The New Bazaar

Matt Klein, co-author of "Trade Wars are Class Wars" and old friend of the show, returns for another special collaborative episode. Matt writes the excellent Overshoot newsletter, where he is posting additional commentary and charts to accompany this chat with Cardiff. Check it out and subscribe!

Matt is Cardiff's favorite economic-data sleuth, and on this episode they discuss:

— The recovery of the US economy, and whether it really did reverse in the first quarter

— What accounts for such high inflation in the US, and whether it will self-correct

— The economic effects of the Ukraine-Russia war

— How the severe China lockdowns will

— The freakout in financial markets this year

More related links:

• Matt's Overshoot newsletter main page
• Matt on inflation
• Matt on the China lockdowns
• Matt's latest on Ukraine-Russia
• Roosevelt Institute: "Increasing Wages for Low-Income Workers Is Key for a Full Economic Recovery"

Mary Childs—author of The Bond King, cohost of the Planet Money podcast, and dear pal of Cardiff and Aimee—joins The New Bazaar to discuss how finance is portrayed in culture and the arts.

Mary is both a finance journalist and herself a recreational painter with a comprehensive knowledge of the art world, and Cardiff asked her to choose an example each of a movie, book, song, TV series, painter, and contemporary artist to chat about on the show. Below are her choices, with links embedded:

MOVIE: American Psycho

BOOK: Lake Success

SONG: Paper Planes

TV SERIES: Succession

PAINTER: Bill Powhida

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST: Sarah Meyohas

Mary and Cardiff then close the episode by talking about Mary's new article in Town & Country on how rich financiers use art to wage cultural battles against each other. "These cases often spin out of control", Mary writes, "because art is always more than its component parts. It can become a manifestation of personal identity and control. Sometimes the art itself becomes a cudgel."

Other related links:

• Mary's stories at NPR
• The Bond King

Cardiff speaks with Jeremiah Johnson, the co-founder and political director of The Neoliberal Project, to discuss the historical evolution of what it means to be Neoliberal, and why advocates and critics of Neoliberalism so often talk past each other.

Jeremiah clarifies for Cardiff the current Neoliberal position on taxes, unions, healthcare, Universal Basic Income, privatization of public services, trade with China, the minimum wage, regulation, and more issues. They discuss the challenges of shifting the definition of a word that ideological opponents and others have already fixed in their minds, why disputes over definitions are nothing new, and why Jeremiah is hopeful.

This episode is simultaneously being featured on The Neoliberal Podcast, which Jeremiah hosts, and which features economists, academics, and industry leaders—including both advocates and, admirably, critics of Neoliberalism.

Related links:

• The Neoliberal Project
• The Neoliberal Podcast
• Jeremiah Johnson on Twitter

This week, we're sharing an episode from our friends over at Cautionary Tales. On the show, Tim Harford tells tragic stories from the past, pointing out the valuable lessons in the greatest mistakes, disasters and fiascos. 

This episode tells the story of Sir Clive Sinclair, a computer whizz and business mogul to rival Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. He was a visionary who could do no wrong... until he tried to launch an electric vehicle. The C5 “electrically assisted pedal cycle" doesn't seem so outlandish to us now... but 1985 just wasn't ready for the "aerodynamic bathtub" on wheels. Sir Clive was ridiculed and his business ruined. How did it all go so wrong?

You can listen to more episodes of Cautionary Tales at https://link.chtbl.com/newbazaarct.

Jose Fernandez, chair of the economics department at the University of Louisville, has an unusually eclectic body of work.

He speaks with Cardiff about his findings on topics like autism, suicide, and health. They also discuss how he has navigated a career in which he has chosen topics that are so personal to him.

Related link:

• Jose Fernandez's research

Jenny Schuetz is a scholar of the housing market, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has a new book out called Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System. 

In her research and in her book, Jenny considers the housing market in all of its complexity, the reasons it’s broken for so many people, the entrenched barriers to fixing it – and some ideas that just might work. She and Cardiff cover all of this in their chat. 

Related links:

• Jenny Schuetz’s expert page at the Brookings Institution
• Jenny’s book, Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America's Broken Housing System

Glamour is a misunderstood concept. A lot of people associate it with glossy pictures of movie stars and celebrities in ritzy settings, or with other concepts like charisma or dazzle. Glamour is something a little different. It’s mysterious and concealing. It’s an illusion and it can be deceptive, sometimes so in problematic ways.  

But whether we’re talking about a glamorous object or a glamorous person, glamour also provides a canvas on which people can project their own desires and longings. So when you find something glamorous, that something is also revealing what you yearn for in life. 

This nuanced understanding of glamour is the subject of a book by one of Cardiff’s favorite writers, Virginia Postrel. It’s called The Power of Glamour, and in the book, Virginia defines glamour and provides specific examples of how it applies to our own lives. She talks to Cardiff about all of this, as well as the ways in which glamour influences our economic decisions. 

Links from the episode:

• Virginia’s books and writing at vpostrel.com
• Virginia’s “Unglamorous background on the red carpet” Pinterest collection

Erich Schwartzel joins Cardiff to discuss his new book, "Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy". 

For the past couple of decades, the emergence of a huge middle class in China has become an incredibly attractive, and maybe even a necessary, market for Hollywood movies.

But the Chinese government carefully censors what kinds of movies can be shown in China. So if you’re a Hollywood studio and you wanna get your movie shown in China, you have to go along with the criteria that the Chinese censors give you.

And Hollywood studios have done just that, often imposing restrictions across the entire creative process of making a movie, starting with the script itself. As Erich explains in the chat, this has fundamentally changed Hollywood’s entire business model, and the kinds of movies it makes.

The deeper story here is about the messy realities of globalization. Deepening economic engagement between nations mostly leads to more prosperity, rising standards of living, and more choices for what people can do with their lives. But it can have bad side effects, especially when the economic engagement is between two countries with different political priorities.  

“Red Carpet” is all about understanding the real-world nuances of how trade with China has sometimes led to a clash of values. On the one side are things like free speech, artistic integrity, the ability to express oneself fully, through movies and other cultural objects, without fear of censorship. And on the other side are the deepening commercial ties between two countries. 

Understanding this clash in all its subtlety is the aim of Erich's book, and of his chat with Cardiff. 

Related link: 

Red Carpet book page

Jacob Goldstein, author of "Money: The True Story of a Made-up Thing" and host of the new podcast "What's Your Problem?", joins Cardiff to discuss the surprising origins of money, and why now is a great time to start a podcast about solving problems.

Related links:

• Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing
• What's Your Problem?

Today’s episode is about something you might have noticed just by looking around you. Especially if you’re old enough.

The economy has been shifting away from the material and towards the intangible -- things like data, design, personality, research, ways of expressing ourselves. The importance of these things has grown, reflected in the investments that businesses have made. More money now goes to branding, and research and development, training, and software, and the tech we love to use for pleasure and for work. 

Today’s episode is all about the profound and subtle consequences of this shift. And it’s about why the economy and society have lagged behind it.

Joining Cardiff to explain it all is Stian Westlake. Stian and his co-author Jonathan Haskel wrote a book a few years ago called “Capitalism without Capital”, that chronicled the trend towards the intangible economy. And they have a new book out now called “Restarting the Future”, which explains how people and businesses and policymakers can finally catch up to the trend -- and harness it to make the world better.