An Elegy for the DEI Boogeyman
Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
4.9 • 829 Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rapidly changed government and corporate policies mean the era of DEI is coming to a screeching halt. But gross racial discrimination in the U.S. labor market persists. Just one example: The black unemployment rate is almost always double the white unemployment rate. In this episode we muddle through what can be said about DEI now at its funeral that wasn’t said during its lifespan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Optimist Economy. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm Catherine. |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Robin. |
| 0:09.0 | On this show, we believe the U.S. economy can be better, and we talk about how to get there, |
| 0:14.0 | one problem and solution at a time. |
| 0:20.0 | We envision for this show to have three segments, and they're going to have really awesome, |
| 0:29.3 | catchy, clever titles that are the epitome of being pithy and witty at the same time. |
| 0:35.5 | At some point, in the future. |
| 0:37.3 | In the future. At future at the moment this is |
| 0:39.3 | called segment one segment one the first segment robin what did you look up this week what did you |
| 0:46.1 | read this week you know i looked up i looked up a couple of words but one was now i don't know how to say it |
| 0:52.8 | autarky autarky i think it's autarky i say it, autarky, autarky? I think it's autarky. I think it's autarky. |
| 0:57.3 | And it's a great looking word, A-U-T-A-R-K-Y, but it can also be spelled with a CH, which makes it look a little bit like autocratic. |
| 1:06.0 | Autarchy is a state of being economically independent or self-sufficient, came up in the context of |
| 1:12.3 | tariffs and trade policy. And I always find it interesting when new words just start popping |
| 1:17.0 | up in especially journalistic outlets. It signals that there's something going on. And that |
| 1:22.2 | was the one I looked up this week. Economists can use it synonymously with it's a country that |
| 1:27.4 | doesn't trade. |
| 1:28.3 | Right. |
| 1:28.7 | So it's the positive version of that is that you're economically independent or self-sufficient, but we think of it as being on some level just this is a country that doesn't trade. |
| 1:39.9 | And so their economy is, I think, in autarky. |
| 1:42.6 | I think it's a noun. |
... |
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