The Rhodes Center Podcast with Mark Blyth

On this episode Mark talks with Luke Messac, physician, historian, and author of ‘No More to Spend: Neglect and the Construction of Scarcity in Malawi's History of Health Care.’ They discuss how Malawi’s politics over the last century has - like in many countries - been defined by a rhetoric of scarcity and austerity. As Luke shows though, this scarcity is more often the product of political decisions rather than structural pressures, with devastating consequences for the country’s healthcare system. If you’re interested in how geopolitics and economics affect the health of nations, this is the book (and podcast) for you.You can learn more about and purchase Luke’s book here.

On this episode Mark talks with economist Dan Davies about his book ‘Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World.’ Dan and Mark look at some of the great scams of modern history to explore how fraud works, why it persists, and what it can teach us about modern economies.

On this episode Mark talks with political economist Brett Christophers. Brett’s a Professor at Uppsala University, and author of ‘Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?’. In the book, Brett explains how neoliberalism and financialization have led to an explosion of rent-seeking businesses in a variety of sectors, from natural resource extraction and finance, to tech and hospitality. And while it allows some companies to thrive, Brett argues that mostly it stifles innovation, hurts competition, and defangs what’s left of organized labor. In Brett’s view, this new model of capitalism is one of the key economics challenges we face. After reading his book, you might agree. You can learn more about and purchase Brett Christopher's book here: [https://www.versobooks.com/books/3683-rentier-capitalism] You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/16-3YA3_gQpvbt29ESkZJGe5nuDtOHzEL/view?usp=sharing]

In this episode Mark talks with Boston University Professor Vivien Schmidt. Schmidt is an expert in the political economy of the European Union, and one of the keenest analysts of its institutions. Her new book, ‘Europe’s Crisis of Legitimacy: Governing by Rules and Ruling by Numbers in the Eurozone (2019),’ asks questions that each year grow more pressing. Why does the EU seem to have a constant legitimacy problem within its own membership, and what does this persistent legitimacy gap mean for Europe and the world? You can learn more about and purchase Schmidt's book here: [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/europes-crisis-of-legitimacy-9780198797067?cc=us&lang=en&] You can find a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/19GIO_qZSfKlq_ityoMfO5_Bt_H8Cfw7r/view?usp=sharing]

On this episode Mark talks with Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University and author of 'The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy'. Kelton is one of the leading experts on modern monetary theory (MMT), a view of macroeconomics that upends many long-held assumptions about federal government spending. Mark and Stephanie start by unpacking a key tenet of MMT: when it comes to spending, debt, and savings, governments are NOTHING like households. But as you'll hear, that's only the tip of the MMT iceberg. You can learn more about and purchase Stephanie Kelton's book here: [https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/stephanie-kelton/the-deficit-myth/9781541736184/] You can read or download a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Th_TsKlZLpDPl7pznRz-_G5HPVuVe-b/view?usp=sharing]

On this episode Mark talks with Martin Sandbu, a journalist at the Financial Times and author of 'The Economics of Belonging.' In addition to having a great title, the book provides a penetrating explanation for why so many people have come to feel so left behind in wealthy Western countries. Mark and Martin discuss the role economics plays in this discontent, and look at how radical economic policy could help not just boost national GDP's and employment rates in the West, but renew a widespread sense of citizenship and belonging. You can read or download a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zj_lSC-q7JOXG2lqkeNQWqL_Comg83Az/view?usp=sharing] You can learn more about and purchase Martin's book here: [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691204529/the-economics-of-belonging]

On this episode Mark talks with Jonathan Hopkin, author of 'Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies.' Unlike most analyses of populism and the breakdown of party systems, Hopkin argues that the way countries' have governed their markets in the last 30 years has shaped not just the rise of populism, but a form of politics opposed to market liberalism that spans the ideological spectrum.  You can read or download a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/12E8x0QEsi0PR7RbUPs9ysl7DXrthCEht/view?usp=sharing] You can learn more about and purchase John Hopkin's book here: [https://www.amazon.com/Anti-System-Politics-Crisis-Liberalism-Democracies/dp/0190699760]

On this episode Mark talks with Alex Cooley and Dan Nexon, authors of 'Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order.' Scholars and pundits have been predicting the US's decline as the singular world power since at least the 1970s. Now, with President Trump's isolationist, nativist politics, many are saying this decline has finally arrived. Cooley and Nexon agree that the US's exit from hegemony has begun -- but as they explain, it started long before Trump's inauguration. You can learn more about and purchase they book here: [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/exit-from-hegemony-9780190916473?cc=us&lang=en&]

Megan Greene is an economist who actually sticks her head out the window, and takes real world observations as seriously as the models. For that reason (and many others), she’s currently a Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Fellow at the Rhodes Center. On this episode Mark talks with Megan about what a post-Covid economy might look like, whether we’re already in a global Depression, and how the American unemployment model is a little more European than many people think.

At a time when globalization is being contested by nationalists and battered by coronavirus, Mark talks to Samuel (Sandy) Zipp, Associate Professor of American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown, about the first American globalist: ex-Republican Presidential Candidate Wendell Willkie. Sandy is the author of 'The Idealist: Wendell Willkie's Wartime Quest to Build One World,' and as he describes in it, after losing to FDR, Willkie circumnavigated the globe in 1942, steeled the Allied countries' resolve to fight Nazism, and in the process picked up a new politics of globalism. Back home Willkie wrote 'One World,' a wildly successful book that briefly pushed Americans to embrace the causes of decolonization. Mark and Sandy discuss Willkie’s odyssey, and its relevance for the world we find ourselves in today. You can learn more about Zipp’s book here: [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737518]