The Joe Walker Podcast

By Joe WalkerSociety & Culture

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99 min
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The Joe Walker Podcast episodes

December 15, 2020Rational Minds Part 1: A Nation Of Gamblers - Ed Glaeser
Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Show notes
Selected links

Follow Ed: Website

'A Nation Of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation And American History', 2013 Ely Lecture by Ed Glaeser

One Hundred Years Of Land Values In Chicago, by Homer Hoyt

The Land Boomers, by Michael Cannon

'25 years of housing trends' report by Aussie Home Loans

Topics discussed

A potted history of real estate speculation in the United States. 8:51

How would Ed describe the Great Convulsion of the 2000s to an alien observer? 13:40

Why is real estate well-suited to being a speculative asset? 16:04

If speculators aren't crazy, what are they? 17:00

Was the Great Convulsion primarily driven by credit availability? 20:44

What would a good Bayesian have thought in response to the 2000s housing market in the US? 22:23

Radical uncertainty and its implications for rationality in the context of housing markets. 24:06

Are extrapolative beliefs rational? 26:22

Are housing bubbles irrational? 29:51

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33 min
December 07, 2020The Roaring Twenties And The Birth Of Consumer Credit - Martha Olney
Martha Olney is an economist and Teaching Professor in Berkeley's Economics Department.

Show notes
Selected links

Follow Martha: Website | Twitter

Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising, Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s, by Martha Olney

Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression, by Peter Temin

Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920 – 1940, by Roland Marchand

Traitor to his Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by H. W. Brands

'The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis', paper by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

How did Martha become interested in the history of consumer credit? 3:28

The birth of consumer credit. 6:54

How consumer credit companies and advertisers midwifed a change in cultural attitudes regarding borrowing. 16:41

What is the relationship between the increase in inequality and the rise in consumer credit during the 1920s? 31:34

Political elites in the Great Depression versus the Great Recession. 47:35

How did studying the 1920s prepare Martha for the Great Recession? 54:58

If private debt is capitalism's Achilles Heel, what should we do about it? 57:54

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1 hr 4 min
November 26, 2020The Triumph And Tragedy Of Capitalism - Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis is an economist and politician.

Show notes
Selected links
Follow Yanis: Website | Twitter
Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present, by Yanis Varoufakis
The Sovereignty of Good, by Iris Murdoch
'Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox', paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers
'The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits', The New York Times article by Milton Friedman
Topics discussed
Utopia. 4:46
The Sovereignty of Good. 9:14
Has capitalism enabled people to pursue higher goods? 12:38
What is capitalism? 16:08
Monopolies. 23:19
The problem with capitalism. 28:54
Are workers robots or autonomous souls? 34:40
Is capitalism making us happier? 54:30
Milton Friedman's 1970 article on profit maximisation. 1:02:41
What is Yanis's alternative to capitalism? 1:09:12
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1 hr 29 min
November 23, 2020Despair And Indignation Among The American White Working Class - Arlie Hochschild
Arlie Hochschild is one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Show notes
Selected links

Follow Arlie: Website

Strangers In Their Own Land, by Arlie Hochschild

Power, Politics, and People, by C. Wright Mills

'Ayn Rand and Modern Politics', article by David Sloan Wilson

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, by Anne Case & Angus Deaton

Topics discussed

Arlie's childhood spread across the world. 5:08

How did C. Wright Mills influence Arlie? 8:34

Was sociology an easy career decision for Arlie? 11:20

When did Arlie decide she needed to write Strangers In Their Own Land? 12:54

Why is the Tea Party strongest in the southern states? 16:47

Why does the Tea Party love the atheist Ayn Rand? 25:14

What are 'deep stories'? 34:55

Taking the right's needs seriously. 42:07

Trump's power as an orator. 55:04

If the liberal elite failed to understand the white working class, how did a real estate magnate from Manhattan grock them so quickly? 1:03:10

Trump won 10.1 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016. What does that say about America today? 1:04:57

How can we learn to be more empathetic? 1:06:45

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1 hr 12 min
November 04, 2020 Back To The Future - Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an economist and public intellectual par excellence.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Tyler: Website | Twitter | Podcast | Blog
•Stubborn Attachments, by Tyler Cowen
•Ideal Code, Real World, by Brad Hooker
•Utilitarianism and Co-operation, by Donald Regan
•Peter Thiel interview, Conversations with Tyler
•The Great Stagnation, by Tyler Cowen
•The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, by Benjamin Friedman
•Fully Growth, by Dietrich Vollrath
•'The Nobel Prize Isn't What It Used To Be', Bloomberg article by Tyler Cowen
•'Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2020'
•Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom
•A Tract on Monetary Reform, by John Maynard Keynes
•Indian Currency and Finance, by John Maynard Keynes
•Individualism and Economic Order, by Friedrich Hayek
•The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert Gordon

Topics discussed

•If God is dead, life is absurd and there are no rules, why shouldn't we just commit suicide?
•Why should we care about the distant future?
•Does rule utilitarianism collapse into act utilitarianism?
•How can we make decisions at all without succumbing to moral paralysis and total uncertainty?
•Why isn't the epistemic critique fatal to consequentialism?
•Why didn't Tyler donate the proceeds of Stubborn Attachments to an effective charity?
•What is the Great Stagnation?
•Why was 1973 the breakpoint in western productivity growth?
•Is the Great Stagnation overdetermined?
•What metric would Tyler look at to determine whether the Great Stagnation had ended?
•When did Tyler first become cognisant of the...
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1 hr 29 min
October 19, 2020 A Labor Intellectual's Plan To Rebraid Our Frayed Social Fabric - Andrew Leigh
Dr Andrew Leigh MP is an economist and Federal Labor parliamentarian.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Andrew: Website | Twitter
•Reconnected, by Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell
•Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
•Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam
•Disconnected, by Andrew Leigh

Topics discussed

•What has Andrew's experience of the pandemic been like? 7:54
•Andrew's vision for Australian society. 9:40
•What was it like to work under Robert Putnam? 12:27
•What are some of the big lessons Andrew learned from Putnam? 15:00
•What is Andrew's research system? 17:43
•What is 'social capital'? 18:12
•What is the story of the decline of social capital in Australia? 19:24
•Pushing back on the idea of social capital. 21:17
•Andrew's favourite examples of social entrepreneurship in Australia. 29:00
•Has the net effect of the digital world been to connect or disconnect us? 31:38
•Why are some organisations better at building social capital than others? 35:07
•How does Andrew think about religion? 36:40
•How can we increase social capital by using systems or design thinking? 41:37
•What impactful community organisation is no one building? 44:05
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50 min
October 12, 2020 Frauds And Visionaries - Bethany McLean
Bethany McLean is an investigative journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Bethany: Website | Twitter
•The Smartest Guys in the Room, by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
•'Is Enron Overpriced?', Bethany's March 5, 2001, article for Fortune
•'What Caused Enron?: A Capsule Social and Economic History of the 1990's', article by John Coffee
•Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
•The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse, by Marriane Jennings
•Spy The Lie, by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd and Don Tennant
•Saudi America, by Bethany McLean
•The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis

Topics discussed

•How did Bethany become a journalist? 4:13
•How did Enron come to be Enron? 6:30
•How did Bethany see through Enron when most others were beguiled by it? 8:33
•What was the reaction to Bethany's original article expressing skepticism about Enron? 11:35
•Why was Enron an example of 'legal fraud'? 13:34
•How to spot the "dogs" dressed up as "ducks". 16:20
•What were the ultimate causes of Enron's collapse? 19:43
•How did so many smart people at Enron become so corrupted? 30:06
•Bethany's book recommendations. 32:42
•The fine line between frauds and visionaries. 34:56
•Self-deception. 41:56
•If Elizabeth Holmes succeeded, would the end have justified her means? 45:23
•Elon Musk. 46:54
•The truth about fracking. 55:14
•How does Bethany stay organised as a journalist? 57:17
•How does Bethany put questions to her sources? 58:36
•Balancing accuracy with narrative flair. 59:35
•Which factors help Bethany decide which facts to include in a story and which to omit from it? 1:05:40
•How to construct an effective narrative. 1:11:46
•What business model could scale up investigative journalism? 1:17:54
•How does democracy survive the eroding of journalism's traditional business model? 1:24:04
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1 hr 26 min
October 04, 2020 The Rise And Fall Of Monetary Policy - Ian Macfarlane
Ian Macfarlane was Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1996 to 2006.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Ian: Website
•The Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton
•Macroeconomics, by William Mitchell, L. Randall Ray and Martin Watts
•'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

•Monetary policy. 4:44
•Modern Monetary Theory. 42:07
•Secular Stagnation and Indebted Demand. 1:11:10
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1 hr 43 min
September 28, 2020 An Ode To The Uncorrelated Thinker - Eric Weinstein
Eric Weinstein is a mathematician and the Managing Director of Thiel Capital.

Show notes
Selected links

•Follow Eric: Website | Twitter
•The Three Languages of Politics, by Arnold Kling
•'Opinions and Social Pressure', paper by Solomon Asch
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2 hr 20 min
September 27, 2020 Housing Bubble Week Epilogue: Not All Bubbles Are Created Equal - Vernon Smith
Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. Show notes Selected links •Follow Vernon: Website •Rethinking Housing Bubbles, by Vernon Smith and Steven Gjerstad •'Debt Deflation: Theory and Evidence', address by Mervyn King •'Is the 2007 US Sub-Prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International •Historical Comparison', paper by Rogoff and Reinhart •'Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption', FRBSF Economic Letter by Reuven Glick and Kevin Lansing •'Dealing With Household Debt', chapter by the IMF •'The great mortgaging: housing finance, crises and business cycles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Leveraged bubbles', paper by Jorda, Schularick and Taylor •'Housing and the Economy', 2019 speech by Guy Debelle •'Bubbles, Crashes, and Endogenous Expectations in Experimental Spot Asset Markets', paper by Vernon Smith, Gerry Suchanek and Arlington Williams •A Life of Experimental Economics, Volume I, by Vernon Smith •The example scenario of pessimists and optimists buying 100 identical houses is from House of Debt, by Amir Sufi and Atif Mian •'The Leverage Cycle', paper by John Geanakoplos •'Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investment', paper by Brad Barber and Terry Odean •The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki •'The Clinton Housing Bubble', WSJ article by Vernon Smith •''We're heartbroken': home in same family for 93 years passes in', 2018 The Daily Telegraph article •'Why are we so worried about household debt?',
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2 hr 25 min