Classical and especially neoclassical economic theories are built on the assumption that, under competitive market conditions, economic actors will allocate resources more efficiently. Yet today, particularly in the service and financial sectors, millions of jobs have emerged that appear meaningless, generate no social benefit, and are often regarded as unnecessary even by those who perform them. By analyzing the mechanisms through which these jobs arise in terms of corporate

The latest ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization ended not with compromise, but with drift. No agreement on e-commerce tariffs. No meaningful progress on institutional reform. What should have been a forum for coordination instead became a reflection of fragmentation. It was, in many ways, a fitting conclusion to a decade that has steadily eroded the foundations of the global trading system. A Decade of Disruption The unraveling unfolded through a sequence of s

For much of the twentieth century, the United States cast itself as the world’s chief of laissez-faire economics. From Bretton Woods to...