A message from editor at large Harold Meyerson:

I recently wrote a piece I’ve long wanted to do: a profile of the economics department at the University of California, Berkeley – the folks who made the dismal science a force for progressive social change, comprehensible for lay persons, and distinctly un-dismal. In recent years, a new generation of economists has documented with unprecedented precision the rise of inequality, diagnosed its causes, and suggested plausible remedies. No one has done this more, or with greater effect, than the economists at Berkeley, who also have refocused the discipline away from timeless abstractions that have little to do with actually existing economies and toward the empirical research that anchors their work in the real world. By telling Berkeley’s story, I was able to tell the story of the transformation of the field, as well as its salutary effect on elected leaders and American liberalism.

A recent Prospect story I truly admire is staff writer Alex Sammon’s review-essay on Alec MacGillis’s new book about Amazon: Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America. Alex not only summarizes MacGillis’s deeply researched account of Amazon’s rise and the many it trampled in the process, but contextualizes the story, situating the rise of Bezosworld, as he calls it, in the decline of the powers of government and the corresponding obeisance of governments to Amazon’s demands. Compellingly argued and beautifully written, the essay concludes by noting that since Amazon has used public resources to establish itself as an indispensable private utility, we should make it public – that is, nationalize it. Damn good idea.