

The Glenn Show
Glenn Loury
Race, inequality, and economics in the US and throughout the world from Glenn Loury, Professor of Economics at Brown University and Paulson Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute glennloury.substack.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 22, 2021 • 1h 3min
Laurence Kotlikoff — Fending Off Inflation
In this week’s TGS, my old friend Larry Kotlikoff, an economist at Boston University, is back to talk about some of our most pressing economic concerns. Chief among them is the inflation rate, which has hit a 30-year high. By some accounts, inflation is now threatening to do major, possibly longterm damage to the US economy. But are things as bad as they seem? Larry will take us through his analysis and talk about some other looming economic troubles. If you want to understand how these things work, Larry is your guy.We begin by discussing just why high inflation poses such a dire threat to the economy. Obviously it’s something to be concerned about, but will it get bad enough to send us the way of Weimar Germany? This leads us to discuss Biden’s recent policy decisions, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Larry argues that it’s not as costly as it sounds when you consider that it’s parceled out over the course of a decade. Larry is much more concerned about the fiscal gap, which is enormous and, according to Larry, could eventually lead the US into insolvency. Larry sees this as a problem that can only be solved by responsible political leadership, but we have trouble naming any current politicians with the influence to get it done. It’s always great to have Larry on the show (even if he has a tendency to make some pretty frightening predictions about the future). As always, I’m interested to know what you think!This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.Want to give the gift of The Glenn Show this holiday season? Click below to purchase a subscription for a friend or loved one. 0:00 Why high inflation is a potentially dire problem 9:00 Are we headed the way of Weimar Germany and Argentina? 20:37 How short-term government spending can function as a longterm investment 30:02 The looming threat of the fiscal gap 37:08 Why is the US’s fiscal gap so large compared to that of other countries? 41:30 Larry: We’re on the path to becoming a second-rate country 46:37 Why Larry thinks we should index taxes to inflation 53:36 Can we pay for what we’re spending without printing money?Links and ReadingsSteven Rattner’s NYT guest essay, “I Warned the Democrats about Inflation”Larry Summers’s WaPo op-ed, “On inflation, it’s past time for team transitory to stand down”Larry’s website This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Nov 21, 2021 • 15min
The Double Life, Once More
A couple weeks ago in this space, I published an autobiographical sketch called “The Double Life.” It elicited such a strong reaction from readers that I wanted to revisit it, so I recorded an audio version and Nikita Petrov, my creative director, created a video feature to go along with it. I plan to do more of these audio/video pieces in the future, mostly for subscribers. Let me know what you think of this new feature in the comments!This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, ad-free versions of the podcast, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Nov 15, 2021 • 1h 2min
John McWhorter — Systemic Racism's Greatest Hits
This week, John and I continue our discussion of systemic racism, which was kicked off when one of my students wrote a searing critique of some of my positions. John and I agreed that “Simone” (not her real name) deserved a real, intellectually serious response. We can’t just blow off Simone and people like her—that is, sober-minded, sincere, intelligent progressives and leftists who happen to think that systemic racism is responsible for all or most of America’s racial disparities. In responding to their critiques, we hope to persuade them that there are more accurate ways to describe the situation. The first part of this attempt came by way of our conversation with Randy Kennedy. This is the second entry. In our next conversation, John and I hope to move from outlining the problems to proposing some solutions.This conversation kicks off with the revelation that demand for John has outstripped supply—he simply doesn’t have time to talk about his book Woke Racism on podcasts anymore. We then set the table a bit and outline our broad critique of theories of systemic racism. We talk about whether it still makes sense to attribute racial disparities to black people’s status as victims of perpetual injustice. Are we really victims? Or has that story gotten old? We then move on the racial wealth gap, where we debunk claims about redlining and discuss why comparing the median incomes of whites and blacks makes no sense if you want to see what’s important about wealth disparities. We then move on to a slightly trickier subject: crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparities and incarceration. This is an area where I really do think there’s probably something to accusations of systemic racism, though that is not the only issue at play. John wants to know whether academic historical analyses of systemic racism can offer any counsel to ordinary people today. We end the discussion proper on the question of a racist white backlash against the excesses of woke politics.I think many of you will find this one quite satisfying. I’m interested to hear what you think!This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 John takes a step back from podcasting 3:29 Confronting the critique of systemic racism 14:18 The persistence of victimhood 19:36 Accounting for the racial wealth gap 31:50 Glenn: When it comes to incarceration, we have to take systemic racism seriously 46:29 Can analyses of historical systemic racism offer us counsel today? 51:52 John: Certain members of "the Elect" would be pleased to see an alt-right backlashLinks and ReadingsMatthew Desmond’s piece on plantation slavery from the 1619 ProjectMichael Fortner’s book, The Black Silent Majority: The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of PunishmentJames Forman, Jr.’s book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Nov 8, 2021 • 38min
Whose Fourth of July?: Black Patriotism and Racial Inequality in America
Recently, I was asked to deliver a speech at the National Conservatism Conference, which was held in Orlando, Florida. It was high-profile affair with many prominent conservative intellectuals, media figures, and politicians speaking and in attendance. And I don’t mind saying I had a prime speaking slot! I used the speech to develop some ideas I’ve aired here on TGS, and I think many of you will be gratified by the reaction they get from the crowd. But make no mistake: I’m not just telling them what they want to hear. In the speech, I try to make the case for black patriotism, the forthright embrace of American nationalism by black people. I argue that, ultimately, most black people want the same things as most other Americans: safety, a shot at improvement, a fair and just government, and personal freedom. Black people share a common culture with the rest of the country—emphasizing racial difference obscures that essential fact. I also argue that conservatives need to go beyond making generic, color-blind claims about America and leaving it at that. Racial inequality is real, and there do need to be initiatives put it place to remedy it. I then go on to outline some “unspeakable truths” about race pertaining to four topics: racial disparity, the racialization of police violence, the threat of white backlash, and American equality. I end by engaging with Frederick Douglass, who gave a famous address about slavery and the Fourth of July. The Fourth is, indeed, “ours”—all of ours. This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 “Tolstoy is mine. Dickens is mine. Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein are mine” 4:13 “Our Americanness is much more important than our blackness” 7:39 Conservatives cannot go back to "business as usual" on race9:22 A conservative prescription for persistent racial inequality 11:38 The roots of racial disparity 17:17 Putting police killings of black Americans into perspective 23:58 From white guilt to white backlash 28:10 The “lie” that the American Dream doesn’t apply to blacks 34:47 Black people “must seize equal status” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Nov 2, 2021 • 1h 25min
John McWhorter and Randall Kennedy — Say It Loud!
This week’s TGS features two incomparable guests: John McWhorter and Randall Kennedy. John, of course, needs no introduction. Randy is a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of many books, the latest of which is Say It Loud!: On Race, Law, History, and Culture. In this episode, we get into it pretty much immediately. Randy admits to being “thrown” by Donald Trump’s election and to finding his campaign openly racist. I, as you may know, think that is an oversimplified explanation of Trump’s appeal in 2016. We go on to discuss how a certain amount of racism will be with us for the foreseeable future, and we’ll just have to deal with it. Given that the situation will never be perfect, what would constitute an “acceptable” level of racism? We then go on to discuss two of the “big issues”: Policing and affirmative action. There’s a lot of intensity in this conversation, and I’m excited for you to hear it!This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 Randy: “I feel torn and, frankly, bewildered” about the state of race in the US 7:17 Can we blame Trump for the tenor of racial discourse today? 17:27 Crediting the achievements of black Americans after Emancipation 25:46 Is the criminal justice system as discriminatory as it appears? 34:55 Glenn: We need to deracialize the conversation about policing 45:54 Taking account of culture in debates about racial inequality 56:49 Affirmative action with an asterisk 1:08:29 Does affirmative action require lowering standards?Links and ReadingsRandy’s new book, Say It Loud!: On Race. Law, History, and CultureW.E.B. Du Bois’s book, The Philadelphia NegroGlenn’s conversation with Wai Wah ChinGlenn’s book, The Anatomy of Racial Inequality This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Oct 25, 2021 • 1h 18min
Thoughts on the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America
I know this week everyone is expecting one of my conversations with John McWhorter. But due to some unforeseen events, we ended up shifting things around a bit. Next week you can expect to see John and I speak with Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy, where we’ll engage issues of systemic racism, among other topics. Two weeks after that, John and I will be back to have our own discussion about systemic racism. We said we wanted to formulate serious responses to those who believe systemic racism is still the cause of racial inequality in the US, and you can expect to see that in the coming weeks.For this week’s episode, I’m presenting a recent lecture I gave at Baylor University and the Q&A session that followed. The lecture distills some of my ideas about social capital, the bias narrative and the development narrative, and the problems that beset urban black communities. The students and professors also offered some fantastic questions that provoked me to think about intersectionality and mass incarceration, the language of racial discrimination, and whether my critiques of the bias narrative offer aid and comfort to the enemy. I’m grateful to Baylor for having invited me, and I’m pleased to be able to offer the lecture to you here.Note: If you’re listening to the free audio version of this conversation, you’ll notice that there are now ads. I explain why I’ve started to take on advertisers at the beginning of the episode. If you’d like to continue receiving the podcast without ads, you can subscribe below for access to the ad-free podcast feed, as well as monthly Q&As with John McWhorter and me, early access to TGS episodes, and other subscriber benefits. 0:00 A quick announcement 2:00 “Structural racism is an empty category” 4:35 The bias narrative vs. the development narrative10:43 Race as a social phenomenon 19:10 Racism is not the cause of behavioral problems in black communities 27:41 “White people cannot give black people equality” 32:31 Q&A: How has economic thinking about racism and the market changed? 39:20 Q&A: What strategies will help people engage in modes of development? 43:00 Q&A: What are the prospects for improvements? 48:54 Q&A: How has the language of racial discrimination changed? 53:12 Q&A: Is intersectionality a factor in racial inequality? 1:02:03 Q&A: Do Glenn's claims reinforce white prejudice against blacks? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Oct 18, 2021 • 51min
Wai Wah Chin — The NYC Exam School Controversy
In this week’s TGS, we’re talking about an issue that seems local but has big national implications. Wai Wah Chin is the Charter President of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, and she joins me to discuss an ongoing controversy in New York City’s exam schools. These schools are rigorous public high schools that focus on STEM subjects, and admission is determined by student performance on a single exam. If you can excel on one test, you can get access to a free first-rate education, regardless of income, race, zip code, or even past academic performance. This is especially important in a city where top private schools often charge tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. Historically, exam schools have been a triumph of colorblind meritocracy. They’ve brought untold numbers of talented but under-resourced students to the attention of top universities. But, as Wai Wah explains, the exam school system is currently under threat from advocates who regard the high numbers of Asian American students (over 50% in some cases) at these schools as evidence of de facto segregation that excludes blacks. Wai Wah explains why proposed changes to the exam school admissions system discriminate against Asians, and why parallel attempts to eliminate the Gifted and Talented Program for New York students will only exacerbate racial disparities in the education system. Finally, Wai Wah connects discrimination against Asians in education to the disturbing increase in violence against Asians across the country.Wai Wah is a passionate advocate for her cause. I can tell you this is not the last time I’ll be discussing these crucial matters on TGS. A New Home for TGSI’ve started a new YouTube channel, and I invite you to subscribe to it (and click the bell button!) now so that you don't miss future offerings. This newsletter will continue to publish as usual with the same benefits for subscribers.This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 What are NYC exam schools? 5:25 The recent attempt to change exam school admissions 11:50 Wai Wah: Changes to exam schools will discriminate against Asian students 17:40 Wai Wah's attempts to expand the Gifted and Talented Program 27:26 Are exam schools "segregated"? 39:29 Eric Adams's support for increasing the number of exam schools 42:00 Wai Wah: Asians are being scapegoatedLinks and ReadingsThe Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York Dream Factories, a mini-doc about NYC exam schools This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Oct 11, 2021 • 59min
John McWhorter — Authentically Black
In this episode of The Glenn Show, I’m back with my friend John McWhorter, and we have much to discuss. John joins me fresh from a day trip to Brighton Beach, a neighborhood in Brooklyn where Russian language, food, and culture abound. He talks about teaching himself Russian and the benefits of the Glossika language-learning tool. Then, in a continuation of last week’s conversation with David Kaiser, we move on to the history of redlining, which is quite a bit more complex than some recent commentaries would have you believe. A recent edition of John’s New York Times newsletter addressed the issue, and it received some criticism from the distinguished historian Thomas Sugrue. This leads us to discuss the problems of authority and perception that attend writing from the Olympian heights of the paper of record. From there, I give a progress report on my memoir, delving into my life, my break from conservatism in the ‘90s, and the difficulty of living in good faith. The temptation to “play to the crowd,” to seek affirmation by repeating the common sense of your tribe, is very powerful, and it can work on you in subtle ways. Heterodox thinkers like John and I have to check ourselves constantly to make sure we’re being true to our own thought and principles. In that spirit, we end on a question that’s sure to ruffle some feathers here at my Substack: How can we start seriously addressing questions about “systemic racism” and stop simply disregarding them as just so much wokespeak? As always, I’m curious to hear your thoughts! A New Home for TGSThe video for this episode is hosted on my new YouTube channel, which is now the home of The Glenn Show. I invite you to subscribe to this channel (and click the bell button!) now so that you don't miss future offerings. This newsletter will continue to publish as usual with the same benefits for subscribers.This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 John's linguistic adventure in Brighton Beach 7:59 The complex racial and economic dynamics of redlining 17:30 The problem with John's NYT “megaphone” 26:40 A progress report on Glenn's memoir 41:29 The temptations of playing to the crowd 46:43 What, if anything, does it mean to be “authentically black”? 51:13 Taking "systemic racism" seriouslyLinks and ReadingsThe language-learning tool GlossikaJohn’s column about GlossikaJohn’s piece about redliningGlenn’s conversation with historian David E. KaiserThomas Sugrue’s Twitter thread about John’s redlining pieceJohn’s book, Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Oct 4, 2021 • 55min
David E. Kaiser — The Case against "The Case for Reparations"
In this episode of The Glenn Show, I’m talking to David E. Kaiser, author of many books about American and international political history. As a distinguished professional historian, David has seen many changes in the way history is written both inside and outside the academy, not all of them for the better. In this conversation, David talks about why Ta-Nehisi Coates’s highly influential 2014 essay “The Case for Reparations” and the view of race and American history it represents leaves out many crucial facts about how we came to be where we are.We begin in a slightly counterintuitive place, with a discussion of how many historians’ views of the Cold War changed after Vietnam. In David’s telling, it became more and more common to see historians placing blame for escalating hostilities on the U.S.’s foreign policy rather than the U.S.S.R.’s. David sees a similar sort of revisionism at work in contemporary historians’ perspectives on the New Deal, which is now sometimes described as a purposefully racially discriminatory enterprise. David pushes back against this interpretation, pointing to the South’s pursuit of industry and cheap labor as a better explanation for the New Deal’s flaws than racial animus. We also discuss statistics indicating that, while blacks did earn significantly less money than whites, the years after World War II saw tremendous economic growth in black communities. And, while redlining policies certainly did have a negative impact on the ability of blacks to acquire wealth, those policies alone only tell part of the black economic story. Finally, David ends our discussion by reading from a fascinating 1940 editorial in the black newspaper the Chicago Defender that endorses FDR for a third term. I truly enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you will as well! A New Home for TGSThe video for this episode is hosted on my own new YouTube channel, which is now the home of The Glenn Show. I invite you to subscribe to this channel (and click the bell button!) now so that you don't miss future offerings. This newsletter will continue to publish as usual with the same benefits for subscribers.0:00 Intro 2:35 The post-Vietnam reevaluation of the Cold War 13:12 David: Academic historians largely have abandoned the idea of objective truth 18:23 Were black people really excluded from the New Deal? 32:06 The fortunes of black veterans after WWII 40:19 Why redlining doesn't tell the whole story about the racial wealth gap 49:49 Why the Chicago Defender endorsed FDR in 1940Links and ReadingsDavid’s memoir, A Life in HistoryDavid’s book, No End Save Victory: How FDR Led the Nation into WarDavid’s book, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam WarGlenn’s conversation with Daniel Bessner, “American Empire before and after 9/11”Ira Katznelson’s book, When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in AmericaTa-Nehisi Coates’s essay, “The Case for Reparations”The Chicago Fed’s paper, “The Effects of the 1930s HOLC ‘Redlining’ Maps”Andrew Fenton’s article, “WTF happened in 1971 (and why the f**k it matters so much right now)” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Sep 27, 2021 • 1h 12min
John McWhorter — The Past and Future of Black Political Leadership
For this week’s episode of The Glenn Show, we’ve upped our production game a little. In late August, John McWhorter and I met up for an all-too-rare in-person conversation in Manhattan, and the filmmaker Rob Montz and his crew were on hand to record it. It was wonderful to be able sit face-to-face with John, and Rob did a wonderful job capturing the energy in the room. It wouldn’t have been possible to pull all of this together without the support of the subscribers here: Thank you! We’re hoping to create more special content like this in the future, so your contributions are greatly appreciated. John and I begin by discussing his gig writing for the New York Times, in particular a recent piece about Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s Blues Opera. It’s never been produced, and John is assisting in trying to usher it to the stage. We move from the blues to matters that are just plain blue: The word “motherfucker,” which began as black vernacular and has since been absorbed into the English language at large. This naturally leads us to talk about the treatment of sex and money in the TV show Billions. From there we move to more serious matters: The New York City mayor’s race. John is not a fan of the probable winner, Eric Adams, and I press him as to why. We get into it over the squandered opportunities of the Obama years, and we really get into it over Al Sharpton. John is ready to forgive him for the deplorable behavior that defined the first half of his career, and I’m not. And finally, we look at the Jacob Blake shooting a year after the fact. What do we know now that we didn’t know then?We had a lot of fun doing this one, and I hope you have just as much watching it. Let me know what you think here or on Discord.Next week I’ll be posting a conversation with historian David E. Kaiser about the role of “racial justice” in the politicization of historical studies. If you’d like a preview, you can find a previous conversation of ours here. A New Home for TGSThe video for this episode is hosted on my own new YouTube channel, which is now the home of The Glenn Show. I invite you to subscribe to this channel (and click the bell button!) now so that you don't miss future offerings. This newsletter will continue to publish as usual with the same benefits for subscribers.This post is free and available to the public. To receive early access to TGS episodes, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.0:00 Some posh new (temporary) digs for The Glenn Show 1:08 The challenges and liberties of John's New York Times gig 5:24 John's efforts to help mount an unproduced black opera 14:45 The deracialization of “motherfucker” 16:58 The erotics and economics of Billions 20:58 Why John didn't support Eric Adams for NYC mayor 31:04 What undermined the potential of the Obama years? 43:22 Can Glenn ever forgive Al Sharpton? 55:16 Will Eric Adams be able to operate effectively as mayor?59:58 The Jacob Blake shooting, a year laterLinks and ReadingsJohn's NY Times piece, "How 'Woke' Became an Insult"John's NY Times piece, "Can White Men Write a Black Opera?"John's book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe