But yesterday, David Simon has been a creative giant in the television industry for more than

two decades.

He's the creator of a string of TV series including The Wire, Tremay, and The Plottingance

America.

But at the moment, his focus isn't on developing new shows, rather, he's smack dab in the middle

of the Hollywood writer's strike, part of the team trying to negotiate a deal.

The truth is, there has always been a healthy contempt for the creative element in this industry.

I am generalizing here, but certainly the people who are closer to the Wall Street analysts

and the people who are running the studios, I don't think they have a clue what it is

that writers do.

Welcome to People I Am Mostly Admire with Steve Love It.

Today, I'm particularly interested in talking about the writer's strike.

There are lots of academic economic papers written about labor unions and strikes, but

I have a hunch that the on-the-ground reality of strikes, why they happen, how they negotiate

it, how they end, basically little relationship to the ivory tower theories my colleagues

create.

Although at some very basic level, strikes would seem to be all about economics.

I suspect that there are many other, more powerful forces at work.

Emotions like pride, anger, and fear, things that aren't well captured through a purely

economic lens.

So let me start with a long overdue thank you.

In 1991, I was a first straight economics PhD student at MIT.

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