Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson

Simon Johnson: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity

Simon Johnson, the co-author of the just-released book Power and Progress (co-authored with Daron Acemoglu), discusses the book, what new technologies hold in store for us, and how societies might better manage and govern them.

Brendan Ballou: Plunder - Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America

Brendan Ballou, talks to Rob about his forthcoming book, Plunder, about the growing harmful role of private equity in the US. Ballou is a federal prosecutor and served as Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway: The Big Myth of Market Fundamentalism

Historians Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University) and Erik Conway (Caltech) talk to Rob about their just-released book, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.

Jim Chanos: The Golden Age of Fraud in Finance

Jim Chanos, the president and founder of Kynikos Associates and well-known investment manager talks to Rob about the post-pandemic financial system, which has become more steeped in a casino culture than it has been in a very long time, and whether China's financial situation serves as an example or as a warning.

Survival of the Richest

Oxfam's Economic Justice Director, Nabil Ahmed, and Oxfam International's Inequality Policy & Advocacy Lead, Max Lawson, discuss their latest Global Inequality Report, which highlights the accelerating pace at which the world's billionaires have increased their wealth exponentially in recent years. They also discuss the ways in which governments can reverse this trend through taxation.

The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf discusses his just-released book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, which explores the reasons why Liberal democracy is threatened by authoritarianism and what needs to be done to resurrect democratic capitalism.

Link to the book

Iconik: Beyond ESG

Alex Thaler, the CEO of the software platform Iconik, and Iconik advisor Adam Cummings discuss how the platform helps shareholders create personalized voting profiles for shareholder meetings, allowing them to increase their influence over companies and give management a clearer awareness of investor goals without abrupt and embarrassing conflict.

 

Iconik website: https://www.iconikapp.com/

Perry Mehrling: Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System

Boston University economic professor Perry Mehrling discusses his recently released INET book, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press, "Money and Empire," which chronicles the life of Charles P. Kindleberger and how he helped shape the emerging global dollar system.

INET Book page: Money and Empire

Time Bomb in Global Finance

A Bank for International Settlements study says 60+ trillion dollars of off-the-books currency swaps could be a profound, systematic risk. Rob Johnson joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

The Misguided Forces Driving Conflict Escalation Between the US and China

Yale Law School Fellow Stephen Roach, discusses his just-released book, Accidental Conflict. Roach explores how much of the adversarial nationalist rhetoric in both China and the USA is dangerously misguided and more a reflection of each nation’s fears and vulnerabilities than a credible assessment of the risks they face.