News
Wie sich Investoren mit dem Privatrecht die Ressourcen der Welt aneignen. (How investors appropriate the world’s resources with private law)
August 5, 2026
Joint commentary with Étienne Balibar, Justine Lacroix, Dominique Méda, Thomas Piketty,Guillaume Sacriste, Antoine Vauchez and Jonathan White
“….it is necessary to build a new transnational social alliance, starting from this shared interest in the survival of our democracies and thus bringing together all the forces favourable to such a project—forces that are today fragmented both at the European level and within national frameworks.” Social Europe, January 29, 2026
Upcoming events:
Deakin University, Melbourne (Australia), October 28, 2026
Maynooth University, Maynooth (Ireland), October 13, 2026
CEU Vienna, Presidential Lecture, October 15, 2026
Bayreuth University, Bayreuth (Germany), October 21, 2026
Goethe University, Frankfurt (Germany), October 20, 2026 (launch of German translation)
Past Events:
Banca d’Italia, Rome (Italy), June 17, 2026
Luiss University, Rome (Italy), June 17, 2026
AFEP Association Annual Meeting, Saint Brieuc (France), June 12, 2026
International Tax Observatory, Paris (France), June 11,2026
The Merode, Brussels (Belgium), June 3, 2026
European University Institute, Florence (Italy), May 13, 2026
Warwick University, Birmingham (UK), May 14, 2026.
Humboldt University Reading Group, May 6, 2026 (online)
Center for Political Economy @Columbia University (with Aaron Benanav, Jeremy Kessler, and Suresh Naidu), April 13, 2026
Institute for Law and Governance, WU Vienna, Webinar with Anne Sanders (Univ. Bielefeld) moderated by Verena Madner (WU Vienna), April 13, 2026
NYU, Jean Monnet Center, April 9, 2026
NYU LPE Student Group. April 6, 2026
KU Leuven: January 15, 2026
Hamburg University Law School, January 7, 2026
Columbia Law School LPE Chapter: November 19, 2025
Institute for Social Research, Frankfurt: October 24, 2025
Humboldt University: October 21, 2025
Princeton University: September 18. 2025
Amsterdam University, September 29, 2025
Yale University Law School, September 11, 2025
Tel Aviv Law School (via zoom), May 7, 2025
Richmond Law School, March 27, 2025.
Review of the three Adorno Lectures I delivered at the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt 22-24 October
A request to review all aspects of Columbia University’s governance structure and not focus on the University’s Senate, the only body with participation of administrators, faculty, and students.
Die Machtergreifung der Reichsten: Die libertären Rechten unterwerfen den Staatsapparat der autoritären Logik der Privatwirtschaft. Beitrag im Wirtschaftsmagazin Surplus Nr. 2 Die Ära der Kettensäge
Interview mit dem ZDF über die Kapitulation von Anwaltskanzleien und Universitäten. Hier zu lesen. ZDF Sendung ist hier zu sehen.
Katharina Pistor participated in this video-are-project by the Swiss media-artist Gabriela Löffel, that dissects the role of professional services, including lawyers, accountants and trust advisors, in expanding the system of offshore finance and tax avoidance.
Commentary
I write regularly for Project Syndicate, which offers these contributions to news outlets around the globe.
In order to build a new, values-based order, the leaders of the old one must descend from the “Magic Mountain” and re-engage with the flatlands. That is what Hans Castorp, the protagonist in Thomas Mann’s novel, did after having spent too many years discussing big ideas in the thin air of Davos. In his case, it was already too late. The old order had crumbled, and World War I had begun. Read more at PS
If independent, technocratic central banks are not conducive to democracy, how else should monetary policy be conducted? Until recently, asking such questions would have been considered heresy, but times have changed. Read more at PS.
With many in Germany calling for a ban on Alternative für Deutschland, the far right and its fellow travelers are portraying themselves as victims of political persecution. But they are trying to conflate two different types of regime: constitutional democracy and authoritarian “people’s democracy.” Read more at PS.
It took a pandemic and the threat of war to get Germany to dispense with the two taboos – against debt and monetary financing of budgets – that have strangled its governments for decades. Now, it must join the rest of Europe in offering a positive vision of self-sufficiency and an “anti-fascist economic policy.”
Read more at PS
For decades, we have been told that government-operated businesses are bad for the economy. A staple of the “Washington Consensus” that emerged in the 1980s was that “private industry is managed more efficiently than state enterprises,” because the threat of bankruptcy keeps managers in private companies focused on the bottom line. Originally formulated for countries in Latin America and then applied during the post-communist transition in Central and Eastern Europe, the Washington Consensus has been the dominant economic policy paradigm ever since.
A company that achieves its monopoly status by offering better products or services has not broken any law; but the situation changes when it willfully acquires or maintains that power. With a federal judge ruling that Google has crossed the line, the future of internet search is now an open question.
Recent developments suggest that policymakers and others in positions of public authority are more than happy to cede total control to the corporations commercializing artificial intelligence. Once again, the returns will remain private, but any future costs will inevitably be borne by the public.
The post-election blame game in the United States will not only tear apart the Democratic Party, but will also distract from the elephant in the room. Democracy has been eroded by a socioeconomic regime that puts price signals above people's needs, undermining the capacity for consensus and collective decision-making.