Today we've got economics professor Rob Larson back on the pod (see his previous episode here) to talk about the bizarre state of the economy. The labor market is red hot, inflation is higher than in almost 40 years, and there are calls from the capitalist class to strangle the boom. We discuss whether Jerome Powell is going to pull a Paul Volcker on the labor market and what might be done to ease price pressure. Then we discuss Facebook's hilarious "metaverse" faceplant in the context of Rob's great recent book Bit Tyrants. Enjoy!

You can find the first part of the discussion with Jeff Spross here, or subscribe to hear the rest here, or check out Ryan's book here!

With the news of Justice Stephen Breyer retiring (and Ryan on vacation for the next week), we thought it would be a good opportunity to post this 2019 interview of Brian Fallon about his organization Demand Justice. Fallon is a longtime Democratic Party operative who nevertheless has become a pretty heated critic of the liberal legal establishment and an ardent advocate of Supreme Court reform. The current troubles the Biden administration is having with the courts proves much of what he said to be sadly prescient, alas. 

Ryan's book is finally out on January 25!! Called How Are You Going to Pay for That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics, it's a book about political economy, how to break free of the mental stranglehold of neoliberalism, and how to fix up this jalopy country. (And then we've got a special guest at the end as well.) Ryan's doing a book launch event with David Dayen that you can check out here, and you can pre-order the book if you like here. 

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode! Or you can pre-order Ryan's book here, or check out the launch event on January 25 here.

Today we are taking a look back at the January 6 putsch -- the total failure to prosecute any of the top organizers, above all Trump, how that has emboldened them to further extremism, how a segment of the left is weirdly naive about all this, and more. God help us all. Check out Osita Nwanevu's article here and Corey Robin's article here.

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We're reposting our episode from last year discussing It's a Wonderful Life, one of our favorite films of all time, and one that has only grown in relevance compared to when we grew up watching it decades past. Enjoy, and we hope everyone has a nice holiday season!

In this preview, Harvey Kaye discusses Josh Hawley's bizarre new book. Subscribe now to listen to the whole thing!

Subscribe now to hear the whole episode!