How we all fell for The Big Myth (with Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When did ordinary people come to believe that free market solutions are always better than government intervention? How do we create a future where markets serve democracy instead of stifling it? In this episode we’re talking about the “magic” of the marketplace and the myth that the free market is ruthlessly efficient and always knows best. The co-authors of The Big Myth explain exactly how American business taught us to loathe government and love the free market. Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. Erik M. Conway is a historian of science and technology and works for the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of seven books and dozens of articles and essays. Twitter: @NaomiOreskes, @ErikMConway The Big Myth https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/big-myth-9781635573572 The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout Didn’t Need to Happen https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-13-silicon-valley-bank-bailout-deregulation Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Market Fundamentalism. Is that the big myth?
0:04.1	The big myth is what Ronald Reagan called the magic of the marketplace.
0:08.4	The idea that the market has power, that has wisdom, that has almost a godlike quality
0:13.7	in its ability to sort out problems, and therefore we should trust and have the faith in the
0:18.0	marketplace.
0:19.2	How do we get past the big myth? What do we need to do? And the thing that we need to do
0:23.0	and what we try to do on this podcast and in all of our work is tell a better story.
0:31.0	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics,
0:38.0	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:49.0	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:52.0	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:01.0	The magic of the marketplace is working its way out this morning, Goldie.
1:08.0	All my Silicon Valley buddies are in an absolute panic over the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank.
1:15.0	And up until Thursday evening, they were all absolutely convinced that government was evil
1:21.0	and that libertarianism was the righteous path and that if we just had less regulation
1:27.0	and paid less taxes and had less government interference, that all would be well.
1:32.0	And everyone in the whole wide world would be better off.
1:36.0	And this morning, oddly Monday morning, they're screaming bloody murder about how the federal government
1:42.0	needs to step in and rescue this institution and them and them as depositors in it,
1:50.0	because during it, mistakes were made, but not by now.
1:54.0	In the end, it's got to be the government's fault because thinking of this way,
1:59.0	this bank wouldn't legally be insolvent if we didn't have laws defining insolvency.
	...

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