Selected Topics in the History of Capitalism, Regulation, Corporations and Finance

This seminar will briefly examine recent debates about the role of the financial sector in the United States, considered in light of the long history of American debates over regulation of economic activity. It will be structured as a continuing dialogue between recent debates about regulation and finance, and historical debates over the role of law in capitalist development. It will touch upon the regulation of corporations, banking and the financial system, movements for deregulation in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the roots of the financial crisis of 2007-08, and its aftermath up to the present day. The seminar will be structured as a short and necessarily tentative (given the time constraints of the course) examination of the social, institutional and intellectual history of economic regulation, as a means of contextualizing our continuing and unresolved arguments over scope and purpose of corporations and the financial sector. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation. Class meets 7:15 p.m. - 9:15 p.m., January 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17.