EconoFact Chats

President Trump inherited an economy that was, at least in the aggregate, performing exceptionally well. Since taking office, however, the stock market has fallen, and there are heightened expectations of a slowdown due to the policies, and uncertainty from the shifts in policies, of the new Administration. Are these concerns well-founded? Or will tariffs, cuts to government jobs, and deregulation help usher in a stronger economy? Mark Zandi considers these issues on EconoFact Chats.

Mark is Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics. He serves on the board of directors of MGIC, the nation's largest private mortgage insurance company, and is the lead director of Reinvestment Fund, one of the nation's largest community development financial institutions.

Tariffs are taxes. But unlike most taxes, politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for maintaining or raising tariffs. The goal is to save jobs and raise revenue. But do tariffs help achieve these objectives? Kim Clausing joins EconoFact Chats to discuss her research on how tariffs negatively impact consumers, shift tax burdens away from the well-off toward lower-income consumers, adversely affect U.S. workers and industries, and invite retaliatory tariffs from trading partners.

Kim is the Eric M. Zolt Professor of Tax Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. She served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the first years of the Biden Administration.

Note: This podcast was first posted on 16th June 2024.

Labeled by The Economist as 'the envy of the world' in October 2024, the US economy today is marked by growing fears of a recession amid aggressive tariffs, threats of tariffs, deregulation, and drastic employment cuts across the federal government. Despite the short-term pain, could the Trump administration's policies make the US economy stronger and more productive over the long run? Or is lasting turbulence, lower productivity and economic stagnation a more likely outcome? Heather Long (Washington Post), Greg Ip (Wall Street Journal), Scott Horsley (NPR), and Binyamin Appelbaum (New York Times) join EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues.

In his 2012 book, 'A Capitalism for the People,' Luigi Zingales notes the deep economic problems that arise when people are rewarded for who you know, or even, who you pay off, rather than what you know, or your ability to produce and sell better goods and services. What are the broader consequences of this type of corruption that distorts outcomes like who gets a job, what is purchased, and what attributes determine economic success? What impact does corruption have on public trust in institutions? What can one do when norms that had protected market-based outcomes break down or prove insufficient? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about present circumstances? Luigi joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues.

Luigi is the Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is also the Director at U. Chicago's Stigler Center.

The United States is an outlier in health insurance coverage. Almost all other high-income countries have near-universal coverage, while almost 10% of the non-elderly US population is uninsured. How did this come to be? And what can policymakers do to improve access to health insurance? Mark Shepard joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these questions.

Mark is an associate professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, improvements in large language models have continued at an impressive clip, driving a surge of investment in new models, developing new products based on them, and in constructing data centres and other infrastructure needed to run AI models. What will the economic landscape look like as artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive? What are the production, technological, and geo-political challenges facing artificial intelligence development? And will the technology live up to its promise of making life better? Chris Miller joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues.

Chris is an Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is also the author of 'Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology,' which won the Financial Times Book of the Year Award in 2022.

Football and basketball teams at Division I universities generate billions in revenue. But the student-athletes themselves do not receive salaries. Should they? Most have scholarships for their tuitions, but to what degree are they students, as well as athletes? And how does the money raised through these big-ticket sports support other, less high-profile sports, and the academic mission of these colleges and universities, if at all? Andrew Zimbalist joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these issues.

Andy is the Robert A. Woods Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith College. He has consulted in the sports industry for numerous players' associations, cities, companies, teams, and leagues.

Note: This podcast was first published on 18th December, 2022.

High intensity flooding events, storms, wildfires, and droughts are becoming more frequent in many parts of the world. Are there measures that can help mitigate the number and severity of these events? What adaptations could make fires, storms, and floods less destructive? And is there a greater role for the government and the private sector when it comes to catastrophic risk insurance? Galina Hale joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these questions.

Galina is a Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz. She previously served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Much like national economies, countries that economically interact with each other need rules to help ensure markets work well, and that economic outcomes accord with some understanding of fairness and equity. While such rules can constrain what a country does, for much of the post-war era, nations have recognized the benefits of international cooperation and the importance of a stable set of rules. Yet, as populism and disdain towards globalization grows, global governance will likely retreat in scope. Could a more circumscribed understanding of global governance help domestic economies do better than if they faced no constraints from global governance rules? Dani Rodrik joins EconoFact Chats to discuss.

Dani is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Immigration promises to be a key issue in the U.S. Presidential elections. Candidates from both parties favor limits but differ on the extent of restrictions. Immigration is important for a vibrant economy in a country with a low rate of native population growth. What role has immigration played in U.S. economic and demographic growth in recent decades? What has been the impact, if any, on employment and wages among the native-born? What are the likely impacts of restricting immigration for particular industries and for the economy as a whole? Giovanni Peri, founding director of the Global Migration Center at UC Davis joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these questions.

Giovanni is a Professor in the Department of Economics at UC Davis. He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Note: This podcast was first posted on 7th July 2024.