It’s cliché to call podcasts wide-ranging. But this conversation, with Nobel-prize winning economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, really is. A sample of what we discuss:

- How economists mucked up the climate debate

- What a Democratic president should pass first

- The politics and policy of Medicare-for-all

- Krugman’s three-part test to determine whether a program needs to be paid for (don’t miss this!)

- Why Pete Buttigieg is wrong on tuition-free college 

- Why Andrew Yang is wrong on automation

- What the Obama administration got wrong, and right, in the financial crisis

- The means-testing vs. universal program debate is a false dichotomy 

- What it would take to revitalize the economies of middle and rural America

- The productivity puzzle

- The antitrust problem

- Geographic inequality

- Whether elite or mass opinion is the key constraint on policy ambition

- Path dependence in social welfare states

- Whether private insurers should exist 

And much more. Don’t miss this one.

References:

Krugman's upcoming book, Arguing with Zombies

Book recommendations:

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume 

Plagues and Peoples by William McNeil 

Collected essays of George Orwell

My book is available for pre-order! You can find it at www.EzraKlein.com.

Submit questions for our upcoming "Ask Me Anything" at [email protected]

You can subscribe to Ezra's new podcast Impeachment, explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app.

Credits:

Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld

Researcher - Roge Karma

Engineer - Cynthia Gil

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