Capitalism and its Critics – from the Luddites to Degrowth | How To Academy
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Wed, 28 May 2025

1:00 pm - 2:15 pm BST

Capitalism and its Critics – from the Luddites to Degrowth

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy

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Pulitzer finalist John Cassidy challenges capitalism’s biggest critics – from the Industrial Revolution to AI – and asks: what comes next?

Is capitalism broken, or just evolving? As AI reshapes industries, climate change fuels instability, and inequality widens, the system faces unprecedented pressure. But capitalism’s critics aren’t new – they’ve been questioning its foundations for centuries.

Pulitzer Prize finalist John Cassidy (The New Yorker, FT, NYRB) joins us to unpack the boldest critiques of capitalism, from 19th-century Luddites to today’s degrowth movement. We’ll examine how thinkers like Karl Marx, Joan Robinson, and J.C. Kumarappa shaped economic debate – and what their ideas mean for the future of global markets.

Blending history, biography, and economic theory, Cassidy won’t just look back – he will push us to ask: where do we go from here?

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John Cassidy

Staff Writer, The New Yorker

John Cassidy is a journalist, author, and staff writer at The New Yorker, where he has covered economics and politics since 1995. A frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Cassidy is the author of How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities and Dot.Con: How America Lost Its Mind and Money in the Internet Era. His work explores the intersection of economics, history, and public policy, offering sharp analysis of financial crises, market dynamics, and capitalism’s evolution.