Economic Rockstar

Connecting Brilliant Minds in Economics and Finance

167: James Kenneth Galbraith on Inequality, Democracy and the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Greece

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167: James Kenneth Galbraith on Inequality, Democracy and the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Greece

James Kenneth Galbraith is the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at Lyndon B. Johnson School of Business Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.

James was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress in the early 1980s. He chaired the board of Economists for Peace and Security (1996–2016) and directs the University of Texas Inequality Project. He is a managing editor of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

From 1993 to 1997, he served as chief technical adviser to China’s State Planning Commission for macroeconomic reform, and in 2016 he advised the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders. 

In 2014 he was co-winner, with Angus Deaton, of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economics. James has a PhD from Yale University.

James Galbraith‘s books include “Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe” (2016); “Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know” (2016); “The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth” (2014);

James is the son of the late John Kenneth Galbraith, renowned economist, public official and diplomat.

In this episode we discuss James’ views on the teachings of mainstream economics today, his work on inequality, democracy, the financial crisis of 2008 and the impact it has had on Greece as well as, of course, his father John.

Economists:

In this episode, James K. Galbraith mentions: John Kenneth Galbraith, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, Joseph Schumpeter, Yanis Varoufakis, Wassily Leontief, James Tobin and Branko Milanovic.

Philosophers:

In this episode, James K. Galbraith mentions: Charles Saunders Peirce and William James.

In this Episode Find Out About:

  • James K. Galbraith’s thoughts on the economics discipline and how mainstream economics is failing in academia.
  • How academics may have lost the ‘sense of adventure’ by the time they get a tenured position.
  • Does economic growth result in increasing inequality or are there other causes?
  • About the University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP).
  • Does growing inequality lead to economic instability?
  • Rental crisis in Ireland as a result of the property crash of 2008.
  • How Iceland faired after the Great Recession in comparison to Ireland.
  • The Greek economy and the Poison Chalice.
  • The ‘Extend and Pretend’ approach (lend now and pretend to pay later) to fixing the Greek economy after the financial crisis which will lead to economic stagnation and removing the social fabric of the country.
  • Were the loans to Greece a mistake and what happened to the money that was lent to Greece?
  • Were the privatisation of Greek ports and airports the best way for Greece to overcome it’s economic collapse or was it a way of satisfying its creditors?
  • If the League of Nations was never established, could there have been military consequences for those countries that endured economic collapse?
  • About the ‘Democracy in Europe Movement’  and the ‘New Deal’ to maintain democracy, tackle the problems of climate change, the problem to renovate investment and stabilise the human situation across the crisis-ridden countries across Europe.
  • Why the Chinese were interested in Wassily Leontief and John Kenneth Galbraith.

Links:

Books:

Patreon

If you’re a fan of the podcast and would like to show your support in anyway, please check out my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/economicrockstar where you can sign up for any of the awards for as little as $1 a month or you can simply follow me on Instagram, the Economic Rockstar Facebook page or on Twitter or simply recommend the show to a friend, especially if they have never had the opportunity to study economics.

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119: Best of 2016 Part 1

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119: Best of 2016 Part 1

During the year I had the absolute honor to converse with some of the brightest minds in economics. They shared their thinking, research and teaching methods with me and I personally learned a lot from them. I hope that you benefited from these conversations too.

It was difficult to choose who to include, or more accurately who to leave out. I decided on a number of common themes for this ‘Best of 2016’ episode. So I hope you enjoy these sound bites and if you’re new to the show, I hope that this episode will give you a taste of the content in the catalogue of episodes that lie await for you on the Economic Rockstar podcast. Enjoy!

The following are the episodes that I have chosen to include this year:

068: Daron Acemoglu Inequality, Philanthropy, Inclusive Institutions and Creative Destruction.

108 Steve Horwitz on the Micro Foundations of Macroeconomics and What Caused the Great Recession.

088 Denise Cummins Reciprocity and Fairness.

069 Diane Coyle GDP, the Happiness Index, the Human Development Index, The Soulful Science and How Very Human a Science Good Economics is by Being Concerned About Improving the Well-Being of People.

104 Russ Roberts Definition of Economics, Adam Smith and Happiness.

082 Peter Boettke Hayek and Keynes.

085 Michael Roberts Capitalism, Marxism, Protecting Resources and Ecology.

081 Julie Nelson Ecology and Gender.

114 Deirdre McCloskey The change that brought about the equality of liberalism and her gender transformation.

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115: Edward Conard on The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class

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115: Edward Conard on The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class

Edward Conard is the author of the New York Times top-ten bestselling book, Unintended Consequences: Why ed-conard-economic-rockstarEverything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong (2012), and his recent book The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class which reached #7 on the New York Times Bestsellers list and is #1  on the New York Times business book list month. He is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. and former Bain Capital partner.

Ed Conard has debated economists, policymakers and journalists on topics related to inequality, the 2008 mortgage crisis, and the U.S. budget. He has appeared on television over 150 times, most notably when he debated Jon Stewart in one of the longest interviews in the Daily Show’s history. Ed has also written opinion pieces for the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs and many other respected publications.

You can check out interviews, op-eds and articles by Ed at his website www.edwardconard.com.

Links:

Books:

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114: Deirdre McCloskey on Equality and Greed and How To Be a Very Good Economist

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114: Deirdre McCloskey on Equality and Greed and How To Be a Very Good Economist

Deirdre McCloskey taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication.

She was also adjunct professor of Philosophy and Classics there, and for five years was a visiting Professor of philosophy at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

Since October 2007 Deirdre has received six honorary doctorates. In 2013, she received the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute for her work examining factors in history that led to advancement in human achievement and prosperity.

Deirdre’s main research interests include the origins of the modern world, the misuse of statistical significance in economics and other sciences, and the study of capitalism, among many others.

Deirdre has written 17 books and around 400 scholarly pieces on topics ranging from technical economics and statistical theory to transgender advocacy and the ethics of the bourgeois virtues.

Her latest book, Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World is part of the Bourgeois Era trilogy described as an “apology” for capitalism.

Deirdre describes herself as a “post-modern, quantitative, free-market, feminist, Episcopalian, Midwestern, gender-crossing, literary woman”.

Deirdre’s website deirdremccloskey.org contains information and links to her books, articles, interviews and much more.

Economics:

In this episode, Deirdre discusses and mentions: blackboard economics, poverty, game theory, inequality, education, healthcare, economic growth, trade, production possibility frontier, gains from trade, liberty, greed, equality, utility maximisation, covered interest arbitrage, theory of marriage.

Economists:

In this episode, Deirdre discusses and mentions: Adam Smith, John Mayanrd Keynes, Karl Marx, David Hume, Gary Becker, Shoshana Grossbard, Nancy Folbre, Herbert Gintis, Jonathan McEvoy, Sam Bowles, Nassim Taleb, Paul Samuelson, Kenneth Arrow, Thomas Piketty, Joseph Schumpeter and David Ricardo.

On the Economics Discipline:

“It’s not to soften the science. It’s to harden the science. We’ve got to stop talking about this softening. That’s not going to persuade the guys to take this stuff seriously. It’s harder to do it correctly than to do it by going on and on with Game Theory and Max. U. As Keynes said ‘A person who is only an economist is not going to be a very good economist’. And I think that’s correct. You need to be a statistician and a mathematician of course and I’m not against that. But you also need to be a historian and a philosopher and a sociologist and a psychologist and a serious person who knows the world. And the way we know the world is mainly through the humanities, through theology, through religion, through novels. through poetry, song, country music where the river meets the road. It’s through films, through gossip, through going to a football game with their mates. That’s how we learn how societies really work. And it’s harder to bring that to bare our human experience into the economic science. But to get a good economic science, and like any thoughtful person agrees, you have to have all of that.” – Deirdre McCloskey

On Greed and Envy:

“Greed is a corrosive sin. Greed is the sin of the conservatives and envy is the sin of the socialists. And both of them is corrosive of the human soul. What happens in both greed and envy is that possessions, if you allow me I am a Christian,  take the place of God or to take the place, to put it more generally, of some dignified transcendent outside yourself. Both of them are selfish.”  – Deirdre McCloskey

On Liberalism:

“Liberalism is under attack everywhere, this populism that we see all over the place is anti-liberal above all. But I believe on the long run all societies will become liberal democracies. And the reason is the incredible magnitude of the economic gain from adopting liberal policies as in Singapore, as in Hong Kong, as in South Korea andTaiwan, as in Botswana, as in most spectacularity China and India. And then, if I can persuade people, in the longer sweep of history I make the point of Holland in the 17th century and England and Scotland in the 18th in the New World. And this liberal experiment that we engaged in then and is being repeated now in China and India is so productive that I think that it will win in the end.”  – Deirdre McCloskey

People Mentioned in this Episode:

Writing Tips:

  • Put pen to paper and keep going. – Deirdre McCloskey
  • Read Deirdre’s book Economical Writing for amazing writing tips for economists.

Recommended Books:

 

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068: Daron Acemoglu on Why Nations Fail and Why Inequality Exists Between Countries

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068: Daron Acemoglu on Why Nations Fail and Why Inequality Exists Between Countries

Daron Acemoglu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of daron acemoglu economic rockstarTechnology in Boston.

Daron’s principal interests are political economy, development economics, economic growth, technology, income and wage inequality, human capital and training, and labour economics.

Daron was the winner of the 2005 John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

His most recent works concentrate on the role of institutions in economic development and political economy.

Daron received his M.Sc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics and his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.

Daron is co-author of ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty’ which can be found at whynationsfail.com

Markets are the foundation of long run economic growth but only if they are under guard by inclusive institutions – Daron Acemoglu

Economics: 

In this interview, Daron mentions: capitalism, marxism, inequality, inclusive institutions, extractive institutions, property, public finance,  rights, risks, cliometrics, econometrics, labor, technology, human capital, inequality, creative destruction and comparative advantage.

Economists: 

In this interview, Daron mentions: James Robinson, George Akerlof, Thomas Picketty, Douglass North and Joseph Schumpeter.

In this episode you will learn:

  • why nations fail and others prosper.
  • why Daron despises the term capitalism refereeing it as ‘and ugly term’.
  • why macro variables are second order to the type of institution when explaining the prosperity of a country.
  • why we should study political systems in an economics course.
  • how economic decisions get made.
  • if democracy is good for economic growth.
  • how Daron first became interested in institutions while growing up under a political dictatorship in Turkey.
  • if the political economy or the type of institution of a country explain inequality.
  • what explains inequality within a nation.
  • about Daron’s mixed views on philanthropy.
  • why empires, such as the Roman, Ottoman and British, collapse and whether we could witness the collapse of other institutions.
  • why China will ultimately fail in its present institutional form.
  • what China must do to maintain its economic growth.
  • about the Ireland and how its economy transitioned over the last 100 years.

I think, on the contrary, extractive institutions have great staying power – Daron Acemoglu

Books:

  • ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty’ by Daron Acemoglu.
  • Why the West Rules–for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris.
  • War! What is It Good For? Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots by Ian Morris
  • The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium by Ian Morris
  • The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter by Joseph Henrich

Where to Find Daron:

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