Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution talks about the ideas in his book, Market Failure vs. Government Failure, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Winston summarizes a large literature on antitrust, safety regulation and environmental reg

Hamilton on Debt, Default, and Oil

Dec 21st, 2009 1h 7m

James Hamilton of the University of California, San Diego, and blogger at EconBrowser talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the rising levels of the national debt and the growing Federal budget deficit. What is the possibility of an actua

Kling on Prosperity, Poverty, and Economics 2.0

Dec 14th, 2009 58m 21s

Arnold Kling of EconLog and the author (with Nick Schulz) of From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities and the Lasting Triumph over Scarcity talks about the book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Kling discusses how moder

McArdle on Debt and Self-Restraint

Dec 7th, 2009 1h 18m

Megan McArdle, who writes the blog Asymmetrical Information at The Atlantic, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about debt and the challenge of self-restraint. She discusses her recent Atlantic article on her experience at a Dave Ramsey pers

Boettke on Elinor Ostrom, Vincent Ostrom, and the Bloomington School

Nov 30th, 2009 1h 3m

Peter Boettke of George Mason University and author of Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School (co-authored with Paul Dragos Aligica), talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the Bloomington School--the po

Reinhart on Financial Crises

Nov 23rd, 2009 1h 7m

Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in her book This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (co-authored with Kenneth Rogoff). They discuss the role of capital inflo

Posner on the Financial Crisis

Nov 16th, 2009 1h 3m

Richard Posner, federal judge and prolific author, discusses the financial crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Posner (despite the title of his recent book on the crisis, A Failure of Capitalism) places most of the blame for the crisis on t

Sumner on Monetary Policy

Nov 9th, 2009 1h 9m

Scott Sumner of Bentley University and the blog The Money Illusion talks with host Russ Roberts about monetary policy and the state of the economy. Sumner argues that tight money in late 2008 precipitated the recession. He argues that the stand

Heller on Gridlock and the Tragedy of the Anticommons

Nov 2nd, 2009 58m 44s

Michael Heller of Columbia Law School and author of The Gridlock Economy talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the book and the idea that fragmented ownership is a barrier to innovation. Heller makes an analogy between the tragedy of the co

Calomiris on the Financial Crisis

Oct 26th, 2009 1h 28m

Charles Calomiris of Columbia Business School talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the financial crisis. Calomiris argues that it is important to put the crisis in historical perspective in the context of other bank crises. He argues tha

Munger on Shortages, Prices, and Competition

Oct 19th, 2009 1h 8m

Mike Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the limits of prices and markets, especially in the area of health. They talk about vaccines, organ transplants, the ethics of triage and what role price should play in

Willingham on Education, School, and Neuroscience

Oct 12th, 2009 1h 3m

Daniel Willingham of the University of Virginia and author of the book Why Don't Students Like School? talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how the brain works and the implications for teaching, learning, and educational policy. Topics d

Gary Stern on Too Big to Fail

Oct 5th, 2009 1h 7m

Gary Stern, former President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Stern's book, Too Big To Fail (co-authored with Ron Feldman), a prescient warning of the moral hazard created when government resc

Cohan on the Life and Death of Bear Stearns

Sep 28th, 2009 1h 5m

William Cohan, author of House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Steet, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the life and death of Bear Stearns. The discussion starts with how Bear Stearns and other Wall Street firms

Buchheit on Google, Friendfeed, and Start-ups

Sep 21st, 2009 1h 1m

Paul Buchheit, developer of Gmail and founder of FriendFeed, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the evolution of the Gmail project, how innovation works and doesn't work in a large corporation, how Google has changed as it has grown, a

Nye on the Great Depression, Political Economy, and the Evolution of the State

Sep 14th, 2009 58m 4s

John Nye of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the Great Depression, the evolution of the State, and attitudes people have toward free markets. Nye argues that support for modern capitalism is fragile because pe

Cowen on Culture, Autism, and Creating Your Own Economy

Sep 7th, 2009 56m 48s

Tyler Cowen of George Mason University and author of Create Your Own Economy talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his recent book. The conversation ranges across a wide array of topics related to information, the arts, and t

Munger on Cultural Norms

Aug 31st, 2009 58m 33s

Michael Munger of Duke University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about cultural norms--the subtle signals we send to each other in our daily interactions. Mike, having returned from a four-month stint as a visiting professor in Germany,

Brady on Health Care Reform, Public Opinion, and Party Politics

Aug 24th, 2009 1h 10m

David Brady of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about American public opinion on changing the health care system. Brady discusses the impact of taxation on public opinion toward health care reform--if the poll includes

Hitchens on Orwell

Aug 17th, 2009 1h 9m

Christopher Hitchens talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about George Orwell. Drawing on his book Why Orwell Matters, Hitchens talks about Orwell's opposition to imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, his moral courage, and his devotion to lang

Hanushek on Test-based Accountability, Federal Funding, and School Finance

Aug 10th, 2009 1h 3m

Eric Hanushek of Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the current state of education and education policy. Hanushek summarizes the impact of No Child Left Behind and the current state of the chart

Graham on Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity

Aug 3rd, 2009 1h 2m

Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the

Peter Henry on Growth, Development, and Policy

Jul 27th, 2009 1h 4m

Peter Blair Henry of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about economic development. Henry compares and contrasts the policy and growth experience of Barbados and Jamaica. Both became independent of England in the 1960s, s

John Taylor on the Financial Crisis

Jul 20th, 2009 57m 30s

John Taylor of Stanford University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the fundamental causes of the financial crisis of 2008. Taylor argues that the housing bubble of the early 2000s was caused by excessively loose monetary policy, in

Justin Fox on the Rationality of Markets

Jul 13th, 2009 58m 8s

Justin Fox, author of The Myth of the Rational Market, talks about the ideas in his book with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Fox traces the history of the application of math and economics to finance, particularly to the question of how markets an