Chris Hughes
- Doctoral Candidate
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
hughes83@wharton.upenn.edu
- office Address:
Jon M. Huntsman Hall Suite 600
3730 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Research Interests: Political economy of AI, history of central banking, industrial policy
Overview
Chris Hughes is a fourth-year PhD student and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. He is the author of Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy, published by Simon & Schuster’s Avid Reader Press in 2025. His next book, Plumbing and Power: The Political Life of the Fed’s Operating System, is forthcoming from Princeton University Press.
Hughes holds degrees in history and economics from Harvard and The New School for Social Research. His research focuses on the political economy of central banking, industrial policy, and AI. His writing and essays have been published by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Time Magazine, and others. His first book, Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn, was published by St Martin’s Press in 2018. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2004, Hughes co-founded Facebook and later directed Barack Obama’s digital organizing efforts in his insurgent 2008 campaign. Hughes chairs the board of the Economic Security Project and the Foundation for Community Psychoanalysis.
Research
Recent research
Reform the Federal Home Loan Banks to finance the housing America needs, Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies Program, April, 2026
The Price of the Floor: Quantifying the Cost of Ample Reserves in U.S. Monetary Policy Implementation, Brookings Institute’s Hutchins Center on Monetary & Fiscal Policy, February, 2026
Bigger than Penn Central: The Financial Crisis of 1970 and the Origins of the Federal Reserve’s Systemic Guarantee, Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics, September, 2024
Direct Cash Payments in the Next Recession, Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School, December 2023
Marketcrafting: A 21st-Century Industrial Policy, Roosevelt Institute, May 2023
Digital Dollars: Critical Design Choices and Effects of a Central Bank Digital Currency, Roosevelt Institute, May, 2022
Articles and Essays
What AI should learn from the banks, The Financial Times, September 22, 2026.
Silicon Valley Needs Washington After All, The American Prospect, July 14, 2026.
Greenspan Was the Creator of His Own Disaster, The American Prospect, June 24, 2026.
The 100-Year-Old Bank That Could Solve Our Housing Crisis, New York Times, April 8, 2026.
America’s War Chest in Waiting:
Washington’s new tool of statecraft is a $200 billion checkbook., Foreign Policy, January 12, 2026.
Rule by Deal: How Trump Industrial Policy Works, The American Prospect, November 10, 2025.
If You Care About Your Savings, Pay Attention to Trump’s Attack on The Fed, New York Times, April 18, 2025.
Banking on Democracy: Fed governance can be improved, of course, but it is not fundamentally undemocratic., Democracy Journal, Spring 2025.
Why do People Like Elon Musk Love Donald Trump? It’s Not Just About Money, New York Times, September 25, 2024
Preparing for the Next Recession: How Policymakers Can Safeguard Families and the U.S. Economy, Economic Security Project, January, 2024
The Promise of Marketcrafting, Democracy Journal, May, 2023
Rethinking Arthur Burns, the ‘Worst’ Fed Chair in History, Democracy Journal, September 26, 2022
An American CBDC is not the way to fight China’s financial might, Financial Times, May 11, 2022
How to Fix Social Media Wall Street Journal, October 29th, 2021
The Free Market is Dead: What Will Replace It?, Time Magazine, April 26, 2021
The US Needs Direct Cash Payments Through this Crisis — and the Next, Financial Times, August 18, 2020
Why Americans Need a Guaranteed Income, New York Times, May 1, 2020
Americans Need Significant and Sustained Cash Now to Avoid Economic Calamity, Time, March 19, 2020
The Case for a Wealth Tax, Democracy Journal, Summer 2019
Facebook co-founder: Libra coin would shift power into the wrong hands, Financial Times, June 21, 2019
It’s Time to Break up Facebook, New York Times, May 9, 2019
Teaching
Current Courses
LGST6120 - Responsibility In Business
This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values.
LGST6120001 ( Syllabus )
LGST6120002 ( Syllabus )
Past Courses
LGST6120 - Responsibility in Bus.
This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values.
In the News
Knowledge @ Wharton
- Don’t Abolish Business Schools. Make Them Accountable for Impact as well as Value, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/27/2026
- Why Semi-Liquid Private Credit Funds Are in Fragile Territory, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/26/2026
- Why Narcissistic Leaders Don’t Like Remote Work, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/26/2026
- Social Security Is Running Out of Time, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/23/2026
- Why Your Best Customers Can Be Your Best Marketers, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/22/2026
- Inside MLB’s New Strike Challenge System, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/21/2026
- Why AI Is Forcing Companies to Rethink How Work Gets Done, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/21/2026
- Wharton Accenture Agentic Cost Framework, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/21/2026
- The Next Phase of AI, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/20/2026
- Nobel Laureate Among 9 New Faculty at Wharton, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/19/2026
Activity
In the News
Don’t Abolish Business Schools. Make Them Accountable for Impact as well as ValueIn response to a recent essay in The New York Times, Wharton Vice Dean Witold Henisz argues that business schools should prepare managers to evaluate both value creation and broader social and environmental impacts.…Read More
Knowledge @ Wharton - 2026/10/27