How asset managers came to own everything and you failed to notice
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
3d ago
Listeners of the Rhodes Center Podcast have probably heard of companies like Black Rock, State Street and Vanguard. You’ve also probably heard how, through ETFs and other investment products, these types of investment firms own a staggering share of the world’s biggest companies (20-25% of the S&P 500 by some estimates).  But in this episode, you’ll hear about a whole other side of asset management; one that’s more opaque, and possibly much more influential (and corrosive) to our daily lives.   Brett Christophers is a geographer and professor at Uppsala University’s Institut ..read more
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The business side of fighting climate change
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
3M ago
On this podcast, you’ve heard from a range of experts about the policies and politics of decarbonization. But what does the fight against climate change look like from the business side? Sophie Purdom is the Founder and Managing Partner of Planeteer Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage climate technology companies. She also writes Climate Tech VC, an industry newsletter that goes deep into the business side of the green transition.  On this episode, Sophie Purdom talks with a special guest host for the Rhodes Center Podcast, political scientist and director of the W ..read more
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An Immigrant Economist in the Land of Inequality: A Conversation with Sir Angus Deaton
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
4M ago
In 2015, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a paper that revealed something startling: an increase in mortality rates in the United States among white middle-aged men and women between the years of 1999 and 2013.  They published a book in 2020 that aimed to explain the trend, which they attributed to – among other factors – economic stagnation, social isolation, and the opioid crisis. The book, titled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism”, caused a stir inside and outside the field of economics, as people tried to make sense of America’s economy and society in the ..read more
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The new politics of growth and stagnation (part 3): houses, micro states, finance, carbon
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
5M ago
This is part three in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson).  On this episode, Mark talks with four contributors for the book: Alex Reisenbichler, Aidan Regan, Oddný Helgadóttir, and Jonas Nahm. They look at case studies in a handful of countries, as well as some of the cross-cutting trends affecting all growth models across the world. They explore the role of finance and politics in growth models, and how the climate crisis is making us rethink this all even further.&n ..read more
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The new politics of growth and stagnation (part 2): growth models at scale
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
6M ago
This is part two in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson).  In part one (which, if you haven’t listened to, we’d recommend you go back and do), Mark and his guests discussed how growth models are almost like the business model for a country. But of course, countries don’t exist in isolation. They can rise and fall together, and operate as regional economies tied into wider global networks.  So…what do growth models look like at scale? How should we even think about ..read more
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The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation (Part 1)
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
8M ago
This is the first in a three-part series on Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation, a book co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro, and Jonas Pontusson.  Using examples from around the world, the book offers a new understanding of what happens to our politics when growth slows down. In this episode, Mark grills his co-authors about how the book came to be, and the big questions that guided its creation.  Guests on this episode: Lucio Baccaro, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Jonas Pontusson, Professor of Comparative Politics at t ..read more
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Does economics do more harm than good? And if it does, how would we know harm when we see it?
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
10M ago
In 1849, the historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle referred to economics as the “dismal science.” The pejorative stuck, and is still slung by critics of the field today.  But what if economics is worse than “dismal”? What it’s…harmful?  George DeMartino’s recent book, “The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good)”, makes exactly that claim: that economists aren’t just ineffective at solving social problems; they often end up creating new ones. Worse still – since economics lacks a meaningful criteria for defining what harm is, economists often don ..read more
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Nazi Billionaires, Capitalist Ethics, and Other Notable Contradictions
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
11M ago
On this episode Mark Blyth talks with this year’s invited speaker at the Rhodes Center’s annual 'Ethics of Capitalism’ lecture series, journalist D​​avid de Jong.  David’s groundbreaking book “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties”, looks at the individuals and companies that accumulated unimaginable wealth under the Third Reich. Through his incredible investigative work, he exposes how these companies – including iconic German businesses like Volkswagen, BMW, and Allianz – thrived under the Nazi regime. He also looks at how, despite their dark history ..read more
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A wee podcast on the last 50 - and next 50 - years of the global world order
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
1y ago
The history of international politics since 1945. The role of values in the global economy. The future of America’s relationship with China. All three of these would be ambitious topics for a work of political economy. But combining them? That’s not for the faint of heart.   However, that’s exactly what Sir Paul Tucker has done in his new book, “Global Discord: Values and Power in a Fractured World Order”.  Tucker is a former central banker, and a current research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In this episode, Mark Blyth talks about the book with Paul and pol ..read more
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The ‘free market’ is a fever dream and Adam Smith wasn’t in it
The Rhodes Center Podcast
by Rhodes Center
1y ago
One concept that comes up a lot on the Rhodes Center Podcast: the idea of the 'free market’. The idea, as you might know it, begins with John Locke, is fashioned fully by Adam Smith, and is delivered to us gift-wrapped (after some delays) by the likes of Hayek and Friedman in the mid 20th century. But as our guest on this episode explains, the idea of the free market is hardly so straightforward. Jacob Soll is a professor of philosophy, history, and accounting at the University of Southern California, and in his book “Free Market: The History of an Idea,” he begins way back in ancient Rome, st ..read more
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