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With a second Trump administration on the horizon, we're bracing for a return to the same failed trickle-down policies that have dominated our politics for 50 years—policies that enrich the wealthy few at the top while leaving everyone else behind. That's why we're resharing our 2022 conversation with Mark Blyth, a political economist who explains why trickle-down economics refuses to die and how it continues to shape our world. In this episode, Mark exposes the myths behind these harmful ideas and makes a compelling case for a new economic paradigm. This episode originally aired on October 11, 2022. Mark Blyth is a political economist, professor, author and the Director of the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at Brown University. He is the author of several influential books, including Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea and Angrynomics (co-authored with Eric Lonergan), and he's the co-author of a forthcoming book, Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers. Further reading: Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers Angrynomics Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch
Mark Blyth is a political economist and the William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics at Brown University. He is the author of several books including Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (named one of the best books of the year in 2013 by the Financial Times and Bloomberg), Angrynomics, and a new book coming out in May 2025 called Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers. His research is in international & comparative political economy and focuses on the political power of economic ideas, how institutions change, and the political economy of rich democracies. Mark is a native of Scotland and received his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1999 and taught at the Johns Hopkins University from 1997 to 2009 before joining the Brown faculty in 2009. (04:34) What is political economy? (06:10) Mark's academic journey (08:28) How economic consensus is formed (11:01) What is inflation? (13:23) Good vs. bad inflation (17:55) The four main inflation "stories" (18:51) Which story prevails currently (20:57) How will tariffs affect inflation? (26:23) The tariff narrative (28:58) Capitalism 2.0 vs. 3.0 (29:43) The "hardware" & "software" of capitalism (34:23) The "bug" in our current system (37:13) The legacy of inflation in the 1970s (44:41) The Federal Reserve's toolkit (47:41) The Fed before the 1970s (49:27) Hyperinflation in Germany and Argentina (54:16) The structural causes of hyperinflation (56:19) Economic indicators of political unrest (59:01) The role of technological progress (01:02:40) What should capitalism 4.0 be? Pre-order Mark's book on inflation here Listen to Mark's podcast on Apple and Spotify
Author and political economist Mark Blyth visits Google to discuss his book “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea.” Politicians in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that makes the economy worse. As a remedy, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the many financial crises of the early 21st century. Pro-austerity voices tell us that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. But according to author Mark Blyth, this view conveniently forgets where all of that debt came from. Not from government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the collapsing banking system. Through these actions private debt was remade into government debt, while those responsible for causing the crisis walked away scot free, placing the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer. That burden now takes the form of a global turn to austerity, the policy of reducing government spending to restore competitiveness and balance the budget. The problem, according to Blyth, is that austerity is a very dangerous idea that he claims does not work. As the past four years and countless historical examples from the last 100 years show, while it makes sense for any one state to try and cut its way to growth, it simply cannot work when all states try it simultaneously: all we do is shrink the economy. In the worst case, austerity policies worsened the Great Depression and created the conditions for seizures of power by the forces responsible for the Second World War. Blyth argues that the arguments for austerity are tenuous and the evidence thin. Rather than expanding growth and opportunity, austerity has almost always led to low growth along with increases in income inequality. With his book, Blyth challenges conventional wisdom by marshaling an army of facts to demand that we recognize austerity for what it is, and what it costs us. Originally published in June of 2013. Visit http://g.co/TalksAtGoogle/Austerity to watch the video.
Welcome to the inaugural "Book Talk" episode on Tribunus Plebis! We will discuss the book "Austerity - The History of a Dangerous Idea" by Mark Blyth, as well as austerity in a broader, more general discussion! Austerity is, basically, the idea that regressively taxing citizens while also drastically reducing government spending on basic services is a good way to alleviate the debt burden of a country. In other words it is, as a theory, both immoral and built of utter hogwash. Austerity is, in reality, a brutal attack on innocent people's health, happiness, and livelihoods. It's cruelty lies in how it punishes the 99% while rewarding multi-national megabanks, central banks, and countries for their risky loans made to already heavily indebted governments of all levels. ----------------------------------------- This podcast and related works take a lot of effort and time to produce! Please help us keep it going if you are able with a one-time donation or recurring subscription at Buy Me A Coffee! LINK: www.buymeacoffee.com/tribunusplebis Please, if you have a moment, take a second to rate and review on Apple! It's the single best way you can help us grow aside from word of mouth! Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2Fa69IA Check out all of our links at our LinkTree! https://linktr.ee/TribunusPlebisMedia --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tribunus-plebis/message
This is one of those episodes where we talk about EVERYTHING. Populism, Climate Change, Crypto Currencies, Inflation, GREENflation, Bad Carbon Politics, Prosecco , the success or failure of the Euro, why growth isn't evenly spread around countries and Scottish independence!We are bloody delighted to join us on the show this week Professor Mark Blyth. Mark is a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and the director of the William R. Rhodes Centre for International Economics and Finance. Mark has written some fantastic books most notably, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, and Angrynomics. Mark is one of the authors that radicalized Andrew into politics, so it's safe to say he's pretty excited about this episode. Links Prosecco growers articlehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/31/politics-prosecco-democrats-joe-manchin-key-billFiona Hill "There's nothing for you here" https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/There-Is-Nothing-for-You-Here-by-Fiona-Hill/9780358574316climate shocks to US timber supply- Greenflationhttps://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/02/greenflation-prices-inflation-climate-change-coffee-lumber/621456/Shout outsJames Ashley Morrison- for his new book Englands Cross of Gold https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501758430/englands-cross-of-gold/#bookTabs=1published by @CornellPressAdam Tooze@adam_toozeAdams Substack channel is a great resource. https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-93-russias-720m-per-day?r=1nkgw&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=webSupport the show
Mark Blyth is a Scottish-American political scientist. He is currently the William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics and Professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. He is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, The Future of the Euro, and most recently, Angrynomics in 2020.
OTG speaks with Mark Blyth, author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea"
World-renowned economics professor and accomplished author/podcaster/speaker Mark Blyth joins us this week to discuss MMT, the variants of capitalism, and the current culmination of the populist anger outlined in his new book Angrynomics, co-authored by Eric Lonergan. The book, in brief, is a revolutionary, yet practical solution for an economically unjust world brought into clear focus by the Covid19 pandemic. Mark has been a consistent ally to the progressive movement over the years, using his broad reach to advocate for economic literacy and justice. Although he hasn't fully embraced MMT as his lord and savior, he calls himself a fellow traveler with no doubt that when they round up the MMTers, he'll be thrown in the back of the van with them all. His sharp wit and finely honed sense of the absurd make his social and political observations as interesting as his economic ones. An underlying theme the authors encountered consistently throughout the research for Angrynomics was - you guessed it - anger. It arises from the disconnect between our experience of the world and how it's explained to us. About anger, Mark says, “you assume you know what it is, but don’t necessarily think about it.” He talks about public and private anger, distinguishing righteous anger from tribal anger which is, inevitably, weaponized. The economic portion of the discussion touches on the variants of capitalism throughout our history, and the benefits or drawbacks of each. He also focuses on how, when the government spends at the bottom through wages and public purpose spending, the wealth trickles up, but when spent at the top, it most certainly does NOT trickle down. There’s no lack of good ideas and policy prescriptions; there’s a lack of political courage to implement them. Mark and Steve look at the social and political differences between “boomers” and the generations that came after. Mark attributes it to their incomes. The boomers’ income is asset-based, making it stable and secure, while the others rely on income drawn from wages, uncertain and insecure. These younger and poorer Americans are expected to be the shock absorbers of a volatile and unpredictable economy. The current pandemic is revealing the gaping flaws in our economy and waking up many normally comfortable and apathetic folks to the reality millions of Americans have been living every day -- being left behind by an economy built by, for, and of the oligarchs. It’s capitalism… and the people are angry. We cannot nudge the system back to stability. We need radical economic reform to create a bottom-up economy now. Mark Blyth is Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Political Science at Brown University and a Faculty Fellow at Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies. He is co-author, with Eric Lonergan, of Angrynomics, and author of Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Check out his podcast https://watson.brown.edu/rhodes/podcasts, including a recent interview with Stephanie Kelton http://markblyth.com/ @MkBlyth on Twitter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48908670-angrynomics
------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Dr. Mark Blyth is William R. Roads Professor of International Economics at Brown University. His research interests lie in the field of international political economy. More specifically, his research trespasses several fields and aims to be as interdisciplinary as possible, drawing from political science, economics, sociology, complexity theory, and evolutionary theory. His work falls into several related areas: the politics of ideas, how institutions change, political parties, and the politics of finance. He's also the author of books like Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century, and Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. In this episode, we talk about the origins of the economic idea of austerity, and its development over history. We also tackle the notion of ordoliberalism, and how it connects with Germany, and how the European Union was economically structured. How the 70's stagflation and the global financial crisis of 2007/2008 changed the course of economics and politics. And also what Dr. Blyth calls the phenomenon of Global Trumpism, and political populism on both the right and the left. We finish up by talking a bit about current economic issues, notably economic inequality in the West and global warming, and how to deal with them. Time Links: 00:40 The origins of austerity 04:34 Ordoliberalism 07:41 The economic structure of the European Union 12:13 The 70's stagflation and austerity worldwide 16:59 The global financial crisis of 2007/2008 22:13 Could it have been handled differently in the EU? 26:13 Global Trumpism, and populism on the right and the left 31:55 How to properly deal with the current economic issues 36:41 Follow Dr. Blyth's work! -- Follow Dr. Blyth's work: Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/yc2ops4s Books: https://tinyurl.com/y8ruhfpy Twitter handle: @MkBlyth -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, JUNOS, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, MIGUEL ESTRADA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JIM FRANK, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORD, AND HANS FREDRIK SUNDE! I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018: https://youtu.be/efdb18WdZUo And check out my playlists on: PSYCHOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/ybalf8km PHILOSOPHY: https://tinyurl.com/yb6a7d3p ANTHROPOLOGY: https://tinyurl.com/y8b42r7g
EN - An interview with Brown University professor of economics Mark Blyth, author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," on the failures of economic austerity policies at present and historically. In English. Aired Jan. 30-31, 2014.
GR -Interview with Brown Univ. professor Mark Blyth, author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," on the failures of austerity policies presently and historically. Greek translation/voiceover by Konstantinos Papatheodosiou. Aired Feb 8-13 2014.
Rick examines the 10 year anniversary of the financial crisis with Mark Blyth is the Eastman Professor of Political Economy and a Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. His most recent book is Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. You can call in to the show to talk with Rick any time at (833) 711-RICK. That's (833) 711-7425.
This week we feature political economist Mark Blyth, author of Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, in his recent talk at UCLA's Center for Social Theory and Comparative History. With his characteristic sardonic take on economic policy, Mark Blyth takes us through the evolution of the economy since the 1940s, looking at the transformations of the last decade nationally and internationally – with a special take on Trumpism – that is, populism characterized by nationalism, protectionism and opposition to globalization, and finance around the globe.
In this unusual episode of our End of the World series, ECFR's Anthony Dworkin is talking about the migration crisis with Kelly Greenhill, who is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Tufts University and Research Fellow at Harvard University. Bookshelf: Kelly Greenhill, Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion and Foreign Policy Georg Sorensen, A Liberal World Order in Crisis Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea Duncan Bell, Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire
Doug Henwood in conversation with Mark Blyth, Professor of Political Economy at Brown University, and author of “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, & Great Transformations.” The post Doug Henwood in conversation with Mark Blyth appeared first on KPFA.
Mark Blyth wasn't surprised by the rise of Donald Trump, nor Brexit, nor the crises spreading across Europe. He actually predicted them all. Blyth, the author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea" and professor of political economy at Brown, explains how economic crisis has led to upheaval in a political establishment that worked obsessively to eliminate inflation and maximize profits at the expense of general wellbeing. This crisis has produced horrific peril, as the Trump administration's first weeks have made clear. But for the Left, it also provides historic opportunities. Blyth recently spoke with Daniel Denvir in a live taping of the Dig in front of a crowd of 150 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Mark Blyth, professor at Brown University and author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea."