Economics & Beyond with Rob Johnson

Running Out of Time: Saving the World’s Oceans

World Ocean Observatory founder Peter Neill talks about the dire emergency in which the world’s oceans currently find themselves in and what must be done to save them.

The Vicious Cycle of Mass Incarceration and Racial Injustice

MIT economic historian Peter Temin discusses parts of his forthcoming book, focusing on the history of mass incarceration of uneducated Blacks and how it has created a permanent class of poor Black Americans

The Rise and Fall of the Black Blue-Collar Middle Class, part 2

Umass Lowell Economics professor William Lazonick, outlines the history of how government policy and economic conditions contributed to the rise and fall of a Black blue-collar middle class. Part 2 takes a closer look at the role of finance and stock buybacks and what can be done to reverse the trend towards growing inequality.

The Rise and Fall of the Black Blue-Collar Middle Class, part 1

Umass Lowell Economics professor William Lazonick, outlines the history of how government and economic conditions favored the rise of a Black blue-collar middle class from the 1960''s to the 1970's, and how shifts in policy and in the economy caused its unmaking from the 1980's onwards.

Revealing the Hidden Forces Behind Investment Decisions

Jim Nadler, CEO of the Kroll Bond Rating Agency, discusses the profound influence that bond ratings have on shaping social and economic outcomes, how they can contribute to environmental and social responsibility, and why a new approach to bond ratings is urgently necessary.

Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil

Kenneth Cukier, senior editor at The Economist and co-author of the book Framers, talks about how mental models, or frames, enable humanity to find the best way through a forest of looming problems.

Digital Transformation, Opportunity and Social Sustainability

INET at the Trento Economics Festival 3: A dialogue between Michael Spence and Robert Johnson

The governance of technology is a new challenge. The Recovery Plans is encouraging the digital transformation of our economies. An acceleration of technological change is bound to deeply affect labor markets and income distribution. While labor-market adaptation is likely to stave off permanent high unemployment, it cannot be counted on to prevent a sharp rise in inequality.

Nobody is Safe if Someone is Unsafe

INET at the Trento Economics Festival 2: A dialogue between Jayati Ghosh, Rohinton Medhora, Joseph E. Stiglitz, coordinated by Robert Johnson

The world won’t emerge from the pandemic until the pandemic is controlled everywhere, and this is a special concern because of the new mutations that are likely to arise where the disease is running its course. So too, the world won’t have a robust economic recovery until at least most of the world is on the course to prosperity. Global growth is far more muted now than then, and inward-looking policies in some of the nations where growth has been restored have resulted in an increase in their trade surplus, attenuating the global impact of their recovery.

Fanta Traore: Sadie Alexander Received her Ph.D. in Economics 100 Years Ago

Fanta Traore, the CEO of the Sadie Collective, in an ode to Alexander’s legacy, is leading the next generation of Black women economists in the pursuit of social change

INET at the Trento Economics Festival: Values: Building a Better World for All

INET at the Trento Economics Festival 1: A dialogue between Mark Carney and William Janeway, coordinated by Robert Johnson

Our world is full of fault lines—growing inequality in income and opportunity; systemic racism; health and economic crises from a global pandemic; mistrust of experts; the existential threat of climate change; deep threats to employment in a digital economy with robotics on the rise. These fundamental problems and others like them stem from a common crisis in values.