Can we build an economy that delivers abundance without abandoning democratic accountability and economic equity?

Recorded live at Democracy Journal’s “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” conference, this episode features a wide-ranging panel discussion on one of the most consequential debates shaping today’s political economy: whether abundance and social democracy are in tension—or whether they’re mutually reinforcing.

Moderated by Ed Luce of the Financial Times, the panel brings together Baillee Brown (Inclusive Abundance), Jerusalem Demsas (The Argument), Mike Konczal (Economic Security Project), and Sandeep Vaheesan (Open Markets Institute) to wrestle with what it actually takes to deliver housing, clean energy, and public goods at scale—without ceding power to concentrated markets or hollowing out democratic governance.

At a moment of deep political discontent and institutional distrust, this conversation helps clarify the real choices facing policymakers—and why getting this balance right is essential to rebuilding public faith in government.

Ed Luce (moderator) is the U.S. national editor and a columnist at the Financial Times, where he writes on American politics, democracy, and global political economy.

Baillee Brown (panelist) is a policy advocate and the founder of Inclusive Abundance, where she works with lawmakers to advance a pro-building, outcomes-focused approach to delivering housing, clean energy, and public goods.

Jerusalem Demsas (panelist) is founder and Editor in Chief of The Argument a publication and podcast covering housing, economic policy, and the politics of affordability.

Mike Konczal (panelist) is the Senior Director of Policy and Research at the Economic Security Project, where he focuses on inequality, housing, industrial policy, and the political economy of growth.

Sandeep Vaheesan (panelist) is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute and a leading voice on antitrust, corporate power, and the role of public authority in building a more equitable economy.

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If democracy is going to survive, it has to deliver.
This week, Goldy and Civic Ventures president Zach Silk are joined by Hannah Garden-Monheit, a former senior official in the Biden-Harris administration, for a conversation about one of the most urgent questions in American politics: why our government so often fails to produce visible results for working people—and what that means for what comes next.
At a time when public institutions are being dismantled faster than they were ever built, this episode looks beyond easy cynicism and asks what it would take to rebuild a government people can trust, feel, and believe in again. Because the next governing moment won’t just be about having the right values or policies. It will hinge on whether leaders are willing to use democratic power to make government deliver in ways that are visible, tangible, and real.

Hannah Garden-Monheit is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and co-author of Building a More Effective, Responsive Government, a report from the Roosevelt Institute. She previously served as Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission and as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy on the White House National Economic Council. 

Further reading: 

Building a More Effective, Responsive Government: Lessons Learned from the Biden-Harris Administration

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As inequality deepens, democratic institutions strain, and climate risk accelerates, it’s becoming impossible to ignore a basic question: What is capitalism actually for?

This week, we revisit our conversation with Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson who argues that today’s economic crises aren’t the result of isolated failures, but of an economic system designed around the wrong goal—maximizing shareholder value at any cost. Drawing from her book Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, Henderson makes the case that markets built around cooperation, dignity, and shared prosperity don’t just serve the public good—they often outperform extractive, low-road models, while decades of trickle-down economics hollowed out institutions, rewarded cheating over value creation, and left businesses dependent on a society they are actively undermining. Together, they ask what it would take to build a new economic paradigm—one where firms exist to strengthen the communities, democracy, and planet they rely on to survive.

Rebecca Henderson is the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School, where she teaches the acclaimed course Reimagining Capitalism and explores how business can help build a more just, sustainable economy. She is the author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, and a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the British Academy and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on the boards of major public companies.

Social Media:

@RebeccaReCap

Further reading: 

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

TED Talk: To save the climate, we have to reimagine capitalism

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Every era runs on an economic story. For the last half-century, ours has been neoliberalism — the belief that if you free markets from constraints, prosperity will follow.

This week we revisit a bracing conversation with historian Gary Gerstle about how neoliberalism took hold, why it once felt inevitable, and why it’s now breaking down in plain sight. Drawing on his book The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, Gerstle joins Nick and Goldy to trace how a seductive promise of “freedom” — economic, cultural, and political — helped neoliberalism crowd out the New Deal order, even as it hollowed out communities, deepened inequality, and set the stage for today’s volatility. Along the way, they explore how economic crises create openings for new ideas, why the collapse of an old order is never smooth, and what it will take to build a post-neoliberal, middle-out economy that actually delivers for working people.

Gary Gerstle is an author, historian, and scholar of American political and economic history. He is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Cambridge and a Professor Emeritus of History at Vanderbilt University.

Social Media:

@glgerstle

Further reading: 

Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment

1984 Super Bowl APPLE MACINTOSH Ad

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era

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Americans have been told that working harder is the path to dignity, security, and success. But what if that promise was hijacked?

This week, we’re revisiting our episode with Professor Elizabeth Anderson, where she exposes how neoliberalism weaponized the “work ethic” — transforming a moral tradition that once honored workers into a system that blames them, exploits them, and rewards extraction over contribution. Drawing from her new book Hijacked, Anderson traces how today’s economy punishes labor, glorifies predatory wealth, and rigs the rules against working people — and what it would take to take the work ethic back.

Elizabeth Anderson is the Max Mendel Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at University of Michigan. She is the author of Value in Ethics and Economics, The Imperative of Integration, and Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It). She is a MacArthur Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Social Media:

@UMPhilosophy

Further reading: 

Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back

Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It)

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Most people buy the fiction that markets are “natural,” inequality is inevitable, and government should step aside — but where did that idea come from?

In this episode from 2019, Nick and Goldy talk with English journalist George Monbiot and American journalist and author Binyamin Appelbaum about how neoliberalism was deliberately built and sold — not stumbled into.

They unpack how economists, funders, and institutions rewrote the rules to favor markets over people, shifted political norms, and made extreme inequality seem inevitable — and what that history means for reclaiming an economy that works for everyone.

George Monbiot is an English journalist, author, and political/environmental activist. He writes a regular column for The Guardian and has published several books on politics, ecology, and society. He’s known for critiquing corporate power, neoliberal economics, and environmental degradation. 

Binyamin Appelbaum is an American journalist and author. He is a lead writer on business and economics for The New York Times editorial board. He previously covered the Federal Reserve and economic policy for the Times and has written widely on how markets and policy shape society.

Social Media:

georgemonbiot.bsky.social

bcappelbaum.bsky.social

@BCAppelbaum

Further Reading: 

The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

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For more than a century, economists have told us they’re simply “describing the world as it is.” But what if their theories aren’t neutral — and are quietly doing enormous harm?

This week, we’re joined by economist George DeMartino, author of The Tragic Science, who makes a devastating case that modern economics has helped legitimize policies that shattered communities, fueled inequality, and even cost millions of lives — all while claiming scientific objectivity. DeMartino exposes how orthodox economics trained itself to dismiss real suffering as abstract and acceptable — as long as the aggregate numbers looked good.

If you’ve ever wondered why economic “expertise” keeps failing working people, this conversation connects the dots.

George DeMartino is a Professor of Economics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He is the author of The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good) and The Economist’s Oath. His work examines the moral obligations of economists, the profession’s history of harm—including what he calls econogenic harm—and the need for a new ethics grounded in humility, uncertainty, and democratic accountability.

Further reading: 

The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good)

The Economist’s Oath: On the Need for and Content of Professional Economic Ethics

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America has never been wealthier—so why does it feel so hard to get by? 

New York Times economics reporter Talmon Joseph Smith joins Nick and Goldy this week to unpack the growing gap between economic headlines and the lived reality of most Americans. With nearly $200 trillion in national wealth and half the country holding just a sliver of it, they explore why GDP and aggregate growth keep telling a story working families don’t recognize—and what that disconnect means for our economy and our politics.

Talmon Joseph Smith is an economics reporter currently covering labor markets, inequality, and political economy. His recent work at The New York Times has focused on the tension between headline economic indicators and lived economic reality. His forthcoming book, Clout and Capital, examines how power, influence, and wealth shape economic outcomes in America.

Social Media: 

@talsmith.bsky.social

@talmonsmith

Further reading: 

America Has Never Been Wealthier. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Feel That Way.

Michael W. Green - How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America

Read more from Talmon Joseph Smith

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Extreme inequality and democratic decline aren’t separate crises—they’re the same crisis. This week, Osita Nwanevu joins Paul and Goldy to explain how America’s constitutional design, corporate power, and decades of upward redistribution have eroded both political and economic freedom. He outlines what real democratic governance would mean inside government and at work, why the concentration of wealth threatens stability, and how a long-term movement for a more representative system could finally deliver the policies most Americans want.

Osita Nwanevu is a journalist and political writer whose work focuses on democracy, governance, and the intersection of politics and power in America. His reporting and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times. He is the author of The Right of the People, a sweeping examination of why American democracy is faltering and what it would take to build a more just, inclusive, and genuinely democratic society.

Further reading: 

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New 

American Founding

By the Workers, for the Workers: Building Economic Democracy

https://www.ositanwanevu.com/

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This week, Paul and Goldy look back at the most notable economics books of the year. They discuss Ezra Klein and David Thompson’s Abundance, Cory Doctorow’s blistering Enshittification, Thomas Piketty’s new works on inequality, Diane Coyle’s fresh take on GDP, and the overlooked history behind the Garland Fund. Whether you’re hunting for a holiday gift for the wonk in the family or looking to understand the ideas driving today’s political economy, this episode is full of must-reads. 

Must-Read Economics Books 2025

Abundance by Ezra Klein and David Thompson

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow

Equality Is a Struggle by Thomas Piketty

Nature, Culture, and Inequality by Thomas Piketty

Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters by Thomas Piketty and Michael J. Sandel

The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters by Diane Coyle

The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America by John Fabian Witt

Honorable Mention

Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray By Nat Dyer 

Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies by Cesar Hidalgo 

Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America by Robert Reisch 

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist Liz Pelly 

Other Books Mentioned in Episode

Homelessness is a Housing Problem by Greg Colburn & Clayton Page Aldern

Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress--And How to Bring It Back by Marc Dunkelman

Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty

The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government by Nick Hanauer & Eric Liu 

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx 

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