to politics make space for the ecological values that many of us want to take seriously?
What Can Politics Make of Nature?
Alyssa Battistoni’s Free Gifts argues that capitalism limits our freedom to decide how to value the nonhuman world. Politics, as the domain in which we choose the terms of our collective life…
lpeproject.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
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"Climate change’s cause is truly social, and so the response to it must be as well. Struggling to avert climate catastrophe is one and the same with struggling to overcome capitalism...." lpeproject.org/blog/when-na...
When Nature is Worthless
Under capitalism, the social domination of nature occurs through and is mediated by the commodity form. Certain portions of non-human nature can be valued, but only when they are transformed into…
lpeproject.org
November 23, 2025 at 6:12 PM
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The week in review: @alybatt.bsky.social on the free gifts of nature, @selfactingmule.bsky.social on value form theory and the accelerating climate crisis, and Reshard Kolabhai on what Africa might mean for thinking about LPE.

Plus, the best of LPE from around the web 🧵👇
Weekly Roundup: Nov 21
Alyssa Battistoni on the free gifts of nature, Rob Hunter on value form theory and the accelerating climate crisis, and Reshard L. Kolabhai on what LPE can learn from the Global South. Plus…
lpeproject.org
November 21, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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Today, Reshard Kolabhai lays out some lessons for LPE from the Global South. A focus on Africa, he argues, could helpfully destabilize our narratives about capitalist periods, our assumptions about the links between law and capitalism, and our understanding of progressive development policy.
LPE Without Borders: Lessons from the Global South
Law and political economy scholarship, immersed in a particular history of Northern law and capitalism, has tended to focus on US law and policy, with occasional excursions into Europe. But in a world...
lpeproject.org
November 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM
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In a new post for the @lpeblog.bsky.social, @solomonctryls.bsky.social Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow Elle Rothermich reflects on the potential limits of antitrust law as a tool to improve health care for terminally ill patients. lpeproject.org/blog/hospice...
Hospice Commodification and the Limits of Antitrust
As hospice care is increasingly dominated by private equity firms, an antitrust response, while necessary, has the potential to normalize the language of the market as the default mode for discussing…
lpeproject.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:33 PM
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Today, Rob Hunter (@selfactingmule.bsky.social) continues our symposium on @alybatt.bsky.social *Free Gifts,* explaining why capitalist subjects are incapable of valuing the ecological systems on our which existence depends, even as they collapse around us.
When Nature is Worthless
Under capitalism, the social domination of nature occurs through and is mediated by the commodity form. Certain portions of non-human nature can be valued, but only when they are transformed into…
lpeproject.org
November 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
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I wrote for @lpeblog.bsky.social about @alybatt.bsky.social's new book—which, I argue, shows how the critique of political economy can allow us to clearly name the social cause of climate catastrophe: capital. lpeproject.org/blog/when-na...
When Nature is Worthless
Under capitalism, the social domination of nature occurs through and is mediated by the commodity form. Certain portions of non-human nature can be valued, but only when they are transformed into…
lpeproject.org
November 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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Don't miss Alyssa Battistoni's post about her excellent new book!!
November 17, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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Today, @alybatt.bsky.social kicks off a symposium on her book, *Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature*

The idea of the free gift, she argues, can give us a deeper understanding of the environmental problems that plague capitalism. It can also help us better understand capitalism itself.
In the Shadow of Commodification
While capitalism is typically said to commodify everything, much of what makes up our world isn’t commodified at all. It instead appears as a free gift: a social form that describes the condition of…
lpeproject.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
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It’s a rainy morning in California, but our future is bright! ☀️

We are reveling in this incredible win for academic freedom and higher education.

www.latimes.com/california/s...
November 15, 2025 at 3:37 PM
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The week in review: @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social on oligarchy and taxation, and Elle Rothermich on private equity and the commodification of hospice care.

Plus, the best of Law and Political Economy from around the web, including new events, books, essays, and articles 🧵👇
Weekly Roundup: Nov 14
Vanessa Williamson on oligarchy and taxation, and Elle Rothermich on the commodification of hospice care. Plus, Kate Redburn on Skrmetti, LPE Night School on municipal power, Claire Kelloway on public...
lpeproject.org
November 14, 2025 at 4:06 PM
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A good day to revisit Eamonn Coburn's post from earlier this fall: Union Busting is (Morally) Disgusting.
November 13, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Medicare's hospice benefit "was designed not to maintain a healthy market for hospice, but to disentangle hospice from market logic. To achieve this, we need to do more than merely stabilize the hospice industry through greater competition—we need to create spaces where care remains uncommodified."
Today, Elle Rothermich explains how hospice care, once rooted in service and compassion, became fertile ground for private equity—and why antitrust scrutiny alone can’t restore what was lost when care became subject to market logic.
Hospice Commodification and the Limits of Antitrust
As hospice care is increasingly dominated by private equity firms, an antitrust response, while necessary, has the potential to normalize the language of the market as the default mode for discussing…
lpeproject.org
November 12, 2025 at 4:56 PM
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Trump's tariffs are always described as chaotic. They aren't chaotic. They are part of a concerted attack on the rule of law.

If you want to read about that at more length and with more penguins:
November 10, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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"Slaveholders also ensured that there was no effective bureaucracy for tax assessment. In Georgia, for example, property holders simply asserted the value of their estate and, by law, tax officials could not dispute the owner’s estimate."
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
"If a future government manages to roll back the current administration’s efforts to consolidate power but fails to rebuild our national tax capacity, it will be a hollow victory."
November 10, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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New from me today! An article at @lpeblog.bsky.social, about Trump's tariffs, Magna Carta, and why opponents of democracy always try to undermine the tax system.

lpeproject.org/blog/the-lon...

Also, I got to write this one sentence:
November 10, 2025 at 3:53 PM
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Apparently, it is negotiable!
Health care isn’t negotiable.

We need to both reopen the government and work together to protect access to affordable health care by extending the ACA enhanced premium tax credits.
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 AM
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✅ transformative vision for the city

✅ elect a democratic-socialist mayor

🔲 learn more abt the levers of municipal power

If you're a NYer missing that last piece, join us Nov 19 at CUNY Law for an event with @sandynurse.bsky.social & @ngusdorf.bsky.social

lpeproject.org/events/local...
Local Power: How to Make NYC More Equal
Building on our recent event, LPE NYC Night School is examining how we can make real, lasting change in NYC. How do we contend with the outsized power of finance and real estate and build a world…
lpeproject.org
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 PM
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Does suddenly having a real progressive mayor make you wish you knew a little more about how city gov actually works??

You're in luck!

Join us Nov 19th as we talk to @sandynurse.bsky.social & @ngusdorf.bsky.social abt the levers of local power!!!

lpeproject.org/events/local...
Local Power: How to Make NYC More Equal
Building on our recent event, LPE NYC Night School is examining how we can make real, lasting change in NYC. How do we contend with the outsized power of finance and real estate and build a world…
lpeproject.org
November 9, 2025 at 7:05 PM
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The week in review: Matthew Dimick on antitrust and the logic of capitalism, and @gshans.bsky.social on protecting legal clinics from political interference.

Plus, the best of LPE from around the web, including new fellowships, reports, interviews, and articles 🧵👇
Weekly Roundup: Nov 7
Matthew Dimick on antitrust and the logic of capitalism, and G.S. Hans on legal clinics under political attack. Plus, a cool new fellowship at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, Cea Weaver on the…
lpeproject.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:49 PM
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November 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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John Roberts now faces the ultimate heartbreak: deciding whether to keep polishing Donald Trump's boots or to continue his lifelong romance with America's corporate overlords.
November 5, 2025 at 10:32 PM