

Macrodose
Planet B Productions
Your weekly fix of everything economics. Hosted by James Meadway.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 8, 2023 • 15min
I want to be in America
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new figures that signal positive news for the US economy (0:48), how good news for the US might be bad news for the rest of the globe (6:09) and the recent record-breaking profits made by fossil fuel producers (10:55).
You can register here (https://bit.ly/3YAtp5J) for a free ticket for the launch of The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it), a vital book James has co-authored with Doug Nicholls and Professor Costas Lapavitsas.

Feb 1, 2023 • 16min
The largest wave of strikes in a generation, but will they win?
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the UK’s recording-breaking wave of strikes (0:42), how these compare to other strike movements around the world (4:43), and a new report from the BBC that finds issues with the “impartiality” of its economics reporting (12:32).

Jan 30, 2023 • 10min
Making Neoliberalism: the economics of Empire w/ Kojo Koram
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.
You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with climate activist and author Kate Aronoff, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.
Our guest today is Kojo Koram. Kojo is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, a tour de force on the legacies of Empire and how they shape modern Britain, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022.
Kojo is also the co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State, which was published in 2021, and star of the recent short-film for openDemocracy, Boomerang: how the legacies of empire are breaking Britain’s economy - which you can find on Youtube.

Jan 25, 2023 • 15min
Dedollarisation, Bretton Woods III, and a global wealth tax?
This podcast discusses the shift away from the dominance of the dollar, the potential emergence of a new international monetary system, the impact of the US dollar's dominance in the global economy, and the proposal for significant tax increases on the super-rich.

Jan 18, 2023 • 20min
Polycrisis at Davos, US in debt, and deadly heatwaves
This podcast discusses the 'polycrisis' at the World Economic Forum, the US debt ceiling threat, and explores the future of work in the era of climate breakdown.

Jan 13, 2023 • 8min
Betting Against the Future: the economics of inequality w/ Gary Stevenson
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis and labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, as well as upcoming interviews with author Kojo Koram, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.
Our guest today is Gary Stevenson. Gary is a former city trader turned campaigner who made millions of pounds working at Citibank, betting that inequality would keep getting worse. He is now the host of the popular Youtube channel, Gary’s economics - where his short videos provide insight into how the economy is broken, how the rich are getting richer and what we can do to fix it.

Jan 11, 2023 • 17min
Wage bounce in Europe, Global South debt, and poverty in Britain
In this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the European Central Bank’s report of a wage bounce in Europe (0.37), the odious debt regimes crippling the economies of the Global South (7.09), and a new survey from the Resolution Foundation that reveals the extent of the cost-of-living crisis in Britain (13.46).

Jan 4, 2023 • 18min
China’s downturn, Blackrock’s predictions, and the struggling tech billionaires
In the latest episode of MACRODOSE, James Meadway breaks down a new IMF forecast that predicts China’s economic downturn, a set of predictions for our economic future from multinational asset manager Blackrock, and asks what’s happening to the wealth of the tech billionaires?

Dec 28, 2022 • 17min
Robots and Foucault: the economics of work w/ Sarah Jaffe
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interview with Yanis Varoufakis, as well as upcoming interviews with former finance trader Gary Stevenson, academic Kojo Koram and public economist Richard Wolff.
In today's episode James Meadway speaks to labour journalist Sarah Jaffe about the wave of strikes we’ve seen this year - from nurses, rail workers and posties here in the U.K, to teachers, Amazon workers, and Starbucks employees over in the United States. What’s new about the latest wave of labour action and why is it happening now?
Sarah is the author of two wonderful books - Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone (2021), and Necessary Trouble, Americans in Revolt (2016). She is also a co-host of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as a columnist at The Progressive.

Dec 21, 2022 • 16min
The economics of inactivity, covid contracts and Japan’s policy twist
On this week’s MACRODOSE James Meadway takes a look at a new House of Lord’s report on economic inactivity (0:52s), the financial waste of Covid contracts (7:03) and an unexpected move by Japan’s central bank (12:16).
Head over to Patreon.com/Macrodose to access all of our MACRODOSE EXTRA content, including James' recent interview with Yanis Varoufakis.