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Katharina Pistor


Katharina Pistor is professor of comparative law at Columbia Law School. She is the author of The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality.

Katharina Pistor

Ballots or Bans: How Should Democracies Respond to Extremists?

Katharina Pistor 16th June 2025

As extremists exploit democracy’s freedoms, should constitutions strike back—or always leave judgment to the ballot box?

Outsourcing our future to for-profit AI

Katharina Pistor 28th October 2024

The recent AI Nobel Prize win and California’s vetoed AI safety bill highlight the growing trend of placing our future in the hands of private corporations, with little public accountability.

American business will regret writing off democracy

Katharina Pistor 16th June 2024

By endorsing Donald Trump’s run for the US presidency, business leaders are embracing a man with only contempt for the law.

Will Boeing crash ‘shareholder value’?

Katharina Pistor 11th April 2024

Boeing’s self-inflicted woes hold broader lessons for contemporary corporate governance.

How finance became the problem

Katharina Pistor 6th October 2023

Finance has become the driving force behind most decision-making. We seem to have unlearned politics.

How the public loses out when politicians cash in

Katharina Pistor 25th May 2022

Gerhard Schröder has clearly breached the trust of the German people.

From shock therapy to Putin’s war

Katharina Pistor 1st March 2022

Putin is alone responsible for the war in Ukraine but prominent westerners played a key role in Russia’s post-Soviet trajectory.

The Pandora Papers and the threat to democracy

Katharina Pistor 12th October 2021

In demonstrating how some of the world’s most powerful people hide their wealth, the Pandora Papers have exposed the details of a global system.

The myth of green capitalism

Katharina Pistor 27th September 2021

Rallying behind market-based measures to address climate change allows the owners of capital yet another way to avoid a reckoning.

Green markets won’t save us

Katharina Pistor 24th March 2021

Markets are an unreliable guide for navigating a problem as large and complex as climate change.

The debt predators

Katharina Pistor 23rd July 2020

The financial system has turned credit intermediation into a debt mint.

Limited liability is causing unlimited harm

Katharina Pistor 11th February 2020

The purpose of limited-liability protection was to encourage investment in corporations, yet it has evolved into a source of systemic market failure.

Facebook’s Libra must be stopped

Katharina Pistor 24th June 2019

After years of disregarding privacy, exploiting user data and failing to control its platform, Facebook has unveiled a cryptocurrency and payment system that could take down the entire global economy.

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

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Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

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HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

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Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

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Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

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