AIRnet researchers ask: What Is a “Fair” Drug Price?

This new Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) blog piece by AIRnet researchers William Lazonick and Öner Tulum explores the complex issue of drug pricing, particularly the ongoing negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies. In this blog piece based on…

Elon Musk and Tesla Shape America’s Future, but Problems Run Deeper than Tweets

In this insightful INET blog piece, Lynn Parramore interviews AIRnet President William Lazonick about Tesla’s role in shaping America’s future. Drawing on Lazonick and Matt Hopkins’ INET-funded working paper, “Tesla as a Global Competitor: Strategic Control in the EV Transition,”…

The Real Book About the “White Working Class”

In a Racket News interview with Matt Taibbi, Les Leopold, Executive Director of the Labor Institute and an associate of the Academic-Industry Research Network, discusses his latest book, Wall Street’s War on Workers.

What the UAW and Everyone Else Need to Know About CEO Pay

What is GM CEO Mary Barra’s take-home pay? AIRnet researchers Matt Hopkins and William Lazonick explains it’s more than you are being told! “In striking General Motors (GM), Ford, and Stellantis, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has put the spotlight…

Investing in Innovation

Confronting Predatory Value Extraction in the U.S. Corporation by William Lazonick Business corporations interact with household units and government agencies to make investments in productive capabilities required to generate innovative goods and services. When they work harmoniously, these three types…

Losing Out in Critical Technologies: Cisco Systems and Financialization

by Marie Carpenter and William Lazonick Once the global leader in telecommunication systems and the Internet, over the past two decades the United States has fallen behind global competitors, and in particular China, in mobile- communication infrastructure—specifically 5G and Internet…

Sick with “Shareholder Value”: US Pharma’s Financialized Business Model During the Pandemic

by William Lazonick and Öner Tulum On August 16, 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which, among other things, enables Medicare to negotiate the prices of certain high-cost prescription drugs, beginning in 2026.[1] Even though it is just one…

From Financialisation to Innovation in UK Big Pharma

AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline by Öner Tulum, Antonio Andreoni and William Lazonick The tension between innovation and financialisation is central to the business corporation. Innovation entails a ‘retain-and-reinvest’ allocation regime that can form a foundation for stable and equitable economic growth….

Investing in Innovation: Confronting Predatory Value Extraction in the U.S. Corporation

ABSTRACT  “Sustainable prosperity” denotes an economy that generates stable and equitable growth for a large and growing middle class. From the 1940s into the 1970s, the United States appeared to be on a trajectory of sustainable prosperity, especially for white-male…