On this episode guest host and Watson Professor Nick Ziegler talks with Katharina Pistor, Professor at Columbia University Law School and author of “The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality”. They discuss how the law defines our economy, and generates vast amounts of capital for those who know how to wield it. Yet despite its centrality to our system, it remains a mystery to many outside the legal profession. Ziegler and Pistor unpack this dilemma, and look at how the law can push back against the very problems ‘legal coding’ creates.

You can see Professor Pistor's lecture at the Watson Institute here:  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m81pkJs5fcY]

You can learn more about and purchase Professor Pistor's book here: [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691178974/the-code-of-capital]

The 'Code of Capital' with Katharina Pistor

A podcast from the Rhodes Center for International Finance and Economics at the Watson Institute at Brown University. Hosted by political economist and director of the Rhodes Center, Mark Blyth.

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The business side of fighting climate change

In 2015, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a paper that revealed something startling: an increase in mortality rates in the United States among white middle-aged men and women between the years of 1999 and 2013.  They published a book in 2020 that aimed to explain the trend, which they attributed to — among other factors — economic stagnation, social isolation, and the opioid crisis. The book, titled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,”, caused a stir inside and outside the field of economics, as people tried to make sense of America’s economy and society in the Trump years.  On this episode, Rhodes Center Director Mark Blyth talks with Deaton about his newest book “Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality,” which takes a broader view of the issues brought up in “Deaths of Despair.” They explore the pervasiveness of inequality in America, how it relates to the “deaths of despair” phenomenon, and why the field of economics often seems blind to the most pressing issues facing individuals and communities. Learn more about and purchase “Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality” Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other award-winning podcasts

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The 'Code of Capital' with Katharina Pistor

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