Capitalisn't
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Capitalisn't
Is capitalism the engine of destruction or the engine of prosperity? On this podcast we talk about the ways capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today. Hosted by author and journalist Bethany McLean and world renowned economist Luigi Zingales, we explain how capitalism can go wrong...
Episodi recenti
220 episodi
Why Capitalism Stopped Working In Japan, with Takeo Hoshi
The Japanese economy was once the envy of the world. By the 1980s, it looked set to surpass the United States in size. Real estate prices were high, t...
How Profit and Politics Hijacked Scientific Inquiry, with John Ioannidis
Why does a podcast about capitalism want to talk about science?
Modern capitalism and science have evolved together since the Enlightenment. Adv...
Will Privatizing The Mortgage Giants Solve The Housing Crisis?
This week, the Trump administration announced it would sell around 5% of mortgage giants and government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Fr...
Trump's Great Private Equity Bailout, with Dan Rasmussen
For decades, private equity has been the darling of pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, promising high returns and low v...
Should Chatbots Teach Our Children? With Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan
What is the right way, if there is one at all, to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into our education system? For Sal Khan, CEO of on...
Can The Dollar Be Dethroned?, with Ken Rogoff
Americans are often told that they benefit from the privilege of the dollar serving as the world's currency. A strong dollar makes imports cheaper, fa...
Revealing the Secret Architects of Capitalism, with Chris Hughes
After the 2008 financial crisis, and especially after the COVID pandemic of 2020, an increasing number of Americans are questioning the wisdom of unre...
How The Democrats Lost Labor And Found Capital, with David Sirota
The Democratic Party has become too focused on appeasing its billionaire donors and has failed to communicate its commitment to the working class, arg...
Why Cliff Asness Believes Markets Are Getting Dumber
Are financial markets becoming less efficient? Famous investor Cliff Asness certainly thinks so. In his paper published last year, “The Less-Efficient...
How Democrats Forgot To Be Normal, with Joan Williams
Back in 2016, Joan Williams, distinguished professor of law (emerita) at UC Law San Francisco, wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review on why P...
Lina Khan's Vision of Capitalism
Lina Khan recently concluded her term as one of the Biden administration’s most controversial leaders. Her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commis...
The Economics of Law Firms’ Resistance to Trump, with John Morley
The rule of law is essential to the flourishing of liberal democracy and capitalism. Yet, it is now under pressure in the United States, and corporate...
Profit or Purpose? OpenAI's $300 Billion Question, with Rose Chan Loui
All too often, capitalism is identified with the for-profit sector. However, one organizational form whose importance is often overlooked is nonprofit...
Is Silicon Valley Turning Fascist?
Silicon Valley’s traditionally Democratic tech leaders are turning toward President Donald Trump, but are the reasons as straightforward as lower taxe...
Why Trump Is Deregulating In The Wrong Way, with Sam Peltzman
In President Donald Trump's recent joint address to Congress, he said, "To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, t...
Trump’s War on Universities, with Nicholas Dirks
Skyrocketing costs of attendance, declining enrollment, the advent of artificial intelligence, campus debates about free speech, and a crackdown on di...
Did NIMBYs Kill the American Dream?, with Yoni Appelbaum
“Homeownership is the American Dream.” This saying is so ingrained in our zeitgeist that most Americans don't even pause to question it. However, acco...
Can AI Even Be Regulated?, with Sendhil Mullainathan
This week, Elon Musk—amidst his other duties of gutting United States federal government agencies as head of the “Department of Government Efficiency”...
Why This Nobel Economist Thinks Bitcoin Is Going to Zero, with Eugene Fama
In December 2024, Bitcoin, one of the earliest cryptocurrencies and undoubtedly the most famous, hit $2 trillion in market capitalization, bigger than...
Should Companies Have A Social Responsibility To Be “Great Businesses”?, with John Kay
The public often imagines corporations as self-contained actors that provide a set of goods and services to consumers. Underpinning this image have be...
How Big Money Changed The Democratic Game, with Daniel Ziblatt
Daniel Ziblatt is an American political scientist, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University, and the co-author (with Steven...
America’s Addiction to Easy Money, with Ruchir Sharma
Are bailouts the new “trickle-down” economics? Have government debt and deficits caused capitalism’s collapse—thus ending the American Dream?
Ru...
The Argentinian DOGE
A new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Its goals include administrative reductions, cost sa...
The Fertility Crisis: Capitalism's Next Challenge, with Sir Niall Ferguson
For years, the world worried about overpopulation and our capacity to sustain ever-increasing numbers of people. Now, the worry is underpopulation—and...
Visa's Hidden Tax on Americans
While Americans rely on debit transactions for the necessities of life, most are unaware of the networks that drive those transactions, nor are they a...
How Lobbying Led to Crony Capitalism, with Brody Mullins
As the United States elections draw near, everyone is wondering who will take control of Washington next. In this week’s Capitalisn’t episode, Pulitze...
Mailbag: UBI, AI, and Does Luigi Believe in "Free Time"?
You asked and we answered: Over the last year, we have solicited listeners’ questions via voicemail, email, and social media. In this episode, our pro...
Harris vs. Trump: Economics Beyond The "Vibes"
Last week, United States presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump delivered hour-long speeches outlining their economic policies for the...
Can Democracy Coexist With Big Tech? with Marietje Schaake
International technology policy expert, Stanford University academic, and former European parliamentarian Marietje Schaake writes in her new book that...
Universities and Politics: Should They Mix? with Hanna Gray
America’s universities have powered its economy by developing an educated workforce and producing transformative technology, including the internet an...
Raj Chetty's Surprising New Insights On How Children Succeed
Is race a more consequential determinant of social mobility than class? How and under what circumstances do Americans move up the economic ladder?
The End of Google As We Know It?
This week we're taking a quick summer break, but in the meantime, we wanted to re-share a special episode that is relevant in the news again. With the...
Dani Rodrik on the New Economics of Industrial Policy
Harvard professor of international political economy Dani Rodrik has long been skeptical of what he calls "hyperglobalization," or an advanced level o...
The Economic Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood, with Jonathan Haidt
In one of this year's bestselling books, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness," New Y...
Immigration in America: Data and Myths, Revisited With Leah Boustan
If democracy is a social contract, why don’t we allow everybody who is willing to sign it? Why don’t we have open borders for immigration?
In th...
Joseph Stiglitz's Vision of a New Progressive Capitalism
In the last 60 years, few economists have contributed more to exposing the failures of capitalism than Joseph Stiglitz. Formerly the chief economist o...
Capitalism-Was: What Happened to the American Dream? With David Leonhardt
Is the famed American Dream still attainable for the immigrants and working class of today? What made America the land of opportunity — and if it isn'...
The Money Behind Ultra-Processed Foods, with Marion Nestle
Critics of the food industry allege that it relentlessly pursues profits at the expense of public health. They claim that food companies "ultra-proces...
The Economics of Student Protests
Over the last few weeks, university politics has captured headlines as students across the country occupy sections of their campuses and demand that t...
Is Private Credit In The Public Interest? with Jim Grant
The meteoric rise of private credit over the last decade has raised concerns among banks about unfair competition and among regulators about risks to...