Podcast: Economics & Beyond

Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor talk to Rob about their recently released book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. The wide-ranging conversation covers the importance of solidarity in addressing the current crises of economic inequality, climate change, and democracy, emphasizing the need for collective action and social movements to bring about change, as well as the role of education and the arts in fostering a sense of community and shared identity.

Simon Johnson, the co-author of the just-released book Power and Progress (co-authored with Daron Acemoglu), discusses the book, what new technologies hold in store for us, and how societies might better manage and govern them.

Brendan Ballou, talks to Rob about his forthcoming book, Plunder, about the growing harmful role of private equity in the US. Ballou is a federal prosecutor and served as Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

University of Bonn and Sciences Po economics professor Moritz Schularick talks to Rob about the soon-to-be-released book, Leveraged, which he edited based on papers from an INET-sponsored conference. The book takes a close look at what we have learned about the costs and causes of financial fragility since 2008.

Financial Times columnist and author Rana Foroohar talks about her new book Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World

Author and peace activist Norman Solomon talks about the double standards in US foreign policy that have smoothed the path for Russia’s inexcusable invasion of Ukraine. The role of the military-industrial-complex in the US is one of the main reasons we lack a single standard for the use of military force and human rights, says Solomon.

The Toronto Star journalist Joanna Chiu discusses her book, China Unbound: A New World Disorder, which argues that we need to go beyond the typical over-simplifications of democratic West versus autocratic China if we hope to engage China in a way that seriously addresses issues such as human rights, climate change, and economic development.

Ajay Chhibber, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Economic Policy, George Washington University, and India’s first Director General of Independent Evaluation with the status of Minister of State in 2013-14, discusses his co-authored book, Unshackling India, about what needs to happen for India’s economy to take off.

Former health insurance executive turned whistleblower and investigative journalist Wendell Potter discusses the many ways in which the private health insurance system of the US is not serving anyone well except the insurance companies’ owners

Yuen Yuen Ang, political science professor at the University of Michigan and author of the book, China’s Gilded Age, argues that the US and China have more in common than we usually think and that it makes more sense to see the conflict as a clash of two gilded ages instead of a clash of civilizations.