New Books Network

Economics August 16, 2022

The Future of Money

How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance

Eswar S. Prasad

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021) provides a cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the …

Finance August 10, 2022

How to Pay for College

A Complete Financial Plan for Funding Your Child's Education

Ann Garcia

Hosted by John Emrich

Providing your children with a good education is one of the best gifts you can give. But it’s not straightforward. Education costs and student loan debt are skyrocketing. In some cases …

Economic and Business History July 28, 2022

Pawned States

State Building in the Era of International Finance

Didac Queralt

Hosted by Javier Mejia

How foreign lending weakens emerging nations In the nineteenth century, many developing countries turned to the credit houses of Europe for sovereign loans to balance their books and weather major …

Economics July 21, 2022

Doing Economics

What You Should Have Learned in Grad School—But Didn’t

Marc F. Bellemare

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen

Graduate students and newly-minted economists often find that while their time in graduate school taught them a lot about great research of the past and the methods needed to do …

Geography July 5, 2022

The Value of a Whale

On the Illusions of Green Capitalism

Adrienne Buller

Hosted by Stentor Danielson

In this searing and insightful critique, Adrienne Buller examines the fatal biases that have shaped the response of our governing institutions to climate and environmental breakdown, and asks: are the …

Finance June 28, 2022

Does Financial Repression Work?

A Conversation with Michael Pettis

Michael Pettis

Hosted by Robert Kowit

Michael Pettis is Professor of Finance at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. He started his career in banking in 1987 just in time for the tidal wave of emerging …

Economic and Business History June 9, 2022

How the World Became Rich

The Historical Origins of Economic Growth

Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin

Hosted by Javier Mejia

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass? In How the World Became …

Economics June 7, 2022

Can Legal Weed Win?

The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics

Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner

Hosted by John Emrich

Cannabis "legalization" hasn't lived up to the hype. Across North America, investors are reeling, tax collections are below projections, and people are pointing fingers. On the business side, companies have …

Education May 31, 2022

Bankers in the Ivory Tower

The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education

Charlie Eaton

Hosted by Thomas Discenna

Elite colleges have long played a crucial role in maintaining social and class status in America while public universities have offered a major stepping-stone to new economic opportunities. However, as …

Economic and Business History May 31, 2022

Sovereign Debt Diplomacies

Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas

Hosted by Javier Mejia

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas' book Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony (Oxford UP. 2021) aims to revisit the meaning of sovereign debt in relation to …

Finance April 28, 2022

Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing

How to Live your Values and Achieve your Financial Goals with ESG, SRI, and Impact Investing

Larry E. Swedroe and Samuel C. Adams

Hosted by John Emrich

The investment industry is fast approaching a point where one-third of global assets under management are invested with a sustainable objective. But do sustainable investment products do what investors expect them …

Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight April 28, 2022

The Synergy Solution

How Companies Win the Mergers and Acquisitions Game

Mark Sirower and Jeff Weirens

Hosted by Dan Hill

Today I talked to Mark L. Sirower about his book (co-authored with Jeff Weirens) The Synergy Solution: How Companies Win the Mergers and Acquisitions Game (HBP, 2022). First impressions really do matter, and …

Economic and Business History April 26, 2022

In Defense of Public Debt

Barry Eichengreen et al.

Hosted by Javier Mejia

Public debts have exploded to levels unprecedented in modern history as governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Their dramatic rise has prompted apocalyptic warnings about the …

Finance April 20, 2022

The Bond King

How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All

Mary Childs

Hosted by John Emrich

From the host of NPR's Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond …

Gender Studies April 19, 2022

The Rise of Women and Wealth

Our Fight for Freedom, Equality, and Control of Our Financial Future

Cindy Couyoumjian

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Cindy Couyoumjian--founder of Cinergy Financial, with over thirty-six years of experience--is on a mission to empower women to stop being spectators and enter the financial arena; to stand up and …

High Theory April 18, 2022

Debt

A Discussion with Huzaifa Omair Siddiqi

Huzaifa Omair Siddiqi

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu

Huzaifa Omair Siddiqi talks about the idea of debt, mainly with respect to the book by David Graeber on its history. This episode is dedicated to his memory. Huzaifa is …

Media April 15, 2022

The World Computer

Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism

Jonathan Beller

Hosted by Marci Mazzarotto

In The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism (Duke UP, 2021) Jonathan Beller forcefully demonstrates that the history of commodification generates information itself. Out of the omnipresent calculus imposed …

Business, Management, and Marketing April 14, 2022

Subprime Attention Crisis

Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet

Tim Hwang

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

In Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (FSG Originals, 2020), Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process …

Public Policy April 8, 2022

Fixing Social Security

The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age

R. Douglas Arnold

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Since its establishment, Social Security has become the financial linchpin of American retirement. Yet demographic trends—longer lifespans and declining birthrates—mean that this popular program now pays more in benefits than …

Economics April 6, 2022

One Road to Riches?

How State Building and Democratization Affect Economic Development

Haakon Gjerløw and Carl Henrik Knutsen

Hosted by Sidney Michelini

Building effective state institutions before introducing democracy is widely presumed to improve different development outcomes. Conversely, proponents of this "stateness-first" argument anticipate that democratization before state building yields poor development …