When governments go wrong

Readings due before class on Monday, April 1, 2019

Required

• Noah Smith on why we should worry about race, culture, and politics when thinking about economics
• Excerpt from Martin Luther King’s May 8, 1967 interview with NBCDr. King gave an in-depth interview with NBC a year before he was assassinated. If you’re interested, you can view the full interview, or read some commentary about his claim that his dream had turned into a nightmare.
  
  
• Adam Ruins Everything, “The Disturbing History of the Suburbs”, October 4, 2017Yes, a CollegeHumor video. Seriously.
  
  
• Aaron Glantz and Emmanuel Martinez, “Kept out: For people of color, banks are shutting the door to homeownership,” Reveal, February 15, 2018
  • Alternatively, listen to the podcast version of this story, which goes in more depth and is really fantastic: “The red line: Racial disparities in lending,” Reveal, February 17, 2018
• Emma Roller’s interview with Mehrsa Baradaran, “How the U.S. Government Locked Black Americans Out of Attaining the American Dream,”, Splinter, October 11, 2017Mehrsa is LDS, btw.
  
  
• Hamilton, et al., “Umbrellas Don’t Make it Rain: Why Studying and Working Hard Isn’t Enough for Black Americans”Darrick Hamilton et al., “Umbrellas Don’t Make It Rain: Why Studying and Working Hard Isn’t Enough for Black Americans” April 2015, http://econ.hunter.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/seminar2016-darity2.pdf.
  
  
• This American Life, “The Problem We All Live With, Part One,” episode 562, July 31, 2015
• This American Life, “The Problem We All Live With, Part Two,” episode 563, August 7, 2015

Not required, but highly recommended

• Destin Jenkins, “Who Segregated America?,” Public Books, December 21, 2017