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About Bernardo Batiz-Lazo

I am a business historian of the automation of retail banking. I have explored themes such as the ATM and the cashless society. My interests and publications also straddle contemporary issues in digital payments. For my weekly list of working papers in business and economic history see http://nep.repec.org/nep-his.h...

Bernardo Batiz-Lazo is currently straddling between Newcastle and Mexico City. You can find him on twitter on issues related to business history of banking, fintech, payments and other musings. Not always in that order. @BatizLazo

Bernardo's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Bernardo:

Economic and Business History May 28, 2023

Better Money

Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin?

Lawrence H. White

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
The recent rise of dollar, pound, and euro inflation rates has rekindled the debate over potential alternative monies, particularly gold and Bitcoin. Though Bitcoin has been much discussed in recent …
Economic and Business History April 16, 2023

The Venice Arsenal

Between History, Heritage, and Re-use

Luca Zan

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
The Venice Arsenal: Between History, Heritage, and Re-Use (Routledge, 2022) reviews four decades of debate about restoring an industrial heritage site of inestimable value - the Venice Arsenal. Focusing on …
Economic and Business History April 9, 2023

Easy Money

American Puritans and the Invention of Modern Currency

Dror Goldberg

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
Economists endlessly debate the nature of legal tender monetary systems--coins and bills issued by a government or other authority. Yet the origins of these currencies have received little attention. Dror …
Economic and Business History March 12, 2023

Birth of Modern Facts

How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments and Businesses

James W. Cortada

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
For over twenty years, James W. Cortada has pioneered research into how information shapes society. In Birth of Modern Facts: How the Information Revolution Transformed Academic Research, Governments and Businesses …
Technology November 28, 2022

The Handbook of Banking Technology

Tim Walker and Lucian Morris

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In The Handbook of Banking Technology (John Wiley & Sons, 2021), Walker and Morris provide a first comprehensive view of the systems that support a bank. During the interview, they bring out …
Economic and Business History November 7, 2022

Foreign Banks and Global Finance in Modern China

Banking on the Chinese Frontier, 1870-1919

Ghassan Moazzin

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
Using previously unexplored and meticulously analyzed sources from China and to a lesser extent Japan, combined with those of Germany and the UK, Ghassan Moazzin provides a refreshing look at a number …
Economic and Business History November 1, 2022

Cyber and the City

Securing London’s Banks in the Computer Age

Ashley Sweetman

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
Dr. Ashley Sweetman works in cyber security for a London-based global bank and holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. While studying for his …
Economic and Business History October 28, 2022

Cellular

An Economic and Business History of the International Mobile-Phone Industry

Daniel D. Garcia-Swartz and Martin Campbell-Kelly

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In this episode, we discuss a book that will be appealing to a general audience and which helps to bridge the gap of the story of communication in the broad …
Economic and Business History October 17, 2022

Moral Economies of Money

Politics and the Monetary Constitution of Society

Jakob Feinig

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In this podcast Jakob Feinig introduces his ideas about how and when people's practices and institutions shape money and money creation. He provided deep insight into historical episodes to support …
Economic and Business History September 29, 2022

The New Goliaths

How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation

James Bessen

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In The New Goliaths: How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation (Yale UP, 2022), James Bessen explores the idea of how software can actually slow …
Economic and Business History August 31, 2022

Are We Rich Yet?

The Rise of Mass Investment Culture in Contemporary Britain

Amy Edwards

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In this podcast, Amy Edwards, author of Are We Rich Yet?: The Rise of Mass Investment Culture in Contemporary Britain (U California Press, 2022), provides a fascinating journey into her own research and how …
Economic and Business History August 24, 2022

Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom

Lessons from 100,000 Years of Human History

Johan Fourie

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom: Lessons from 100,000 Years of Human History (Cambridge UP, 2022), Johan Fourie gives a new look to economic history from an African perspective …
Economic and Business History June 29, 2022

Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich

How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World

Deirdre Nansen McCloskey and Art Carden

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
The economist and historian Deirdre Nansen McCloskey has been best known recently for her Bourgeois Era trilogy, a vigorous defense, unrivaled in scope, of commercially tested betterment. Its massive volumes …
Business, Management, and Marketing March 3, 2022

The Future of the Office

Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face

Peter Cappelli

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented experiment that reshaped white-collar work and turned remote work into a kind of new normal. Now comes the hard part. Many employees want …
Economics February 8, 2022

Cogs and Monsters

What Economics Is, and What It Should Be

Diane Coyle

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be (Princeton UP, 2021), Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today if it is to respond …
Economic and Business History December 9, 2021

The Red Taylorist

The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov

Diana Kelly

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
In this podcast Diana Kelly, author of The Red Taylorist: The Life and Times of Walter Nicholas Polakov (Emerald, 2020), tells us of the advantages of using a biography to explore a …
Economic and Business History August 18, 2021

IBM

The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon

James W. Cortada

Hosted by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo
Retired from life after 38 years in several roles at IBM, the prolific academic production of James W. Cortada now continues telling his side of the story of his long-term …