Thomas Ferguson

Involvement

Thomas Ferguson is the Research Director at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a member of the academic advisory board of Better Markets. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught formerly at MIT and the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Golden Rule (University of Chicago Press, 1995) and Right Turn (Hill & Wang, 1986). His articles have appeared in many scholarly journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Economic History. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Political Economy and a longtime Contributing Editor at The Nation.

By this expert

How Money Drives US Congressional Elections

Paper Working Paper Series | | Aug 2016

Social scientists have stubbornly held that money and election outcomes are at most weakly linked. New research provides clear evidence to the contrary.

U.S. Political System Is Bought, Not Broken. A New Party Won’t Fix the Basic Problem.

Article | Jul 14, 2025

Why real reform in American politics won’t come from slogans, scandals, or new parties — but from breaking the grip of investor politics and rebuilding power from the ground up.

Tariff Turmoil and the Money Markets: Single Payer Insurance to the Rescue

Article | Jun 2, 2025

In Treasury markets, there are no libertarians, only grateful recipients of single-payer insurance for ailing financial markets.

Currency Wars, Social Class, and the Republican Dilemma Over Medicaid

Article | May 8, 2025

Faced with a shrinking list of options to trim the budget, Republicans are now eyeing Medicaid - but will that fly among Trump supporters?

Featuring this expert

Stark New Evidence on How Money Shapes America’s Elections

Article | Aug 8, 2016

Oversights of two generations of social scientists have weakened democracy.

7 Truths About Trump’s Tariffs — And the High-Stakes Future They Shape

Article | Apr 12, 2025

Top money-and-politics expert Thomas Ferguson breaks down the real drivers of Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda, from big crypto plans to a new world order emerging.

Framing World Interdependence

Event Conference | Mar 31–Apr 1, 2025

The conference, which is part of our Academy’s ‘Future of Humankind’ initiative, will provide a global forum of discussion to scholars engaged in analytically understanding the evolution of world dynamics as a process involving a plurality of mechanisms, viewpoints and intersecting trajectories.

The Lehman Disaster and Why It Matters Today

Podcasts Sep 13, 2023

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, a giant investment bank with a storied history, filed for bankruptcy. The shock was profound; world markets melted down.