Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson

Paul Street: The Trump Presidency Was Decades in the Making

Historian Paul Street talks about how the roots of the Trump presidency lie in the continuous rightward drift in US politics since the 1970's, to which the Democrats contributed as much as the Republicans

Dennis Kelleher: A Financial System That Extracts Wealth Instead of Creating It

Dennis Kelleher, President of the NGO Better Markets, outlines how the financial system is serving the wealthy, how it has been reformed in the past and how it can be reformed again to serve Main Street instead of Wall Street.

Chen Long: Information Technology for a More Inclusive Development Strategy

Chen Long, the director of China's Luohan Academy, talks about the ways in which information technology can jump start economic development in the developing world.

Stephanie Blankenburg: $1 Trillion Debt Relief Needed for Developing World

Stephanie Blankenburg, who heads up the Debt and Development Finance Branch of the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development, talks about the urgent need for the world to provide massive loan forgiveness to the developing world in response to the global economic crisis that the coronavirus pandemic has caused.

Steve Clemons: Both Democrats and Republicans Sold Out Ordinary Americans

Steve Clemons, Editor at Large at The Hill, talks about how the Democrats' focus on neoliberal globalization opened the door for Trump's election and that only bold new policies that address inequality and structural change can address.

Dean Baker: China and the Problem with Patent Monopolies

Dean Baker, senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, talks about how geopolitical and economic tensions between the US and China benefit powerful elite sectors in the US, but are bad for working people.

Jeffrey Sachs: How the US Botched the Pandemic Response

Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Columbia University's Center for Sustainable Development and Chair of the Lancet's COVID-19 commission, talks about the many challenges and shortcomings of US policy towards the pandemic, as well as his new book, The Ages of Globalization, and how we can get the ethical foundations of economic thinking back on track.

Doug Carmichael: On the Need for Real Dialogue to Address the Crises of Our Time

INET's Strategy Consultant Doug Carmichael talks about how many of our institutions, such as the economics profession, our political system, and our education system, are inadequate for dealing with the multiple crises we face.

Eisuke Sakakibara: Japan, China, India, and the US - Strategies and Tensions

Former Deputy Finance Minister of Japan, Eisuke Sakakibara, contrasts Japan's and the US's response to the pandemic and talks about the different roles and economic strategies of some of the world's largest countries.

Michael Sandel: The Tyranny of Merit

Renowned Harvard University professor of philosophy Michael Sandel talks about his new book and how centrist Democrat insensitivity to inequality and the ideology of meritocracy have contributed to right-wing populism, polarization, and distrust in government.