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Money & Macro Talks

Money & Macro Talks

Interviews with leading (macro) economists, social scientists and financial professionals to uncover the nuanced facts shaping our global economy.

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  • 32 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 49 min
  • English

Episodes 32

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  • Thursday · 43 min

    Why does Turkey have more female engineers than Finland? | Manuel Bagues

    In Sweden, Norway and Finland, women have more freedom and opportunity than almost anywhere else on Earth. Yet these are also the places where fewer women choose to study engineering or computer science. Economists and psychologists call this the gender-equality paradox, and it is one of the most hotly debated findings in social science. In this episode, I talk to Manuel Bagues, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, about his new research with Natalia Zinovyeva. Their answer starts somewhere unexpected: the playground and the extra-school activities, which are usually highly gender-segregated.

  • #59
    October 15 · 1 hr 17 min

    The false promises of the AI industry | Ilyaz Nasrullah

    Interview with Ilyaz Nasrullah (computer scientist & columnist) about his new book. The book in Dutch can be found here: https://www.nieuwezijds.nl/boek/dit-is-ai/ Research mentioned in the conversation: https://fion.ac/jellyfish.pdf & https://youtu.be/kopoLzvh5jY?si=AHDAGAFmSk5K004B

  • October 1 · 1 hr 5 min

    Are monopolies really taking over the economy? | Brian Albrecht

    Big Tech has never been bigger. Google, Amazon and Metaserve more customers and earn bigger profits every year, and AI companies are claiming a growing share of the stock market. For many, that's a warning sign: the bigger these firms get, the harder they are to challenge, and the easier itbecomes to charge more and deliver less without losing customers. It's the opposite of how competitive markets are supposed to work, and the reason calls to revive antitrust enforcement keep growing louder. But is market power really on the rise? And are monopoliespart of why everything feels so expensive? In this episode, Alejandro talks with Brian Albrecht, chief economist at the International Center for Law & Economics, about what the data actually says on markups, competition and corporate power, and why economists disagree so sharply about it.

  • September 24 · 50 min

    How governments can increase fertility rates | Lyman Stone

    Why have fertility rates collapsed in the past decades? Is there anything governments can do to reverse this situation? In this episode, we review the leading explanations for long-run demographic change, the role of smartphones, and the evidence for and against different policies aimed at boosting birth rates at the national level.

  • September 17 · 59 min

    Economist defends rent controls | prof. Frank Braconi

    Frank Braconi is one of the few economists willing to argue that rent control, properly designed, can work. But what does "properly designed" mean? When should it be used, where, and how? We discuss San Francisco's decontrol-recontrol model and whether it can blunt the harms of gentrification.

  • September 10 · 47 min

    What Chinese rule will actually look like | Dr. Dave Kang

    As China's star rises, people like Ray Dalio think we may see the emergence of a new tribute system. In this podcast, I discuss with tribute system expert Dr. Dave Kang what the tribute system actually was and whether or not we can anticipate seeing it return.

  • September 3 · 54 min

    Can a land value tax fix housing? | Lars Doucet

    Prime downtown land sits empty while cities run out of housing. Tax buildings and you punish building; tax land and you punish sitting on it. In this episode, Lars Doucet, author of Land is a Big Deal, discusses the history and relevance of land value taxes to prevent land speculation and address the housing affordability crisis.

  • August 20 · 47 min

    Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once | John Burn-Murdoch

    Fertility rates are falling in the Europe and the US, but also in places China, Tunisia and Colombia. What can explain this global trend, and what are the political and economic consequences of low birth rates societies? In this episode, we bring FT chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch to make sense about these trends.

  • August 6 · 45 min

    Is economics a science? | Adam Mastroianni

    What do we mean when we label economics a a science? Can social sciences ever develop a paradigm? In this interview, psychologist Adam Mastroianni discusses the state of psychology as a science and how paradigms improve scientific progress.

  • July 31 · 27 min

    How are the Gulf economies holding up? | Prof. Steffen Hertog

    This is an update to my conversation with Gulf economy expert Prof. Steffen Hertog. We are already five months into the Iran war now: How much longer will the strait of Hormuz remain closed? and what could that mean for the Gulf countries?

  • July 2 · 42 min

    Is the wealth tax actually working for Norway | Prof. Ole-Andreas Næss

    Wealth taxes are the key policy proposal to prevent wealth from concentrating at the top, and they're now being discussed in both the US and the UK. In this episode, we dig into the recent Norwegian experience with wealth taxation. How big was the response from the wealthy? Did the tax raise enough revenue to compensate for the capital flight? And what are the lessons for other countries considering a wealth tax of their own?

  • June 24 · 42 min

    How are Europe's economies holding up? Dr. Oscar Arse (ECB)

    ECB Director general economics on how Europe's economies are responding to the Hormuz energy shock. Publications mentioned by Oscar below: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2026/html/ecb.blog20260603~3015f38292.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2025/html/ecb.blog20250508~897078ce87.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2026/html/ecb.blog20260309~3a4841b028.en.html

  • June 4 · 45 min

    Why firms actually underpay their workers? Prof. Arin Dube

    For decades, productivity and wages grew together. Then they didn't. Since the 1970s, workers across the developed world have become significantly more productive, yet their wages have largely stagnated. Where did the gains go, and what can policy actually do about it? In this episode, we examine the central argument of The Wage Standard, the new book by labor economist Arindrajit Dube. Dube argues that the decoupling of wages from productivity is not an inevitable consequence of technological change or globalization, but a political and institutional failure, one that can be reversed. We walk through the mechanisms behind wage stagnation, the role of market power in labor markets, and the policy levers Dube proposes to restore the link between work and prosperity.

Showing 1–20 of 32 episodes