Erwin Dekker

@erwindekker.bsky.social

1.4K followers 1.3K following 220 posts

Historian of economics, culture and econ, author of 'Realizing the Values of Art' the biography of 'Jan Tinbergen and the Rise of Economic Expertise' and 'Viennese Students of Civilization'.

Videos

Economics 45%

Political science 19%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Nandita Sharma, Erwin Dekker , and 5 more Kim L. Scheppele, Nandita Sharma, Erwin Dekker, Melanie C. Green, Aaron Sojourner, Jacob T. Levy, Scott A. Imberman, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 4d

Dipshit is smashing out a car window with his gun, barrel first. Just rogue, cowboy stiff.

There were two US citizens in the car. They were apprehended and detained for “obstructing” ICE by honking their horn to let people know ICE was in the neighborhood.

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 4d

This week's post at Seeing Like Chicago is about Saul Alinsky, the famous community organizer and author of Rules for Radicals. To my surprise, he studied crime, hanging out with Al Capone's gang, while studying sociology around 1930.

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/saul-alins...

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

jhetjournal.bsky.social @jhetjournal.bsky.social · 4d

Antoine Missemer and two guest editors Béatrice Cointe and Christophe Cassen are launching a call for papers for a special issue of Œconomia on the history of climate economics.

journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/19...

History of Climate Economics

Editors of the Special Issue Christophe Cassen (CNRS, CIRED Paris) Béatrice Cointe (CNRS, CSI Paris) Antoine Missemer (CNRS, CIRED Paris) Call for Papers In 2018, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Eco...

journals.openedition.org

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

jhetjournal.bsky.social @jhetjournal.bsky.social · 9d

New JHET article out, open access.

ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE AS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: ANDERS CHYDENIUS ON THE GOALS OF MONETARY POLICY IN SWEDEN IN THE 1760S | Journal of the History of Economic Thought | Cambridge Core

ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE AS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: ANDERS CHYDENIUS ON THE GOALS OF MONETARY POLICY IN SWEDEN IN THE 1760S

doi.org

Reposted by Ilya Somin, Erwin Dekker

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 10d

"If courts endorse the broad definition of 'invasion' advocated by the admin, dire consequences will follow.... the federal government could suspend the writ of habeas corpus and detain people (including U.S. citizens) at will." -- @ilyasomin.bsky.social on Cato's amicus brief in AEA case @cato.org

Our Amicus Brief in W.M.M. v. Trump - En Banc Fifth Circuit Alien Enemies Act Case

I coauthored the brief on behalf of the the Cato Institute, the Brennan Center for Justice, legal scholars Geoffrey Corn and John Dehn, and myself.

reason.com

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Erwin Dekker, Peter Bergman

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 11d

1) 'Why I Resigned' from UVa Prez 100% worth reading www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

2) Events were forced by NYT story w leaked info that he was under pressure to resign. UVa prez has 'no idea' where leaks came from (See below.)

3) FWIW same NYT team did leaked "Harvard will cave" stories

Story says:
Headline "The Final Day"
Then:
The Final Day

Rachel went to meet with the DOJ lawyers the next day—Thursday, June 26th. That morning, an article came out in the NY Times describing how DOJ lawyers were pressuring me to resign. I still have no
idea who leaked the story.

At around 1pm on Thursday, I was called by Rachel and the two outside
lawyers, Jack and Farnaz, who attended the meeting with Rachel. I was told that the DOJ lawyers were very upset with the leaked story in the Times and that the only offer on the table was that I needed to
resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA.

I also needed my resignation to be effective prior to the students returning. If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would
extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate.

I was then told that the DOJ had offered an amazing deal—unlike any the lawyers had ever seen, in their words. They were basically willing to grant UVA blanket immunity—all of the inquires and investigations would be suspended, no financial penalties would be imposed, and agencies would be told not to cut off our research funding. They said they had never seen or heard about such a great deal for any university.

Rachel praised the lawyers for their astute and savvy bargaining, and I was told this was an amazing deal.

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 11d

This week's post 'Hotel Life' is actually coming from Chicago, where I am doing archival work. It reflects, from my own long-stay hotel-room, on the 1920s fear that the rich and upper middle-class would give up their homes to live in hotels.

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/hotel-life

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 12d

I just received a document from DHS showing that it has a detained population of 65,000, a staggering total, nearing half the total prison population detained by the Bureau of Prisons. The project is to jam them in horrible conditions until they give up their rights to stay

Reposted by Erwin Dekker, Richard Pettigrew

weird medieval guys @weirdmedieval.bsky.social · 13d

hey i wrote an article about folk names for birds and you should check it out!!!

open.substack.com/pub/weirdmed...

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 16d

The perfect symbol of a rigged economy

A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up ‘Trump’

www.nytimes.com

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 18d

This week's Seeing like Chicago post revisits Hofstadter's Age of Reform, and its analysis of agrarian populism ca. 1890 and the coalition it formed with the Progressives in the next decade.

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/the-age-of...

The Age of Reform (1)

Reading Hofdstadter's classic from Bryan to FDR

seeinglikechicago.substack.com

Reposted by Peter Thorne, Rosemary A. Joyce, Erwin Dekker , and 5 more Peter Thorne, Rosemary A. Joyce, Erwin Dekker, Miranda J. Lubbers, Aurélien Mondon, Césari Laurent, David Stott, Southern Africa

I said abolish and I fucking meant it @astridoverthere.bsky.social · 19d

Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default.

Here's how to turn it off.

First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner

Screenshot of the top of a Bsky feed, with a red circle around the hamburger menu in the top left.

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 20d

"The alternative is to start with Hayek’s idea that the theory of the individual should be a theory of the individual in society. This theory should explain how society generates individual heterogeneity and enables individual subjectivity."

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 20d

New paper alert

Toward an Austrian Theory of the Self in The Review of Austrian Economics. It's Open Access!

In the paper I explore connect the Austrian theory of subjectivism to the philosophical sociology of George Herbert Mead and argue that we to explain, not assume, individual heterogeneity

Toward an Austrian theory of the self - The Review of Austrian Economics

One of the key distinguishing features of Austrian economics is subjectivism. Subjectivism has been understood as the foundation for why individuals are different from each other, and as a basis for i...

doi.org

Andrew Mueller @andrewmueller.bsky.social · 25d

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 25d

This week's Seeing like Chicago post talks about the importance of 'seeing through the eyes of others' and how it became a moral-political project among sociologists. With several shout-outs to the great new book Liberal Emancipation by Mikayla Novak.

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/seeing-thr...

Seeing through the eyes of others

Emancipation and social science

seeinglikechicago.substack.com

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · 28d

Among the suspected effects are a higher frequency of tropical storms, which scientists earlier linked to climate change.

Reuters @reuters.com · 28d

RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports reut.rs/4hxHgEh

RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports

U.S. health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to probe the potential harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

reut.rs

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Frank de Vocht, Jonathan Wolff , and 4 more Brendan Nyhan, Frank de Vocht, Jonathan Wolff, Erwin Dekker, Brian Jm Quinn, Timothy D. McBride, David Darmofal

Reuters @reuters.com · 28d

RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports reut.rs/4hxHgEh

RFK Jr. directs CDC to study alleged harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reports

reut.rs

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · Oct 24

So they didn’t like the ad. Let’s just post Reagan’s 5 min speech against tariffs as it appears on YouTube.

Over and over. On all platforms (some of y’all are still on X).

*1981 Sherrilyn horrified by 2025 Sherrilyn saying “let’s post Reagan’s speech.”

youtu.be/5t5QK03KXPc

President Reagan's Radio Address on Free and Fair Trade on April 25, 1987

YouTube video by Reagan Library

youtu.be

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · Oct 24

New Seeing Like Chicago post discusses real and imagined differences between the city and countryside. With a discussion of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio and Albert Blumenthal's Small Town Stuff

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/the-rural-...

Reposted by Shannon Vallor, Anna O. Law, Erwin Dekker , and 12 more Shannon Vallor, Anna O. Law, Erwin Dekker, David S. Cohen, David R. Miller, Aaron Sojourner, Jacob T. Levy, Scott A. Imberman, Anne Norton, Jason Lyall, Daryl Adair, Mark Rice, Ann Bartow, Julie Novkov, Brian Jm Quinn

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · Oct 24

What a sick world.

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · Oct 19

The 7 million Americans who took the streets for 'No Kings' made history, and they did something even more important

They got under the skin of Donald Trump and his dictatorial regime, on a day that showed that most Americans love democracy instead

My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/no-k...

Then they fight you: How the No Kings protests are winning America | Will Bunch

A massive turnout of 7 million and a panicked White House showed Saturday why the No Kings protests matter, a lot.

www.inquirer.com

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · Oct 17

This week's Seeing Like Chicago's post discusses some very surprising links between the Studs Lonigan trilogy (a coming of age story about the Irish-American Studs) and hip-hop culture, including a 1920's Dapper Dan O'Doul.

seeinglikechicago.substack.com/p/chicagos-s...

Reposted by Erwin Dekker, Kris Inwood

Nicolas Brisset @nbrisset.bsky.social · Oct 12

Hyped to read the special issue that goes with this introduction by @vhalsmayer.bsky.social and Eric Hounshell.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Erwin Dekker @erwindekker.bsky.social · Oct 10

This week's Substack post discusses the links between Richard Wright's classic Chicago novel, Native Son, and Harold Garfinkel's early (ethnomethodological) studies of the way juries work in Chicago.

Or simply, how institutional racism was understood in the 1940s.

From Native Son to Ethnomethodology

On Richard Wright and Harold Garfinkel

seeinglikechicago.substack.com

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Joe R. Feagin , and 44 more Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Joe R. Feagin, Brendan Nyhan, Jesse H. Kroll, Patrick A. Jansen, Daniel L. Millimet, David Feldman, Eric Goldman, Fabián Muniesa, Jacob Montgomery, Bruce D. Baker, Juan Cole, Erwin Dekker, Sanford F. Schram, John Foot, Devon Greyson, W. Andy Knight, Nazita Lajevardi, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Scott A. Imberman, Caroline Fohlin, Florian Keller, Michael D. McDonald, Jason Lyall, Kate Starbird, Victor Pickard, Thomas Masterson, Nils Zurawski, Nelson Flores, Henrik Skaug Sætra, Arlene Stein, Federica Genovese, Richard M. Carpiano, Olivier Jourdan, Klaus Oschema, Meredith Farkas, Brandon Whitcher, Daxton R. Stewart, Albin Wagener, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Manisha Sinha, Aviel Roshwald, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Bruce Buchan, Southern Africa

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · Oct 9

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

Digressionsimpressions @nescio13.bsky.social · Oct 9

Rousseau, Adaptive Preferences, and Social Entrepeneurship
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Shout outs to @erwindekker.bsky.social, @lastpositivist.bsky.social, @serenekhader.bsky.social

Rousseau, Adaptive Preferences, and Social Entrepeneurship

Near the start of The Social Contract (1762), in his criticism of Aristotle, Rousseau (recall) diagnoses the phenomenon of adaptive preferences. What we desire is not just shaped by society, but what ...

open.substack.com

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan A. Eisen , and 28 more Anna O. Law, Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan A. Eisen, Erich Fromm, Brendan Nyhan, Paul R. Bierman, Patrick A. Jansen, Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Christopher Wright, Steven French, Lisa M. Thompson, Laura K. Taylor, Marina Jirotka, Kevin J. O’Brien, Juan Cole, Erwin Dekker, Brian Medeiros, Silvia Secchi, W. Andy Knight, Michael Zimmer, Christine Kooi, Erica Weintraub Austin, Mark Rice, Ann Bartow, Henry Jones, Blair Fix, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Francesco Nicoli, Colin Woodard, Kristina McElheran

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · Oct 7

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Reposted by Erwin Dekker

Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay @mdtremblay.bsky.social · Oct 7

Then, in 32(5), Lenfant reviews Bridel (following on their interview also in the same issue), Greitens reviews a new translation of Schurtz, @madelinew.bsky.social reviews @arnaudorain.bsky.social, @erwindekker.bsky.social reviews Slobodian www.tandfonline.com/toc/rejh20/3...

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

Controversies on the concept of progress in Progressive Era American Economics. Volume 32, Issue 5 of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news