The Rise of Shareholder Primacy, With Sean Delehanty
Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late 20th century.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late twentieth century. They discuss postwar conglomerates and corporate social responsibility, the crisis of Fordism, the rise of financial economics, and the theory of the firm. They also look at hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, private equity, the collapse of the public corporation, and the bipartisan consolidation of shareholder primacy in the 1990s.
Buy Sean’s book Company Men: The Invention of Shareholder Value and the Splintering of the American Economy.
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Traders work on the floor of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in New York.
(Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images)Danny and Derek speak with historian Sean Delehanty about the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late 20th century. They discuss postwar conglomerates and corporate social responsibility, the crisis of Fordism, the rise of financial economics, and the theory of the firm. They also look at hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, private equity, the collapse of the public corporation, and the bipartisan consolidation of shareholder primacy in the 1990s.
Buy Sean’s book Company Men: The Invention of Shareholder Value and the Splintering of the American Economy.
Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They discuss the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book’s essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, US empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself.
Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26
Don’t forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today!
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