Podcasts about Mercatus Center

On this episode, Erwin Dekker chats with Director Tomasz Agencki on the making of "Notes on the Margin" (2024), a full length documentary on the life and legacy of Carl Menger, founder of Austrian economics. Despite limited archival material and conflicting accounts, Agencki crafts a visually rich story highlighting Menger's intellectual journey and reformist spirit.Tomasz Agencki is a freedom-focused movie maker who travels around the world to cooperate with like-minded creators. Agencki has over 15 years of experience in film and tv production, directs and films many of his own documentaries, and is a professional audiobook voice artist. Watch Agencki's “How Sweden Quit Smoking” (2024) or find his other works here.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

Send us a textWhat happens when we stop seeing politics and markets as separate spheres and start recognizing their deep entanglement? Mikayla Novak, senior fellow at the Mercatus Center, challenges conventional economic thinking in favor of Dick Wager's "entangled political economy."Drawing from her fascinating career path through Australia's Treasury, free market think tanks, and her pursuit of multiple courses of study, Novak offers unique insights into institutional economics and political networks. Her background bridges disciplines in ways that embody Hayek's wisdom that "you can't be a good economist by just being an economist."We consider Boettke's distinction between "mainstream" economics—with its equilibrium models and market failure diagnoses—and the "mainline" tradition that views economies as dynamic processes shaped by institutions. This conversation reveals how Richard Wagner's entangled political economy theory helps understand policy failures. When government and markets form complex networks rather than separate spheres, simplistic reform attempts like "just cut spending" are disastrously unsuccessful.The discussion vividly illustrates why transaction costs matter deeply for institutional analysis. We examine how political networks form with elites enjoying low-cost access while ordinary citizens remain at the periphery. This structural understanding helps explain why some inefficient policies persist despite their obvious flaws—they benefit the well-connected core of our political-economic system.Mikayla Novak's page linkRichard Wagner: Entangled Political Economy Research NetworkBuchanan's Liberal TheoryPolitics as a Peculiar BusinessPrevious TAITC Episodes of Relevance:Randall Holcombe and Political CapitalismDonald Boudreaux on Law and LegislationLate Bloomers book, by Rich KarlgaardMunger on tariffs and costsIf you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at taitc.email@gmail.com ! You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz

Theodore Schwartz stands at the pinnacle of neurosurgical expertise. With over 500 published articles, 200 pieces of commentary, and 5 patents to his name—effectively producing a scholarly work every two weeks for three decades—Schwartz has spent most of his career at Weill Cornell Medicine, where he pioneered new minimally-invasive surgical techniques and led the Epilepsy Research Laboratory, among many (many) other things. His recent book Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery offers readers an insider's view of one of medicine's most demanding specialties. Tyler and Ted discuss how the training for a neurosurgeon could be shortened, the institutional factors preventing AI from helping more in neurosurgery, how to pick a good neurosurgeon, the physical and mental demands of the job, why so few women are currently in the field, whether the brain presents the ultimate bottleneck to radical life extension, why he thinks free will is an illusion, the success of deep brain stimulation as a treatment for neurological conditions,  the promise of brain-computer interfaces, what studying epilepsy taught him about human behavior, the biggest bottleneck limiting progress in brain surgery, why he thinks Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the Ted Schwartz production function, the new company he's starting, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 31st, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Theodore on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, host Kristen Collins chats with Alice Siu on how deliberative polling fosters informed, respectful public dialogue. They discuss the method's use in both in-person and on AI-assisted virtual forums, its role in shaping policy, and its potential to reduce polarization. Alice highlights the importance of teaching deliberative skills in schools and how real-time, structured conversations can strengthen democracy.Dr. Alice Siu is an Associate Director at Stanford University's Deliberative Democracy Lab and a senior research fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Read more work from Kristen Collins.Show Notes:Alice's book chapter, “Reimagining Democracy: The Role of Technology and Deliberation”Alice's paper for the American Political Science Review, “Is Deliberation an Antidote to Extreme Partisan Polarization? Reflections on ‘America in One Room'”Results of Alice's work with Meta, April 2024, April 2025, “Results of First Global Deliberative Poll® Announced by Stanford's Deliberative Democracy Lab”New York Times article, “She Is in Love With ChatGPT”S1E4, Jennifer Forestal on Designing Democratic Digital SpacesS3E1, Kris Rose on Deliberative Democracy and Meta's Community ForumsIf you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

What role should the government play in small business owners economic life? It seems that with the Trump tariffs are at tax that the government is putting on all our lives, but should it just stay out of it?My next guests argue that that the evidence points to that  government interference and failed policies pose the most significant threat to economic freedom.Senator Phil Gramm served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eighteen years in the U.S. Senate where he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. Senator Gramm is a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.I also talk with Donald J. Boudreaux who is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American  Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.They have a new book called “The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism”.Here is what we discussed:The genesis myth: the industrial revolution impoverished workersThe progressive era regulation: the myth and the history The myth that the great depression was a failure of capitalism The myth of trade hollowing out American manufacturing The financial crisis myth: deregulation caused the financial crisis The myth and reality of income inequality in America The myth that poverty is a failure of American capitalismBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-small-business-radio-show--3306444/support.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Peter Boettke reflects on the lessons he's learned throughout his academic career, focusing on what it takes to succeed after graduate school. Boettke encourages graduates to: value the scientific pursuit of truth and scholarship; cultivate a sense of awe, wonderment, surprise, and appreciation; and to be curious. He cautions against prioritizing cleverness over clarity and emphasizes the need to continually adapt and adjust. Persistence and hard work pays off. Try to pursue ideas, not people. Don't be inept and don't be lazy. Pay attention to details. Be a productive member of your department. Produce research that is genuinely interesting and of intrinsic value to your academic peers. Try to be a life changing professor. Work with good people who challenge you and find that network which insists on lifelong learning, one where you can harshly criticize one another then go have a beer together. Boettke highlights the ongoing work of the liberal project, arguing that liberalism is not a fixed doctrine, it's an emancipatory project. Liberalism begins with a very strong recognition of oppression, but it brings a promise of deliverance. Because language and problems change over time, liberalism must be restated in the language and concepts of successive generations. He argues that the worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be artfully criticized, but to be ineptly defended.Peter Boettke is a Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University and Director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has published numerous books including The Socialist Calculation Debate: Theory, History, and Contemporary Relevance (2024), Money and the Rule of Law: Generality and Predictability in Monetary Institutions (2021), Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (2012), and Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School (2009).If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

Nabeel Qureshi is an entrepreneur, writer, researcher, and visiting scholar of AI policy at the Mercatus Center (alongside Tyler Cowen). Previously, he spent nearly eight years at Palantir, working as a forward-deployed engineer. His work at Palantir ranged from accelerating the Covid-19 response to applying AI to drug discovery to optimizing aircraft manufacturing at Airbus. Nabeel was also a founding employee and VP of business development at GoCardless, a leading European fintech unicorn.What you'll learn:• Why almost a third of all Palantir's PMs go on to start companies• How the “forward-deployed engineer” model works and why it creates exceptional product leaders• How Palantir transformed from a “sparkling Accenture” into a $200 billion data/software platform company with more than 80% margins• The unconventional hiring approach that screens for independent-minded, intellectually curious, and highly competitive people• Why the company intentionally avoids traditional titles and career ladders—and what they do instead• Why they built an ontology-first data platform that LLMs love• How Palantir's controversial “bat signal” recruiting strategy filtered for specific talent types• The moral case for working at a company like Palantir—Brought to you by:• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs• Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups• OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster—Where to find Nabeel S. Qureshi:• X: https://x.com/nabeelqu• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nabeelqu/• Website: https://nabeelqu.co/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Nabeel S. Qureshi(05:10) Palantir's unique culture and hiring(13:29) What Palantir looks for in people(16:14) Why they don't have titles(19:11) Forward-deployed engineers at Palantir(25:23) Key principles of Palantir's success(30:00) Gotham and Foundry(36:58) The ontology concept(38:02) Life as a forward-deployed engineer(41:36) Balancing custom solutions and product vision(46:36) Advice on how to implement forward-deployed engineers(50:41) The current state of forward-deployed engineers at Palantir(53:15) The power of ingesting, cleaning and analyzing data(59:25) Hiring for mission-driven startups(01:05:30) What makes Palantir PMs different(01:10:00) The moral question of Palantir(01:16:03) Advice for new startups(01:21:12) AI corner(01:24:00) Contrarian corner(01:25:42) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• Reflections on Palantir: https://nabeelqu.co/reflections-on-palantir• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/• Which companies produce the best product managers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-produce-the-best• Gotham: https://www.palantir.com/platforms/gotham/• Foundry: https://www.palantir.com/platforms/foundry/• Peter Thiel on X: https://x.com/peterthiel• Alex Karp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Karp• Stephen Cohen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cohen_(entrepreneur)• Joe Lonsdale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtlonsdale/• Tyler Cowen's website: https://tylercowen.com/• This Scandinavian City Just Won the Internet With Its Hilarious New Tourism Ad: https://www.afar.com/magazine/oslos-new-tourism-ad-becomes-viral-hit• Safe Superintelligence: https://ssi.inc/• Mira Murati on X: https://x.com/miramurati• Stripe: https://stripe.com/• Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-product-at-stripe-jeff-weinstein• Airbus: https://www.airbus.com/en• NIH: https://www.nih.gov/• Jupyter Notebooks: https://jupyter.org/• Shyam Sankar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shyamsankar/• Palantir Gotham for Defense Decision Making: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxKghrZU5w8• Foundry 2022 Operating System Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF-GSj-Exms• SQL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL• Airbus A350: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A350• SAP: https://www.sap.com/index.html• Barry McCardel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrymccardel/• Understanding ‘Forward Deployed Engineering' and Why Your Company Probably Shouldn't Do It: https://www.barry.ooo/posts/fde-culture• David Hsu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvdhsu/• Retool's Path to Product-Market Fit—Lessons for Getting to 100 Happy Customers, Faster: https://review.firstround.com/retools-path-to-product-market-fit-lessons-for-getting-to-100-happy-customers-faster/• How to foster innovation and big thinking | Eeke de Milliano (Retool, Stripe): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-foster-innovation-and-big• Looker: https://cloud.google.com/looker• Sorry, that isn't an FDE: https://tedmabrey.substack.com/p/sorry-that-isnt-an-fde• Glean: https://www.glean.com/• Limited Engagement: Is Tech Becoming More Diverse?: https://www.bkmag.com/2017/01/31/limited-engagement-creating-diversity-in-the-tech-industry/• Operation Warp Speed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed• Mark Zuckerberg testifies: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-testifies-congress-libra-cryptocurrency-2019-10• Anduril: https://www.anduril.com/• SpaceX: https://www.spacex.com/• Principles: https://nabeelqu.co/principles• Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/• Claude code: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/claude-code/overview• Gemini Pro 2.5: https://deepmind.google/technologies/gemini/pro/• DeepMind: https://deepmind.google/• Latent Space newsletter: https://www.latent.space/• Swyx on x: https://x.com/swyx• Neural networks in chess programs: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Neural_Networks• AlphaZero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaZero• The top chess players in the world: https://www.chess.com/players• Decision to Leave: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12477480/• Oldboy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364569/• Christopher Alexander: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander—Recommended books:• The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West: https://www.amazon.com/Technological-Republic-Power-Belief-Future/dp/0593798694• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296• Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre: https://www.amazon.com/Impro-Improvisation-Theatre-Keith-Johnstone/dp/0878301178/• William Shakespeare: Histories: https://www.amazon.com/Histories-Everymans-Library-William-Shakespeare/dp/0679433120/• High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884• Anna Karenina: https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/0143035002—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Newt discusses the potential crises between China and Taiwan with Dr. Weifeng Zhong, a senior advisor at the America First Policy Institute and an affiliate scholar at the Mercatus Center. Dr. Zhong leads the open-source Policy Change Index project, which uses AI and machine learning to analyze propaganda texts and predict government actions. Their conversation explores the Chinese Communist Party's attitude towards Taiwan, the role of propaganda in shaping public sentiment, and the implications of China's domestic challenges on its foreign policy. Dr. Zhong highlights the importance of monitoring changes in propaganda to understand Beijing's intentions and discusses the potential impact of economic weakness on China's approach to Taiwan. They also discuss the use of AI in analyzing North Korean propaganda and the broader implications of Chinese technology in global surveillance. Dr. Zhong's insights provide a nuanced understanding of the geopolitical dynamics in the Taiwan Strait and the role of AI in predicting potential conflicts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For decades, conservatives treated unions like an economic flu—tolerable in small doses, but best avoided altogether. But starting with Trump's election in 2016, that narrative began to unravel, with prominent Republicans increasingly taking pro-union positions.Perhaps the most striking example was Teamsters President Sean O'Brien speaking at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Despite both parties courting working class voters, union membership has cratered to just 10%, down from over 20% in the early '80s.This puts the Trump administration in an interesting position. The old conservative playbook misses that many workers fueling this movement are now Republican voters. The question isn't just whether conservatives should oppose unions, but whether they can afford to.Joining today is Liya Palagashvili, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, whose new paper "Do More Powerful Unions Generate Better Pro-Worker Outcomes?" examines these questions and argues for a moderate stance on unions.

Few understand both the promise and limitations of artificial general intelligence better than Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic. With a background in journalism and the humanities that sets him apart in Silicon Valley, Clark offers a refreshingly sober assessment of AI's economic impact—predicting growth of 3-5% rather than the 20-30% touted by techno-optimists—based on his firsthand experience of repeatedly underestimating AI progress while still recognizing the physical world's resistance to digital transformation. In this conversation, Jack and Tyler explore which parts of the economy AGI will affect last, where AI will encounter the strongest legal obstacles, the prospect of AI teddy bears, what AI means for the economics of journalism, how competitive the LLM sector will become, why he's relatively bearish on AI-fueled economic growth, how AI will change American cities, what we'll do with abundant compute, how the law should handle autonomous AI agents, whether we're entering the age of manager nerds, AI consciousness, when we'll be able to speak directly to dolphins, AI and national sovereignty,  how the UK and Singapore might position themselves as AI hubs, what Clark hopes to learn next, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 28th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Jack on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Conversations with Tyler: Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff approaches global finance with the same strategic foresight that made him a chess grandmaster. Author of the new book Our Dollar, Your Problem, Rogoff doesn't sugarcoat America's future: he foresees a significant inflation shock within a decade, far more severe than the post-COVID bout. When this second wave hits, he warns, "credibility's really going to be shot." In this conversation, Ken and Tyler tackle international economic dynamics, unresolved macro puzzles, the state of chess, and more, including whether trade deficits are truly unsustainable, why China's investment-heavy growth model has reached its limits, how currency depreciation neutralizes tariff effects, Pakistan's IMF bailouts, whether more Latin American countries should dollarize, Japan's deceptively peaceful economic decline, Europe's coming fiscal reckoning, how the US will eventually confront its ballooning debt, the puzzling absence of a recession during our recent disinflation, the potential of phasing out large denomination currency notes, the future relevance of stablecoins, whether America should start a CBDC, Argentina's chances under Milei, who will be the next dominant player in chess, hanging out with Bobby Fischer, drawing out against Magnus Carlsen, and how to save classical chess from excessive computer preparation. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 2nd, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Kenneth on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Conversations with Tyler Key Takeaways  “Looking way forward, we are on an unsustainable path.” – Kenneth Rogoff on the US fiscal situation The debt continues to balloon and another inflationary impulse is on the horizon Higher taxation is likely as a means to manage the deficit Japan has been effective at becoming sclerotic slowly, but their economic model is not worth imitating – especially if you are trying to compete with China Japan could be in serious trouble: It is finally experiencing inflation, needing to raise interest rates, has stuffed government debt into every orifice of its economy, and cutting old-age benefits to pay its growing interest expense“I think this is absolutely an existential crisis for Europe. It may lead to them becoming more cohesive. It may lead to them becoming more of a geopolitical power, but yes, they are going to have to make choices that they haven't had to make.” – Kenneth Rogoff on the economic situation in Europe The US brain drain of Europe's top talent contributes to Europe's slow economic growthSuddenly, the United States spends more on interest expense than it does on defense spendingThe fact that real interest rates appear to have regressed to their long-term trend is the most important macro change in the world The US should not be the first nation to implement a CBDC, if it ultimately chooses to do soWhy change the rules of the game if we are on top and winning? The US is so big that we are probably headed towards having competitive stable coins instead of a single CBDC Bet on mean reversion: For many variables, it's wise to assume they'll eventually drift back toward their average – it's a useful principle to keep in mindThe predictability of political business cycles: Those in power ignore the debt, the problem grows, and we end up exactly where we are nowChoosing the optimal inflation rate is one of the greatest macro puzzles – should it be 0%, 2%, 4%, or something else? China has dug itself in a very deep hole that will be difficult to dig out of: Innovation is required for a successful economy; just growing by building more roads and infrastructure will result in diminishing returns Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff approaches global finance with the same strategic foresight that made him a chess grandmaster. Author of the new book Our Dollar, Your Problem, Rogoff doesn't sugarcoat America's future: he foresees a significant inflation shock within a decade, far more severe than the post-COVID bout. When this second wave hits, he warns, "credibility's really going to be shot." In this conversation, Ken and Tyler tackle international economic dynamics, unresolved macro puzzles, the state of chess, and more, including whether trade deficits are truly unsustainable, why China's investment-heavy growth model has reached its limits, how currency depreciation neutralizes tariff effects, Pakistan's IMF bailouts, whether more Latin American countries should dollarize, Japan's deceptively peaceful economic decline, Europe's coming fiscal reckoning, how the US will eventually confront its ballooning debt, the puzzling absence of a recession during our recent disinflation, the potential of phasing out large denomination currency notes, the future relevance of stablecoins, whether America should start a CBDC, Argentina's chances under Milei, who will be the next dominant player in chess, hanging out with Bobby Fischer, drawing out against Magnus Carlsen, and how to save classical chess from excessive computer preparation. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 2nd, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Kenneth on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff approaches global finance with the same strategic foresight that made him a chess grandmaster. Author of the new book Our Dollar, Your Problem, Rogoff doesn't sugarcoat America's future: he foresees a significant inflation shock within a decade, far more severe than the post-COVID bout. When this second wave hits, he warns, "credibility's really going to be shot." In this conversation, Ken and Tyler tackle international economic dynamics, unresolved macro puzzles, the state of chess, and more, including whether trade deficits are truly unsustainable, why China's investment-heavy growth model has reached its limits, how currency depreciation neutralizes tariff effects, Pakistan's IMF bailouts, whether more Latin American countries should dollarize, Japan's deceptively peaceful economic decline, Europe's coming fiscal reckoning, how the US will eventually confront its ballooning debt, the puzzling absence of a recession during our recent disinflation, the potential of phasing out large denomination currency notes, the future relevance of stablecoins, whether America should start a CBDC, Argentina's chances under Milei, who will be the next dominant player in chess, hanging out with Bobby Fischer, drawing out against Magnus Carlsen, and how to save classical chess from excessive computer preparation. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded April 2nd, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Kenneth on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Margaret Levi delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring her latest research on political equality and arguing that it has been poorly conceptualized and measured in comparison to economic equality. She frames political equality around three dimensions: participation, representation, and responsiveness, emphasizing that it is relational and rooted in social interactions and is not merely a matter of resource distribution. Levi highlights new empirical tools for better assessing political equality, including surveys on empowerment, studies of social capital, and network analysis.Margaret Levi is Professor Emerita of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) at Stanford University. Levi is currently a faculty fellow at CASBS and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, co-director of the Stanford Ethics, Society and Technology Hub, and the Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies at the University of Washington.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

Across the globe, many people see democracy retreating and authoritarianism on the rise. In places as diverse as India, Hungry, Niger, El Salvador, and even right here in the United States, people of all political background are concerned about the state of their democracy, even if their reasons for worry differ. From attacks on courts, to the accumulation of executive power, and the takeover of institutions, many countries have see their democracies weaken, while many others have seen their democracies completely overthrown (at least 32 coup d'état's since 2010, and many more attempts, around the world).  Freedom House has marked overall democratic decline for the past 19 years based on their global metrics, while countless articles have been written about democratic backsliding around the world.In this month's episode, we discuss the state of democracy around the world with Dr. Henry Thomson of Arizona State University. Throughout this conversation, we cover the pathways to democratic decline and dive into the trends that the world is currently experiencing, while putting this discussion in historical context. In addition, we talk about what lessons pro-democracy forces can learn from the transitions that other countries have made away from authoritarian styles of government. It is important to remember that at one point in time, all countries were under authoritarian forms of government. Dr. Henry Thomson is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He is a political economist with a research focus on economic development, authoritarian rule, and transitions to democracy.He is the author of two books, Watching the Watchers: Communist Elites, the Secret Police and Social Order in Cold War Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024) and Food and Power: Regime Type, Agricultural Policy and Political Stability (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019).Before joining ASU, Thomson was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. His doctoral dissertation won the 2015 Juan Linz Prize for the Best Dissertation in the Comparative Study of Democratization from the American Political Science Association. He has been a visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, at Australian National University, and at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Berlin.Professor Thomson teaches classes on Democratization, Political Economy, International Political Economy, and social science research design.

0:00 - Durbin not running 17:14 - Pritzker threatens El Salvador 34:52 - Michelle Obama on the unspoken pain and labeling of black women and the burdens they must carry 54:42 - The Age of Extinction 01:08:25 - American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Donald J Boudreaux: If you believe trade deals will restore manufacturing employment, you're going to be disappointed. Check out Donald’s daily blog at cafehyek.com 01:27:02 - President of Center of the American Experiment and contributor to Powerline, John Hinderaker: Who Says Democrats Aren’t Pro-Crime? Get John’s latest at powerlineblog.com 01:43:09 - SCOTUS oral arguments on 1st A case...books in Maryland govt schools 01:54:27 - EdSec Linda McMahon on Trump EO to allow teachers to institute discipline in their classrooms 02:00:57 - Joseph Bottum, visiting chair in conservative thought and policy at University of Colorado's Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization: College Students Don’t Read. But Can They? For more from Prof Bottum poemsancientandmodern.substack.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon Hartley and Phillip Swagel discuss Phill's career as an academic economist, his time in economic policy, why the CBO is important in the budget policy process, current law versus current policy baselines, dynamic scoring versus static scoring, the accuracy of CBO scores, CBO modeling, as well as CBO model transparency. Recorded on March 18, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Phillip Swagel became the 10th Director of the Congressional Budget Office on June 3, 2019. Previously, he was a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the Milken Institute. He has also taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, and Georgetown University. His research has involved financial market reform, international trade policy, and China's role in the global economy. From 2006 to 2009, Dr. Swagel was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department, where he was responsible for analysis of a wide range of economic issues, including policies relating to the financial crisis and the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He has also served as chief of staff and senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House and as an economist at the Federal Reserve Board and the International Monetary Fund. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and his A.B. in economics from Princeton University. Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami. Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.  Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/

Chris Dixon believes we're at a pivotal inflection point in the internet's evolution. As a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and author of Read Write Own, Chris believes the current internet, dominated by large platforms like YouTube and Spotify, has strayed far from its decentralized roots. He argues that the next era—powered by blockchain technology—can restore autonomy to creators, lower barriers for innovation, and shift economic power back to the network's edges. Tyler and Chris discuss the economics of platform dominance, how blockchains merge protocol-based social benefits with corporate-style competitive advantages, the rise of stablecoins as a viable blockchain-based application, whether Bitcoin or AI-created currencies will dominate machine-to-machine payments, why Stack Overflow could be the first of many casualties in an AI-driven web, venture capital's vulnerability to AI disruption, whether open-source AI could preserve national sovereignty, NFTs as digital property rights system for AIs, how Kant's synthetic a priori, Kripke's modal logic, and Heidegger's Dasein sneak into Dixon's term‑sheet thinking, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 26th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Chris on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Ben Klutsey, executive director of the Mercatus Center whose work to bridge political differences is showcased in the documentary Undivide Us, shares a formative story of encountering racism as a child visiting Germany—a moment of unprovoked hostility that deeply shaped his outlook. Years later, after leaving Ghana and arriving in Appleton, Wisconsin for college, he was met with unexpected warmth, an experience he describes as a healing contrast that sparked his lifelong commitment to what he calls pluralist points. For Klutsey, pluralism means more than diversity—it's about engaging across difference with tolerance, humility, and patience. When We Disagree returns for season 3 in August 2025. Tell us your argument stories! Email guest and topic suggestions to us at whenwedisagree@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram

On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, host Kristen Collins chats with Hannah Gais on the far-right rallies and social media presence on platforms like Telegram and X. Hannah explores the events of the Unite the Right rally, the storming of the capital on January 6th, the far-right in the wake of the first and second Trump presidencies, and the dangers of expanding domestic terrorism laws. **This episode was recorded in December 2024.Hannah Gais is a journalist and researcher focused on the radical right at the Southern Poverty Law Center.Read more work from Kristen Collins.Show Notes:Hannah's work with Cassie Miller, "Capitol Insurrection Shows How Trends On The Far-Right's Fringe Have Become Mainstream"Hannah's 2021 New Republic article, "A New 'War on Terrorism' Is the Wrong Way to Fight Domestic Extremists"Brennan Center report co-authored by Mike German, "Fighting Far-Right Violence and Hate Crimes"Hannah's work drawing connections between more extreme figures and more mainstream figures like Tucker Carlson, "In Rural Pennsylvania, Extremists Declare ‘Victory is Ours'" and "For CPAC Attendees, ‘America Is Under Attack'"Hannah's article, "welcome to america"On Terrorgram indictments, "That's three strikes, run for your life"If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

On this episode of Reaganism, Reagan Institute Director of the Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity Dan Rothschild is joined by Shruti Rajagopalan who is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. They discuss the evolving relationship between the United States and India, emphasizing the significance of economic engagement, the impact of the 1991 reforms, and India's emerging identity on the global stage. They explore how India views itself in the context of global politics, its relationship with the US, and the challenges and opportunities in manufacturing, particularly in light of the China plus one strategy.

The Trump administration has decided to terminate the IRS's Direct File program, according to a source familiar with the situation, putting an end to the free electronic filing system that congressional Republicans and the tax preparation industry have had in their crosshairs since its creation. Work on Direct File began during Joe Biden's presidency, bringing together some of the administration's top technical and product minds and tapping into funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. Providing all U.S. taxpayers with a free filing tool would have put the country in line with most developed nations. But despite what the IRS considered to be a successful launch last year, Direct File's future was murky after President Donald Trump's election and the administration's welcoming of Elon Musk's DOGE into the government tech world. The pending elimination of the free filing tool was celebrated Wednesday by the makers of TurboTax. Derrick Plummer, an Intuit spokesman, called Direct File “a solution in search of a problem, a drain on critical IRS resources and a waste of taxpayer dollars.” Consumer advocate groups panned the Trump administration's decision. Susan Harley, managing director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, said in a statement that scrapping Direct File “is almost literally taking money out of our pockets.” Dean Ball, a policy scholar with a focus on the intersection of history, political theory, policy and technology, is joining the Trump administration as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence and emerging technology, he announced Tuesday on the social media platform X. Ball said in his post of joining the Office of Science and Technology Policy: “It is a thrill and honor to serve my country in this role and work alongside the tremendous team [OSTP Director Michael Kratsios] has built.” He comes to OSTP from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he has served as a research fellow for the past year. Ball is also the author of an AI-focused blog called Hyperdimensional, in which he has defended the AI Safety Institute and commented on the Trump administration's terminations of probationary employees, saying the move had unintended consequences. Ball also wrote recently that he is interested in AI being built at the same time that the Trump administration and Republicans “seek to advance theories of a ‘unitary executive' — the notion that the president exercises the powers granted to him by the Constitution and Congress absolutely.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

It's Beatles day! In this deep dive into one of music's most legendary partnerships, Ian Leslie and Tyler unpack the complex relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Leslie, whose book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs examines this creative pairing, reveals how their contrasting personalities—John's intuitive, sometimes chaotic approach and Paul's methodical perfectionism—created a unique creative alchemy that neither could fully replicate after the Beatles split. They explore John's immediate songwriting brilliance versus Paul's gradual development, debate when the Beatles truly became the Beatles, dissect their best and worst covers, examine the nuances of their collaborative composition process, consider their many musical influences, challenge the sentiment in "Yesterday," evaluate unreleased tracks and post-Beatles reunions, contemplate what went wrong between John and Paul in 1969, assess their solo careers and collaborations with others, compare underrated McCartney and Lennon albums, and ultimately extract broader lessons about creative partnerships. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 4th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Ian on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credits: Chris Floyd

On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Karol Boudreaux on female land and resource rights in Sub-Saharan Africa and their impact on economic development. Karol discusses how even when property rights are granted, formal documentation and cultural backgrounds pose challenges to control over land use, and she shares the success story of Rwanda, how the state undertook a massive land documentation effort to improve formal property rights.Karol Boudreaux has a JD in International Law from the University of Virginia, and her work over the past two decades has focused on efforts to support improvements to land tenure and property rights for people around the world, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa. During her time at the Mercatus Center, she was the lead researcher for the Enterprise Africa project. She focuses on understanding links between property rights systems and development, as well as the evolution of property systems.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

President Trump announced a new tariff strategy called "Liberation Day" aimed at imposing reciprocal tariffs to level the playing field with other countries. Newt’s guest is David Beckworth, a former international economist for the U.S. Treasury Department and senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center. They discuss the implications of this new tariff policy. Beckworth explains the historical context and mechanics of tariffs, and the potential economic impacts, including the risk of stagflation and the effects on U.S. manufacturing. He also highlights concerns about the politicization of the Federal Reserve and the potential for increased lobbying. Their conversation also touches on the broader implications for international trade relations and the challenges businesses may face in adapting to the new tariff landscape.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon Hartley and Robert Barro discuss Robert's career in economics including his long list of famous students, and research on Ricardian equivalence, fiscal theory of the price level, government spending multipliers, business cycles and the legacy of New Keynesian modeling, economic growth, political economy, the interplay between religion and economics, and much more. Recorded on March 18, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Robert J. Barro is a Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics from Caltech. Barro is co-editor of Harvard's Quarterly Journal of Economics and has been President of the Western Economic Association and Vice President of the American Economic Association. He was a viewpoint columnist for Business Week from 1998 to 2006 and a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 1998. He has written extensively on macroeconomics and economic growth. Recent research involves rare macroeconomic disasters, corporate tax reform, religion & economy, empirical determinants of economic growth, and economic effects of public debt and budget deficits. Recent books include The Wealth of Religions: The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging (with Rachel M. McCleary), Economic Growth (2nd edition, with Xavier Sala-i-Martin), Nothing Is Sacred: Economic Ideas for the New Millennium, Determinants of Economic Growth, and Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society. Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami. Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.  Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/

"Colleague Veronique de Rugy of Mercatus Center answers the inquiry, do higher tariffs drive inflation? The starting answer is, tariffs are a tax on us. More later." 1963 NYSE

Jennifer Pahlka believes America's bureaucratic dysfunction is deeply rooted in outdated processes and misaligned incentives. As the founder of Code for America and co-founder of the United States Digital Service, she has witnessed firsthand how government struggles to adapt to the digital age, often trapped in rigid procedures and disconnected from the real-world impact of its policies. Disruption is clearly needed, she says—but can it be done in a way that avoids the chaos of DOGE? Tyler and Jennifer discuss all this and more, including why Congress has become increasingly passive, how she'd go about reforming government programs, whether there should be less accountability in government, how AGI will change things, whether the US should have public-sector unions, what Singapore's effectiveness reveals about the trade-offs of technocratic governance, how AI might fundamentally transform national sovereignty, what her experience in the gaming industry taught her about reimagining systems, which American states are the best-governed, the best fictional depictions of bureaucracy, how she'd improve New York City's governance, her current work at the Niskanen Center, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 4th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! The British remake of Ikiru referenced in today's podcast is: Living Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Jennifer on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

Sheilagh Ogilvie has spent decades examining the institutional structures that shaped European economic history, challenging conventional wisdom about everything from guilds to marriage patterns. In her conversation with Tyler, she reveals how studying pandemic responses from the Black Death to COVID-19 provides a unique lens for understanding deeper truths about institutional effectiveness and social constraints. Tyler and Sheilagh discuss the economic impacts of historical pandemics, the "happy story" of the Black Death and why it doesn't stand up to scrutiny, the history of variolation and how entrepreneurs created vaccination franchises in 18th-century England, why local communities typically managed epidemics better than central authorities, the dastardly nature of medieval guilds, the European marriage pattern and its disputed contribution to economic growth, when sustained economic growth truly began in England, why the Dutch Republic stagnated despite its early success, whether she agrees with Greg Clark's social mobility hypothesis, her experience and conducting "anthropological fieldwork" on English social customs, the communitarian norms she encountered while living in Germany, her upcoming research project on European serfdom, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 27th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Sheilagh on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Nava Ashraf delivers a keynote lecture at the 2024 Markets & Society conference, exploring the role of trust and institutions and focusing on female entrepreneurship in developing countries, particularly Zambia. Ashraf argues that trust, institutional fairness, and negotiation skills matter for gender equity and economic development.Nava Ashraf is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is also the Co-Director of the STICERD Psychology and Economics Programme.Her research combines psychology and economics using both lab and field experiments to test insights from behavioral economics in the context of global development, particularly digging into health and educational services. Ashraf explores intrahousehold decision-making and gender norms in the areas of finance, fertility, and labor force participation. Her work examines thorny questions like the role of trust and power dynamics in institutions, how flourishing takes place, and the importance of imagination and creativity in human flourishing. If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

TARIFFS. EXPENSIVE . VERONIQUE DE RUGY MERCATUS CENTER. 1895 NYC

PREVIEW: Colleague Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center comments that tariffs make manufacturing in America more expensive for producer and consumer. More later. SEPTEMBER 1954

How can government policy be more family-friendly? Can socialism exist without coercion? How did bad monetary policy encourage DEI and ESG? Susannah Petitt joins Dominic to discuss. Susannah Petitt is a Social Mobility Fellow at Young Voices and Programs Manager at the Mercatus Center.

On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, host Kristen Collins chats with Eileen Hunt on her latest book, The First Last Man: Mary Shelley and the Postapocalyptic Imagination (2024), which focuses primarily on Mary Shelley's 1826 novel, The Last Man, the first major modern pandemic novel. Hunt explains the tragic life events that motivated Mary Shelley's darker themes*, how the novel relates to our Covid-19 experience, and more.*This episode features conversation on topics including suicide, suicidal ideation, and death.Eileen Hunt is a Professor of Political Science and a political theorist whose scholarly interests cover modern political thought, feminism, the family, rights, ethics of technology, and philosophy and literature. She has published five solo-authored books, including her recent trilogy on Mary Shelley and political philosophy for Penn Press.Read more work from Kristen Collins.Show Notes:60 Words Podcast with Congresswoman Barbara LeeCongresswoman Barbara Lee's Speech on 9/14/01Max Weber's "Politics as a Vocation"Max Weber's The Vocation LecturesIf you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

Jon Hartley and Eugene Fama discuss Gene's career at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since the 1960s and helping to start Dimensional Fund Advisers (DFA) in the 1980s, fat tails, the rise of modern portfolio theory, efficient markets versus behavioral finance, factor-based investing, the role of intermediaries, and whether asset prices are elastic versus inelastic with respect to demand. Recorded on March 14, 2025. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Eugene F. Fama, 2013 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, is widely recognized as the "father of modern finance." His research is well-known in both the academic and investment communities. He is strongly identified with research on markets, particularly the efficient markets hypothesis. He focuses much of his research on the relation between risk and expected return and its implications for portfolio management. His work has transformed the way finance is viewed and conducted. Fama is a prolific author, having written two books and published more than 100 articles in academic journals. He is among the most cited researchers in economics. In addition to the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Fama was the first elected fellow of the American Finance Association in 2001. He is also a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the first recipient of three major prizes in finance: the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics (2005), the Morgan Stanley American Finance Association Award for Excellence in Finance (2007), and the Onassis Prize in Finance (2009). Other awards include the 1982 Chaire Francqui (Belgian National Science Prize), the 2006 Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute recognizing his work in portfolio theory and asset pricing, and the 2007 Fred Arditti Innovation Award given by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center for Innovation. He was awarded doctor of law degrees by the University of Rochester and DePaul University, a doctor honoris causa by the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and a doctor of science honoris causa by Tufts University. Fama earned a bachelor's degree from Tufts University in 1960, followed by an MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now the Booth School) in 1964. He joined the GSB faculty in 1963. Fama is a father of four and a grandfather of ten. He is an avid golfer, an opera buff, and a former windsurfer and tennis player. He is a member of Malden Catholic High School's athletic hall of fame. Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami. Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.  Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/

What happens when a liberal thinker shifts his attention from polarization to economic abundance? Ezra Klein's new book with Derek Thompson, Abundance, argues for an agenda of increased housing, infrastructure, clean energy, and innovation. But does abundance clash with polarization—or offer a way through it? In this conversation, Ezra and Tyler discuss how the abundance agenda interacts with political polarization, whether it's is an elite-driven movement, where Ezra favors NIMBYism, the geographic distribution of US cities, an abundance-driven approach to health care, what to do about fertility decline, how the U.S. federal government might prepare for AGI, whether mass layoffs in government are justified, Ezra's recommended travel destinations, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded March 7th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Ezra on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credit: (c) Lucas Foglia

On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Catherine Pakaluk on her latest book, Hannah's Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth (2024). Pakaluk describes the economic consequences of dropping fertility rates, explores the reasons for why women choose to have children, explains how we can increase fertility rates, and more.Catherine Pakaluk is the Director of Political Economy and an Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America. Her primary areas of research include economics of education and religion, family studies and demography, Catholic social thought and political economy. If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, a podcast series from the Hayek Program, is streaming. Subscribe today and listen to season three, releasing now!Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

Economist Bryan Caplan has written—and artist Ady Branzei has illustrated—this new graphic novel about housing regulation (if ‘novel' can be applied to an imaginative essay on a nonfiction topic), Build Baby Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation (Cato Institute, 2024). The thesis of the work is that regulation has driven up the cost of housing and ‘manufactured scarcity.' Regulation is always well intentioned but often ill considered, as Caplan shows, and every benefit—‘free' parking, zoning restrictions, environmental considerations—is provided by a hidden cost to the consumer and the tax-payer, disproportionately born by the poor (ironically the people they are supposed to be helping). This conversation touched on other areas where free-market principles conflict with government interventions: bike lanes, environmental policy, immigration, and public education, especially at the taxpayer-supported university, a topic that Bryan Caplan discussed last time he was on the New Books Network, in his 2018 interview with Editor-in-Chief Marshall Poe when they discussed his earlier book, The Case Against Education. Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute; his blog on Substack is called Bet on It. Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; his dissertation is a forthcoming book, published by Brepols: Dantiscus: Diplomat and Traveller in Sixteenth-Century Europe. He is a regular host on the New Books Network also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Economist Bryan Caplan has written—and artist Ady Branzei has illustrated—this new graphic novel about housing regulation (if ‘novel' can be applied to an imaginative essay on a nonfiction topic), Build Baby Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation (Cato Institute, 2024). The thesis of the work is that regulation has driven up the cost of housing and ‘manufactured scarcity.' Regulation is always well intentioned but often ill considered, as Caplan shows, and every benefit—‘free' parking, zoning restrictions, environmental considerations—is provided by a hidden cost to the consumer and the tax-payer, disproportionately born by the poor (ironically the people they are supposed to be helping). This conversation touched on other areas where free-market principles conflict with government interventions: bike lanes, environmental policy, immigration, and public education, especially at the taxpayer-supported university, a topic that Bryan Caplan discussed last time he was on the New Books Network, in his 2018 interview with Editor-in-Chief Marshall Poe when they discussed his earlier book, The Case Against Education. Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute; his blog on Substack is called Bet on It. Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of Medieval and Early Modern Europe; his dissertation is a forthcoming book, published by Brepols: Dantiscus: Diplomat and Traveller in Sixteenth-Century Europe. He is a regular host on the New Books Network also the host of the 'Almost Good Catholics' podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Dean Ball is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center. In Dean's first appearance on the show, he explains the AI revolution, current AI developments, policy implications of the AI boom, and the future of AI. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on February 19th, 2025 Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Follow Dean on X: @Deanwball Check out our new AI chatbot: the Macro Musebot! Join the new Macro Musings Discord server! Join the Macro Musings mailing list! Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps: (00:00:00) – Intro (00:01:03) – Dean's Background in Artificial Intelligence (00:03:32) – Recent AI Events (00:22:03) – Policy Implications (00:33:58) – AI and the Future (00:56:34) – Outro

DOGE: WHAT WOULD MILTON FRIEDMAN DO? VERONIQUE DE RUGY, MERCATUS CENTER. 1863 THIRD AVENUE: PEAR TREE PLANTED 1647

Carl Zimmer is one of the finest science communicators of our time, having spent decades writing about biology, evolution, and heredity. His latest (and 16th) book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe, explores something even more fundamental—how the very air around us is teeming with life, from pollen to pathogens to microbes floating miles above the Earth. He joins Tyler to discuss why it took scientists so long to accept airborne disease transmission and more, including why 19th-century doctors thought hay fever was a neurosis, why it took so long for the WHO and CDC to acknowledge COVID-19 was airborne, whether ultraviolet lamps can save us from the next pandemic, how effective masking is, the best theory on the anthrax mailings, how the U.S. military stunted aerobiology, the chance of extraterrestrial life in our solar system, what Lee Cronin's “assembly theory” could mean for defining life itself, the use of genetic information to inform decision-making, the strangeness of the Flynn effect, what Carl learned about politics from growing up as the son of a New Jersey congressman, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 15th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Carl on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credit: Mistina Hanscom

Liya Palagashvilli is a senior research fellow and director of the Labor Policy Project at the Mercatus Center. In Liya's first appearance on the show she explains federal and state level changes to labor regulations, who makes up the gig economy workforce, the role women play in the independent workforce, the novel concept of portable benefits, and much more. Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links. Recorded on January 31st, 2025 Follow David Beckworth on X: @DavidBeckworth Follow the show on X: @Macro_Musings Follow Liya on X: MissLiyaP Check out our new AI chatbot: the Macro Musebot! Join the new Macro Musings Discord server! Join the Macro Musings mailing list! Check out our Macro Musings merch! Subscribe to David's new BTS YouTube Channel  Timestamps: (00:00:00) – Intro (00:01:37) – Liya's Background and Interest in Labor Economics (00:03:18) – Labor Policy Project and Labor Market Matters (00:07:32) –Independent Contractors and the Gig Economy (00:17:20) – Independent Work as a Buffer from Shocks (00:23:40) – Women and Independent Work (00:31:01) – Men in the Independent Workforce (00:35:23) – Myths Surrounding the Gig Economy (00:39:36) – Portable Benefits for Independent Workers (00:49:48) – Port Strikes and Dynamic Labor Markets (01:02:36) – Outro

#DOGE IN DC: WHAT CONGRESS MUST DO. VERONIQUE DE RUGY, MERCATUS CENTER DC 1834

Good evening: The show begins in Istanbul in March 2022, where the Russians made demands of Kyiv... 1870 ISTANBUL CBS EYE ON THE WORLD WITH JOHN BATCHELOR FIRST HOUR 9-915 #UKRAINE: BACK TO ISTANBUL PLAN 2022. ANATOL LIEVEN, QUINCY INSTITUTE 915-930 #NATO CANNOT. ANATOL LIEVEN, QUINCY 930-945 1/2: #IRAN: THE SUSPECT NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM HISTORY AND UNKNOWN, ANDREA STRICKER, FDD 945-1000 2/2: #IRAN: THE SUSPECT NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM HISTORY AND UNKNOWN, ANDREA STRICKER, FDD SECOND HOUR 10-1015 #EL SALVADOR: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ROMANCES BUKELE. MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY, WSJ 1015-1030 #DOGE IN DC: WHAT CONGRESS MUST DO. VERONIQUE DE RUGY, MERCATUS CENTER 1030-1045 #DOGE IN AMERICA: CHRIS RIEGEL #SCALAREPORT: CHRIS RIEGEL CEO, SCALA.COM @STRATACACHE. 1045-1100 #CANADA: ONTARIO VOTES. CONRAD BLACK., NATIONAL POST THIRD HOUR 1100-1115 1/4: #NEO: JWST SIGHTING OF DECAMETRE MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS AND VIEW METEORITE SOURCES. JULIAN DE WITT, ARTEM BURDANOV, RICHARD BINZEL, MIT PLANETARY SCIENCE. 1115-1130 2/4: #NEO: JWST SIGHTING OF DECAMETRE MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS AND VIEW METEORITE SOURCES. JULIAN DE WITT, ARTEM BURDANOV, RICHARD BINZEL, MIT PLANETARY SCIENCE. 1130-1145 3/4: #NEO: JWST SIGHTING OF DECAMETRE MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS AND VIEW METEORITE SOURCES. JULIAN DE WITT, ARTEM BURDANOV, RICHARD BINZEL, MIT PLANETARY SCIENCE. 1145-1200 4/4: #NEO: JWST SIGHTING OF DECAMETRE MAIN BELT ASTEROIDS AND VIEW METEORITE SOURCES. JULIAN DE WITT, ARTEM BURDANOV, RICHARD BINZEL, MIT PLANETARY SCIENCE. FOURTH HOUR 12-1215 #NEWWORLDREPORT: VENEZUELA SHUTDOWN. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH PROFESSOR EVAN ELLIS, U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE. @REVANELLIS #NEWWORLDREPORTELLIS 1215-1230 #NEWWORLDREPORT: PANAMA TROUBLES IN THE COPPER MINE. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH PROFESSOR EVAN ELLIS, U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE. @REVANELLIS #NEWWORLDREPORTELLIS 1230-1245 #NEWWORLDREPORT: SHEINBAUM THE TRUMP WHISPERER. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH PROFESSOR EVAN ELLIS, U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE. @REVANELLIS #NEWWORLDREPORTELLIS 1245-100 AM #NEWWORLDREPORT: PETRO WOBBLES, MIKEI SOARS. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH PROFESSOR EVAN ELLIS, U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE. @REVANELLIS #NEWWORLDREPORTELLIS

In 2016, when Donald Trump won the first time, a little-known book became an unexpected phenomenon. It was “The Revolt of the Public,” self-published two years earlier by a former C.I.A. media analyst, Martin Gurri. Gurri, who is now a visiting research fellow at the Mercatus Center, argued that a revolution in how information flowed was driving political upheavals in country after country: The dynamics of modern media ecosystems naturally created distrust toward institutions and elites, and this was fueling waves of revolt against the status quo. The problem, though, was that though these dynamics could destroy existing political systems, they could not build enduring replacements.Gurri's book has been on my mind over the past year. In some ways, it explains 2024 better than it explains 2016. But time didn't just change Gurri's book; it changed Gurri. After refusing to cast a ballot for president in 2016 and 2020, he voted for Donald Trump in 2024. And in his writing for The Free Press, The New York Post and elsewhere, he's been arguing that Trump's second term might herald the mastery of this new informational world and the emergence of an enduring new political system.I found myself more convinced by Gurri's old theory than his new one. So I asked him on the show to talk about it.(Also: If you're interested in joining Ezra Klein on his book tour in March and April, you can see the stops and get tickets for the events here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/abundance-tour)Book Recommendations:Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers by Andrey Mir.Why Most Things Fail by Paul OrmerodNot Born Yesterday by Hugo MercierThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Mixing by Isaac Jones, with Efim Shapiro and Aman Sahota. Our supervising editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Elias Isquith, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Switch and Board Podcast Studio. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Affordable housing is a persistent challenge in American politics. Bad public policy leads to artificial housing supply restrictions which causes prices to rise. But stimulating housing supply to bring costs down is a thorny issue. The latest episode of Giving Ventures brings together Sonja Trauss from Yes in My Backyard and Charles Gardner from the Mercatus Center to explore how grassroots […]

How much of your life's trajectory was set in motion centuries ago? Gregory Clark has spent decades studying social mobility, and his findings suggest that where you land in society is far more predictable than we like to think. Using historical data, surname analysis, and migration patterns, Clark argues that social mobility rates have remained largely unchanged for 300 years—even across radically different political and economic systems. He and Tyler discuss why we should care about relative mobility vs growing the size of the pie, how physical mobility does and doesn't matter, why England was a meritocracy by 1700, how assortative mating affects economic and social progress, why India industrialized so late, a new potential explanation why Britain's economic performance has been lukewarm since WWI, Malthusian societies then and now, whether a “hereditarian” stance favors large-scale redistribution or a free-market approach, the dynamics of assimilation within Europe and the role of negative selection in certain migrations, the challenge of accurately measuring living standards, the neighborhood-versus-family debate over what drives mobility, whether we need datasets larger than humanity itself to decode the genetics of social outcomes, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded February 5th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Gregory on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credit: Chris Williams, Zoeica Images

Sign Up for the Boston Listener Meet Up For Ross Douthat, phenomena like UFO sightings and the simulation hypothesis don't challenge religious belief—they demonstrate how difficult it is to escape religious questions entirely. His new book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious makes the case for religious faith in an age of apparent disenchantment. In his third appearance on Conversations with Tyler, Ross joined Tyler to discuss what getting routed by Christopher Hitchens taught him about religious debate, why the simulation hypothesis resembles ancient Gnostic religion, what Mexican folk Catholicism reveals about spiritual intermediaries, his evolving views on papal authority in the Francis era, what UFO sightings might tell us about supernatural reality, why he's less apocalyptic than Peter Thiel about the Antichrist, and why he's publishing a fantasy novel on Substack before AI potentially transforms creative writing. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded January 16th, 2025. Help keep the show ad free by donating today! Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Ross on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here. Photo Credit: Abigail Douthat ©

Newt talks with Dean Ball, Research Fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center about the rapid rise of the Chinese AI app DeepSeek, which quickly topped the Apple App Store downloads chart. DeepSeek’s success impacted the NASDAQ Composite Index and significantly affected Nvidia's stock. Ball provides insights into the development and implications of DeepSeek. He explains the app's origins, its technological advancements, and the broader context of the AI race between the US and China. Their conversation also covers the potential regulatory challenges, the importance of industrial infrastructure in maintaining a competitive edge in AI, and the future of AI integration in various sectors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.