The Rhodes Center Podcast with Mark Blyth

• Why capitalism can’t solve the climate crisis

  To state the obvious, there are many hurdles to addressing the climate crisis in a meaningful way. However, there’s been one relatively bright spot on this front in the last decade: the price of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind power — has dropped dramatically. By many measures, they’re now cheaper to produce than fossil fuels. So does that mean when it comes to a “green transition” can we just sit back and let the market take care of it? According to Brett Christophers, a professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University and author of the new book “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”: absolutely not.On this episode, Mark and Brett discuss the many reasons why cheap renewable energy production won’t lead to renewables dominating the energy market. In doing so, they also put the entire energy economy under a microscope and challenge the notion that the private sector will ever be able to lead us through a green transition.Learn more about and purchase “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”Watch Brett’s October 2024 talk at the Rhodes CenterLearn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

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• Why we think what we think, when we think about inflation

  This is a new experiment we’re trying at the Rhodes Center Podcast. From time to time, going forward, instead of focusing on one expert and their latest research, Mark will take a deeper dive into one issue (or one question) that’s been bothering him. Future episodes will examine the politics of immigration and the persistence of inequality. But the first episode in this new series will explore a topic especially near and dear to Mark: inflation. Specifically, the stories we tell about what causes inflation, how those stories affect our efforts to curb it, and who wins and loses depending on which stories our leaders believe. In the first half of this episode, Mark talks with economist Nicolò Fraccaroli about a book he and Mark wrote called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers” (coming out in Spring 2025). In the second half, Mark talks with economist Claudia Sahm about the history of inflation, the role central banks play in it, and what’s lost when we try to take politics and politicians out of the inflation debate. (One thing to note: both of these conversations were recorded before the election, but the ideas explored in these conversations are just as relevant now as ever.)Guests on this episode:Nicolò Fraccaroli is an economist at the World BankClaudia Sahm is Chief Economist for New Century Advisors and former Section Chief at the Federal Reserve’s Board of GovernorsLearn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

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• Why we ran out of everything during the pandemic, and why it had less to do with the pandemic and more to do with the corporations that made us much more vulnerable to it

  Remember the supply chain problems of 2020 and 2021? The story we were told was that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy's ability to make and transport goods of every type imaginable: Surgical masks. Car parts. Infant formula. But as New York Times' global economic correspondent Peter Goodman explains in his new book, “How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain,” the story is more complicated than that. On this episode, Goodman and Mark Blyth discuss how, over decades, consulting firms and shareholders built a system that drove up profits but imperiled our economy, ultimately making COVID-related supply shocks (and the inflation that followed) much worse than they needed to be. Furthermore, if Goodman is right, it’s only a matter of time before we risk running out of everything again.Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

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• The expulsion of politics? What the UK’s Office of Budget Responsibility tells us about the limits of technocracy

  When it comes to governing our economy, estimates rule the day. We want to know what effect a policy might have on the government’s budget, on economic growth, on employment…in the next 1 year, 5 years, 10 years…you get the idea. If you want to make (or critique) public policy, you better have numbers to back it up. To get those types of estimates, economists and politicians often rely on institutions like the Office for Budget Responsibility in the UK, or the Congressional Budget Office in the United States. As a result, their estimates and fiscal projections form crucial data points in our modern politics and policymaking. We like to think that these estimates and projections (not to mention, the people who make them) come from somewhere outside of our partisan politics. That while our values might be debatable, the numbers, at least, aren’t.But, as Mark Blyth’s guest on this episode explains: that idea is a fantasy, and to the extent it obscures the values and politics that are baked into organizations like the Office of Budget Responsibility, it’s a dangerous one. On this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Ben Clift, author of “The Office for Budget Responsibility and the Politics of Technocratic Economic Governance.” In it, he pulls back the curtain on Britain's Office for Budget Responsibility, and reveals the hidden processes and ideologies that shape the estimates and projections that come out of it. In doing so, he shows how the OBR – and other institutions like it – are much more political than they appear. Learn more about and purchase “The Office for Budget Responsibility and the Politics of Technocratic Economic Governance”Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

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• Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy citizenship abroad

  When you think of high-end luxury commodities, you might imagine yachts, private jets, or even whole islands. But in the last few years, another commodity has started to receive a lot of attention from the world’s wealthiest people: citizenship. With enough money, people can buy their way into becoming a citizen of a growing list of countries around the world. While this trend has garnered lots of attention in the last few years, as our guest on this episode explains, there’s so much more to the story than meets the eye. Kristin Surak is a sociologist and author of the new book “The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires.” In it, she pulls back the curtain on this rarified luxury market — who’s buying, who’s selling, and the complex web of middlemen that make it all work. On this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Surak about what might be called the “citizenship industrial complex”’ and what it says about our global economy. Learn more about and purchase “The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires”Learn more about our other podcasts at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs

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