#  Armando Lara-Milan: The Return of the Real Economy? 

 



    ![Armando Lara-Milan](/sites/g/files/omnuum1481/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-01/Armando%20Lara%20Millan.jpg?itok=Yrl1Pxrc) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **May 6 - May 8, 2026** 

 02:30PM - 04:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **MIT Sloan E62-350**  

 [Cambridge, MA 02139  
United States



 ](<https://www.google.com/maps?q=US MA Cambridge 02139>) 



 

 [ Zoom link arrow\_circle\_right ](https://mit.zoom.us/j/95398239263?from=addon) 

 



 

[Economic Sociology Seminar](https://ess.sociology.fas.harvard.edu/) presentation by [Armando Lara-Milan](https://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/armando-lara-millan), University of California, Berkeley.

*The Return of the Real Economy?"*

Abstract: The voluminous sociological literature on "financialization," "globalization," and "neoliberalism" cannot account for the rapid economic and political disruptions of 2021-2026. By this, I mean volatile equity markets amid energy/mineral shortages, the delinking of trade between China and the US, and the secular increase in interest rates. This talk presents preliminary findings from a developing economic history and an ethnography of active portfolio managers that have been preparing for economic chaos for over a decade. It offers a reconceptualization of the past 40 years towards one that centers monetary debasement alongside historical contingency. What has transpired is the end of the “Great Disinflationary Period,” defined by four one-time historical trends that were rapidly coming to an end long before Covid-19 and Donald Trump. What we are all experiencing is the return of the real economy, now on par with, for the first time in a generation, the financial economy.



 

 



 

 

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