Contact information
MidTide Media 123 Pleasant St Suite 300. Marblehead, MA 01945.
What if The Fed Just Gave Us Free Money? w. Prof. Lawrence Marsh
Today, the Fed spends money buying bonds and setting interest rates to stimulate the economy. Econ Prof. Lawrence Marsh shares a radically different way of using the Federal Reserve: putting money directly into Americans’ bank accounts. He argues the Fed needs to move from supply-side to demand-side stimulation in order to not only ease inequality but also lead to a much more efficient economy.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics with Dr. John Johnson of Edgeworth Analytics
Xander and Erik ask Dr. Johnson to help us understand the statistical bombs of 2020: police violence, COVID-19, economy, and
ReConsidering GDP
Recently Erik saw an article in which nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says an obsession with looking at GDP has become a problem:
“The world is facing three existential crises: a climate crisis, an inequality crisis and a crisis in democracy,” he writes. “Yet the accepted ways by which we measure economic performance give absolutely no hint that we might be facing a problem.”
“If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing,”
Do we need to reconsider how useful GDP can be as a measure of economic health?
The 2018 Global Economic Outlook: Pt II
Post technical difficulties, we’re back! More Jake, more great questions about the global economic market.
A Retort to the Austrians
Last time we interviewed Carlos Lara and Prof. Robert Murphy to give us the Austrian perspective on the boom & bust cycle. Today we’re going to see the another side of the debate, with the help of Jake Meyer, a Nobel Prize losing economist at California State University!
Probably our fiercest economics episode yet. We had a lot of fun.
Fundamentals of Monetary Policy with Dr. Marron
In this episode, Dr. Donald Marron of the Urban Institute joins us to help bring a big chunk of economic expertise to the discussion we’ve been having about economics and particularly monetary policy this year. We even manage to get him to crack a few jokes with us about topics from butter to Bitcoin.
Dr. Marron served on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and was Director of the Congressional Budget Office. As you can guess from all this experience, he’s particularly great at explaining economics to smart people who aren’t economists. We had a ton of fun and know you will, too.
Is US Political Polarization Turning a Corner?
Last week the Republicans tried three times to pass some sort of repeal to the ACA (Obamacare) along party lines. In our last podcast episode we talk about the complex forces and rules that caused these three attempts to fail.
Politically, this much failure is dangerous. Trump and the GOP are looking for a much-needed legislative win. Trump accused the GOP of being “total quitters” if they abandoned another repeal bill. But right now, they just don’t have the votes.
So health reform is dead until someone gets a larger Senate majority, right?
Well, maybe not.
We Will Not Live in a Post-Scarcity Economy
I’ve been asked a lot about the “post-scarcity economy” as it relates to policy going forward. I have done some research into the economics of this and decided to not seriously consider the question as I’ve concluded that we will never live in a post-scarcity economy. The technological changes required would be so vast that society is unimaginable.
Bad News for Those Feeling Smug About Brexit’s Economic Slump
The conclusion was drawn–Brexit was a terrible economic decision–put in a box, and packed away to be pulled out and shown, without re-examination, at the next cocktail party where we’re trying to impress folks with how worldly we are.
I decided today to pop back into the box and dust it off.
What I’ve Learned So Far Trying to Figure Out the Quality of US Education
“What’s wrong with the US education system?” This is something I hear a lot, and we probably all do. The second thing we probably hear about education is that we should spend a lot more on it. Finland, which is looked at as probably a gold standard of education, gets a lot of attention from those trying to reform. What’s going on, and what can we do about it?