Neoliberalism With a Stick of Gum (The 80s Baseball Card Boom)

 Tropics of Meta was kind enough to publish a recent piece I wrote about baseball cards and neoliberalism. Check it out here.

Here's an excerpt:

"That decades-old unopened boxes of baseball cards can be acquired so easily and cheaply tells the story of speculation run amok. My first investment portfolio was an early lesson in capitalism’s shady promises, collapsing bubble and all. Ironically, so many people bought and saved so many baseball cards thinking they would be valuable that they made them worthless. This is not just another story of boom and bust, however. Baseball cards in the 80s are a fine metaphor for neoliberalism’s triumph in that decade, from deregulation to speculation to intensified stratification and inequality."