Mostly Economics

Dean Baker has a conversation with EPI president Heidi Shierholz about her new report, The Case for Tripling Union Membership. They discuss the economic benefits of boosting unionization rates, why employers can get away with union busting so often, and policy fixes like the PRO Act. This episode paints a clear picture of what is standing between workers joining unions and creating a world of grea...

Dean Baker speaks with Vicente Martinez, a Texas-based barista of eight years, about the Starbucks Workers Union new boycott campaign launched after five years of stalled talks with the company. Vicente recounts their own experience with understaffing, fighting to get enough hours to make a living wage and qualify for the basic benefits that Starbucks boasts it provides its workers. -- Support Sta...

Rep. Ro Khanna joins Dean Baker to talk about the Iran war and his firsthand account of settler violence in the West Bank. He also makes the case for lowering the Medicare age to 50, calling it the kind of pragmatic, wage-boosting policy that would appeal to working class voters. -- Learn about Representative Ro Khanna https://khanna.house.gov/ https://x.com/RoKhanna Follow Dean Baker and CEPR htt...

In a recent conversation, Dean Baker welcomed Gerald Epstein, PERI/UMass Professor of Economics, to discuss the innovative collection of policy essays titled Game Changers: Economic Policies for a Working America. This project, comprising contributions from around 40 experts, aims to propose transformative economic policies that could reshape the landscape for working Americans. These are ideas wo...

Dean Baker speaks with economist and CEPR co-founder and co-director Mark Weisbrot about the rare conditions that prompted the IMF to issue a lifeline to developing countries in the form of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in 2021, defying the US treasury. Allocating SDRs helped the global south, but it was just as much a rescue mission for the global economy, an action that had the support of Wall S...

Dean Baker talks with MIT economist Paul Osterman about his new book, Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment. Osterman explains how employers avoid W-2 responsibility for workers through contracting, freelancing, and "marginal" jobs, now affecting roughly 35% of the workforce, and what it means for pay, safety, and job security. -- Follow Dean Baker and CEPR https://x.com/deanbaker13...

Is AI spending the only thing keeping US growth alive? Dean Baker and EPI chief economist Josh Bivens dig into that question. They also explain how a financial transactions tax mainly eliminates wasteful Wall Street trading, plus tariff chaos and manufacturing's decline. -- Follow Josh Bivens https://bsky.app/profile/joshbivens-econ.bsky.social Follow Dean Baker and CEPR https://x.com/deanbaker13...

Chad Bown, Peterson Institute for International Economics economist, joins Dean Baker to discuss his new book (co-authored with Soumaya Keynes), How to Win a Trade War. They dig into the real gains from trade, why locking in agreements matters more than tariff levels, lessons from 1980s Japanese auto restraints, and why China's chokehold on rare earths and chips is the trade war actually worth fig...

On this episode of Mostly Economics, Dean Baker talks with Tahir Amin, co-founder and CEO of I-MAK and co-author of Pharma Monopoly, about how drug patents drove up prices and blocked vaccines during the pandemic. Find out how a drug like Humira made $114 billion off patent monopolies and more. -- Follow Tahir Amin https://bsky.app/profile/tahiramin.bsky.social https://x.com/realtahiramin Follow D...

This week on Mostly Economics, Dean Baker talks with Sabrina Corlette, Research Professor at Georgetown University's Center on Healthcare Insurance Reforms, about the ramifications of Trump's one big ugly bill, which gutted Affordable Care Act coverage. People are grappling with expired subsidies as well as new rules that severely harm documented immigrants. Dean and Sabrina also discuss private e...

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.