The US Federal Reserve has announced a major shift in its monetary-policy framework: it will no longer target an inflation rate of “around 2%” at all times. What does this mean for the US economy – and the workers who make it run?Claudia Sahm joins us to discuss. Claudia is the director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Previously, she was a section chief at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...
Sep 29, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the world will face worsening food crises, devastating wildfires, and coral reef die-offs unless it halves greenhouse-gas emissions within the next decade. Yet emissions actually rose in 2019, suggesting that growing public support for climate action may be too little, too late.Bill McKibben is a longtime climate activist, a regular contributor to the New Yorker, and the co-founder of 350.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
Sep 15, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast When COVID-19 hit the United States in March, colleges and universities around the country quickly shifted to remote learning. But, as a new semester begins, the pandemic is nowhere near under control, and many institutions are wondering how much longer they can survive with closed or restricted campuses.Robert Kelchen is a professor at Seton Hall University and studies higher education finance, accountability, and financial aid. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Sep 01, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Biden has hinted that, if he wins November’s US presidential election, he will serve only one term. However unlikely that may be, his running mate, Kamala Harris, may well be the next Democratic presidential standard-bearer – even if Biden loses in November.Julia Azari is an associate professor and assistant chair in the Department of Political Science at Marquette University. She joins us from her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Aug 18, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the past week, we’ve been on VEEP watch – repeatedly checking our phones for any indication that Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for US president, was ready to announce his running mate. The plan was to discuss his choice – and the role of the vice president more broadly, in today’s episode.But as we refreshed our news feeds, our deadline for recording today’s episode came and went – and there was still no word on Biden’s VP.So that episode will have to wait until next time. In...
Aug 11, 2020•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast For decades, globalization has been narrowing the scope of national sovereignty. Does the COVID-19 pandemic – which has highlighted, yet again, the interconnected nature of today’s most pressing challenges – augur the end of the nation-state’s primacy?Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at Tufts University and the author of The Toddler in Chief: What Donald Trump Teaches Us about the Modern Presidency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 28, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just 3% of US economics PhDs were awarded to black people in 2017 – a share that has been trending downward since the mid-1990s. This week, we examine the effects of this lack of black representation on economic policy and outcomes.Lisa Cook is an associate professor in the economics department at Michigan State University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 14, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast For over a year, China has progressively tightened its grip on Hong Kong. Its latest move – the introduction of a new security law – may spell the death of the “one country, two systems,” and thus democracy and the rule of law in the city, but at what cost to the Communist Party of China?**Minxin Pei is Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is a regular contributor to Project Syndicate. Hosted on...
Jun 16, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast George Floyd’s fatal encounter with the police seems to have been a tipping point in the United States. It comes at time when the pandemic has caused unemployment to skyrocket and exposed the life-and-death stakes of longstanding inequalities.Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, is Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. This interview has been edited for length. Hosted on Acast...
Jun 04, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Not even a pandemic seems to be slowing down the world’s tech giants. Companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google may emerge as the winners of the COVID-19 crisis, but at what cost to our societies and democracies?Marietje Schaake joins Opinion Has It to discuss how Big Tech has shaped our politics and economies, and how, if left unchecked, these companies may gain unprecedented power in the wake of the pandemic.Marietje is the International Policy Director of the Cyber Policy Center at Stanford...
Jun 02, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The labor market and workplace conditions have changed dramatically in recent years – often not for the better. How will the COVID-19 pandemic change how jobs are structured in the 21st century? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 19, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for dictators and democrats alike to abuse government power, spurring fears that emergency measures will outlive the emergency. That danger is particularly acute in countries like Hungary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 05, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to commerce, where Europe leads, others follow. The reason is simple: it’s too costly for global companies not to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to their products. Does that make the European Union a global superpower? Columbia University law professor Anu Bradford joins our podcast to discuss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 21, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast From the ashes of the Great Depression, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through a raft of labor and social reforms that remade the American state and economy. We need FDR’s brand of “bold experimentation” to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 07, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast COVID-19 has upended our health systems, economies, and societies, but we’ve been through this before. Yale University historian Frank Snowden says history has much to teach us about confronting pandemics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 31, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Liberian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee launched a movement that toppled a dictatorship and ended a 14-year civil war. How did she do it? By bringing women into the peace process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 17, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast “Make America Great Again” was a powerful campaign slogan in 2016, appealing in states that mattered to voters who felt that the US economy had passed them by. Winning them over – or winning them back – will be crucial to Democrats’ chances in November’s presidential and congressional elections. In a live recording at the Brooklyn Public Library, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and author Anand Giridharadas discuss how to do it.**Photo credit: Gregg Richard of Brooklyn Public Library Ho...
Mar 03, 2020•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast By focusing on practical solutions to small questions, Abhijit Banerjee helped revolutionize development economics. Now, he’s turning his focus to rehabilitating the battered reputations of economists themselves.Abhijit Banerjee is the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. In 2003, he co-founded J-PAL, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He is the author of several books, most recently, Good Economics for Hard Times, co-written with Esther Duflo. In 2019, he, along ...
Feb 18, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since the 1970s, Iowa has hosted the United States’ first primary contest for US presidential nominees, often with make-or-break consequences for the candidates. But the state has come under scrutiny for its relative lack of diversity, and calls are intensifying for it to give up its preeminent position.Edward L. Widmer is a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton. Currently, he is a distinguished lecturer at the Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York, and a Senior Fel...
Feb 04, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Will Brexit break up the United Kingdom? Historian David Edgerton says that the time has come to let go of the idea of a “British nation.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 28, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Fears of an escalated conflict between the United States and Iran have quieted in the weeks since a US drone strike killed Qassem Suleimani, but the assassination’s long-term consequences remain the subject of heated speculation. What did US President Donald Trump overlook when he ordered the killing of Iran’s second-most powerful leader? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 21, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Why has disinformation been a central feature of US President Donald Trump’s administration, including its response to the threat of impeachment? Nina Khrushcheva joins our podcast to discuss that and much else. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 07, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Donald J. Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached. Whatever the impact on his prospects for re-election in 2020, the more important question is what long-term consequences impeachment will have for US democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 17, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Does the solution to widening economic inequality lie in a wealth tax? We speak to Emmanuel Saez, an adviser to Elizabeth Warren who helped design the “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” plan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 03, 2019•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast On October 27, US President Donald Trump announced the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and declared that the caliphate he sought to create had been destroyed. But does that mean the war on terror is over? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Nov 19, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thirty years ago this week, the world watched in awe as thousands brought down the Berlin Wall, marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Today, however, democracy is in crisis, and authoritarianism is once again on the rise – including in countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 05, 2019•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast As the United States and the United Kingdom gear up for elections in the next year, many are asking if populist nationalism is here to stay, or whether establishment parties can regain control. Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, joined us in early October in our studios in New York to discuss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 22, 2019•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thirty-one percent of adults worldwide don’t have access to a bank account. Roughly two-thirds of them are women. What accounts for unequal access to financial tools, and what are the economic costs of exclusion? For this episode, we speak with Shamina Singh, the Founder & President of the Center for Inclusive Growth, the philanthropic hub of Mastercard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 08, 2019•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, “a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” by 2030. We’re not on track. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 24, 2019•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Supporters of Modern Monetary Theory say that some governments can easily cover the cost of large social programs such as health care for all and free college tuition by jettisoning conventional thinking about the role of debt and taxes in our economies. But is it really that simple? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Sep 10, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
