Mostly Economics

Dean Baker sits down with CEPR climate analyst Matt Sedlar to unpack how Trump's cuts to FEMA and NOAA are leaving states, especially poorer Republican ones in Appalachia, dangerously exposed. They cover insurance markets pulling out of Florida and California, the fight over community driven relocation, and why real resiliency means building communities back stronger. Follow Matt Sedlar: https://x...

Algernon Austin, director of Race and Economic Justice at CEPR, joins Dean Baker to examine how the Trump administration is reversing black economic progress through DOGE cuts, military purges, weakened affirmative action, and the Supreme Court's assault on voting rights. They also discuss solutions, including a national jobs guarantee. --- Follow Algernon Austin https://bsky.app/profile/a-austin....

On today's episode, Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein reflect on Alan Greenspan's legacy, from his bold full employment experiment in the 1990s to his failure to address financial bubbles. Jared and Dean speculate about what Kevin Warsh's Fed tenure could mean for workers and policy transparency at the Federal Reserve. -- Follow Jared Bernstein: https://econjared.substack.com Follow Dean Baker and CE...

What if every new service contract you've signed secretly stripped away your right to sue? Senior Economist and CEPR co-founder Dean Baker speaks with Brendan Ballou, former federal prosecutor and founder of the Public Integrity Project, about his new book When Companies Run the Courts. From the McDonald's coffee case to the Supreme Court, forced arbitration is reshaping American justice and our r...

Economist Arindrajit Dube joins Dean Baker to discuss his book The Wage Standard , making the case that higher wages create fewer economic problems than we've been told. They examine why the federal minimum wage has stagnated for over a generation and why sectoral wage standards may be the key to rebuilding the middle class. -- Follow Arindrajit Dube https://bsky.app/profile/arindube.bsky.social h...

Ha-Joon Chang, Cambridge economist and author, joins Dean Baker to discuss how South Korea went from one of the world's poorest countries to an economic powerhouse. They also dig into Trump's tariffs, shareholder capitalism, and the Iran war's ripple effects. Read Ha-Joon https://hajoonchang.net/writings/books-i-have-written Follow Dean Baker and CEPR: https://x.com/deanbaker13 https://x.com/ceprd...

Dean Baker sits down with Ed Zitron, CEO of Media Relations and Primary Research and one of the most prominent voices sounding the alarm on the AI bubble. They dig into Nvidia's ballooning valuation, data centers that exist mostly on paper, circular financing schemes, and why this bubble may be worse than the dot-com crash. The math isn't adding up for Dean or Ed. -- www.mostlyeconomics.com -- Fol...

The US tax code is not broken. It is working exactly as the wealthy designed it. Spare the wealthy, tax the worker. Dean Baker sits down with Amy Hanauer, Executive Director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, to expose how loopholes like carried interest were deliberately built to protect fortunes and make working people foot the bill. The result is a rigged system that keeps reward...

Today's episode is about the US-Israel war on Iran, its legitimacy and the economic impacts on people in the US. Our guest, Matt Duss, is the Executive VP at the Center for International Policy, former foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, and co-host of Undiplomatic Podcast. Matt debunks myths about Iran's nuclear ambitions and Middle East conflicts. This discussion challenges mainstr...

Right-wing billionaires are buying up local TV news networks and a federal regulator is helping them do it. In this week's episode, Dean Baker and Milo Vassallo, executive director of the Media and Democracy Project, break down what media consolidation means for communities across. They dig into the Nexstar-Tegna merger, the FCC's role under Brendan Carr, the fall of local journalism, and what a c...

In this episode, Dean Baker and renowned macroeconomist Claudia Sahm discuss the economic shocks from attacking Iran and the Federal Reserve's policy stance amid geopolitical tensions. Gain insights into how global events influence US inflation, energy markets, and monetary policy decisions. Claudia Sahm is the Chief Economist at New Century Advisors and a former Federal Reserve economist.

In the Season 1 finale, Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein answer listener-submitted questions on the biggest economic issues of the moment: the affordability crisis gripping American families, the surprising Democratic victories in off-year elections, and how the government shutdown is erasing critical economic data. From policy solutions to political implications, Dean and Jared tackle your question...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses his book "The Road to Freedom," explaining why real economic freedom means more than just keeping government small. Stiglitz breaks down how access to healthcare and education creates freedom, why drug companies profited from taxpayer-funded vaccines, and how pollution is really about property rights. Despite exploring serious inequality chal...

Dean talks with Sasha Abramsky, freelance writer for The Nation and author of the forthcoming book "American Carnage," which examines how the Trump administration and Elon Musk's DOGE systematically targeted federal workers in 2025. Abramsky shares stories from CDC employees, IRS workers, and National Park staff who faced mass layoffs through automated quota systems rather than performance reviews...

This week Dean speaks to Milo Vassallo, Executive Director of the Media and Democracy Project , about wresting back the free press from media oligarchs. As corporate consolidation has gutted local newsrooms and created vast news deserts, communities can rebuild civic journalism from the ground up.

This week Dean speaks to Kim Weeden, Professor of Sociology at Cornell University and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality, about why America's wage gap keeps growing. While protections for minimum wage workers have weakened over the past 40 years, the rules that protect high earners have only gotten stronger.

Health policy expert Sarah Lueck of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities joins Dean Baker to discuss the Affordable Care Act's future amid a prolonged government shutdown. They unpack how expiring premium tax credits could raise costs for millions, the ACA's major achievements, and why congressional action is urgently needed.

Today on Mostly Economics, Ha-Joon Chang, Professor at the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London and Senior Research Fellow at CEPR, critiques the IMF and World Bank's Washington Consensus model. He explains how neoclassical economics locks poor countries into existing capabilities. Chang contrasts South Korea's transformation through state-directed industrial policy with Mexico's s...

Dean Baker speaks with Suresh Naidu, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, about unions' role in reducing inequality, how employer wage-setting power shapes labor markets, sectoral bargaining experiments in California and Minnesota, the problems with H-1B visa programs, and why Democrats shifted away from labor policy toward tax-and-transfer approaches in recent decades.

Dean Baker speaks with Heather Boushey, former Council of Economic Advisers member and current Professor of Practice at UPenn's Climate Center for Energy Policy, about the Biden administration's economic legacy. They discuss the historic manufacturing boom, infrastructure investments in left-behind communities, why economic forecasting models failed, and record wage gains for low-income workers.

Economist Juliet Schor discusses her groundbreaking four-day workweek research, revealing how companies maintain productivity while dramatically improving worker well-being. From 90% retention rates to reduced burnout, Schor explains why this workplace revolution is gaining momentum post-pandemic and how AI could accelerate adoption of shorter work weeks.

Dean Baker interviews Laura Dresser, Associate Director of Wisconsin's High Road Strategy Center, about the power of state and local policy to improve working people's lives. They discuss how Wisconsin's anti-union legislation devastated labor organizing, successful state-level initiatives on minimum wage and community college programs, and the potential for progressive policies on childcare, tran...

Climate scientist Michael Mann and vaccine researcher Peter Hotez discuss their book "Science Under Siege," examining how plutocrats, petrostates, press, pros, and propagandists undermine scientific truth. They reveal how wealthy individuals fund anti-science campaigns, authoritarian regimes spread climate denial, and mainstream media enables false equivalency between facts and conspiracy theories...

Dean Baker and economist Robert Pollin discuss Trump's chaotic first weeks - from firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook over mortgage paperwork to shutting down an 80% complete wind farm. They examine how erratic tariff policies hurt workers while creating business uncertainty, and why attacking clean energy gives China a competitive advantage. The conversation reveals a troubling pattern of prioritizing...

Dean Baker speaks with historian Dr. William P. Jones about his book "The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of the Civil Rights Movement." They explore how the famous march began as a protest for jobs and economic justice, the crucial role of labor unions in organizing the event, and why the economic demands—including full employment and a living minimum wage&mdas...