Is Econ 101 a lie? (with Eric Beinhocker and James Kwak)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2018

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is “Econ 101,” and why do economists always get things wrong? In this episode we dismantle orthodox economics, exploring where it comes from, why it's wrong, and how “It’s Econ 101!” became a cynical rallying cry in defense of the status quo. Guests Eric Beinhocker (The Origin of Wealth) and James Kwak (Economism) explain that, far from a science, Econ 101 is really just a story we tell ourselves to justify who gets what and why. And it’s time to tell a different story. Eric Beinhocker: Professor of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. Author of The Origin of Wealth. Twitter: @ericbeinhocker James Kwak: Professor of Law at the Connecticut School of Law. Co-founder of the economics blog “The Baseline Scenario”, a commentary on developments in the global economy, law, and public policy. Author of Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality. Columnist for The Atlantic. Twitter: @jamesykwak Further reading: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/economism-and-the-minimum-wage/513155/

Transcript

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0:00.0	In a sense, economics has become the religion of our time.
0:04.0	It's not a law of nature, it's an intimidation tactic,
0:07.0	masquerading as an economic theory, it's a way to negotiate wages at scale.
0:11.0	In the neoliberal political movement,
0:14.9	we argue that this imaginary world got confused
0:17.7	with the real world.
0:18.6	We made rich people richer
0:19.8	and occasionally threw a bone to the poor.
0:21.7	At the end of the day, if all we stand for is leveling the playing field of the free market,
0:26.0	that's not enough. From the offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics with
0:38.3	Nick Hanauer.
0:39.8	It's like Econ 101 without all the B.S. I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:57.0	I'm David Goldstein, Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:02.0	I'm Stephanie Ervin.
1:03.0	I run a lot of our advocacy and campaign work here at Civic Ventures.
1:06.0	So Nick, last week you introduced us to Pitch Fork Economics.
1:11.0	You told us that the Pitchforks are coming for us.
1:14.0	This episode, we will talk about why, and start by asking the question,
1:21.0	is Econ 101 a lie?
1:25.0	You ever taken like an Econ 101 course?
1:29.0	No, I've never taken an economy class.
1:32.0	Yes, microeconomics and macroeconomics 101.
	...

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