Mostly Economics

In this episode, Dean Baker and renowned macroeconomist Claudia Sahm discuss the economic shocks from attacking Iran and the Federal Reserve’s policy stance amid geopolitical tensions.

Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein answer listener-submitted questions on the biggest economic issues of the moment: the affordability crisis gripping American families, the surprising Democratic victories in off-year elections, and how the government shutdown is erasing critical economic data.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses his book “The Road to Freedom,” explaining why real economic freedom means more than just keeping government small.

This week, Dean speaks with Sasha Abramsky, freelance writer for The Nation and author of the forthcoming book “American Carnage,” which examines how the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE systematically targeted federal workers in 2025.

Dean speaks with Milo Vassallo, Executive Director of the Media and Democracy Project, about combating news deserts and the power of citizen journalism.

This week Dean speaks to Kim Weeden, Professor of Sociology at Cornell University and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality, about why America’s wage gap keeps growing. 

Vice President for Health Policy, Sarah Lueck, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities joins Dean Baker to discuss the Affordable Care Act’s future amid a prolonged government shutdown.

Ha-Joon Chang, Professor at the Department of Economics at SOAS University of London and Senior Research Fellow at CEPR, critiques the IMF and World Bank’s Washington Consensus model. He explains how neoclassical economics locks poor countries into existing capabilities.

Dean Baker speaks with Suresh Naidu, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, about unions’ role in reducing inequality, how employer wage-setting power shapes labor markets, sectoral bargaining experiments in California and Minnesota, the problems with H-1B visa programs, and why Democrats shifted away from labor policy toward tax-and-transfer approaches in recent decades.

Dean Baker speaks with Heather Boushey, former Council of Economic Advisers member and current Professor of Practice at UPenn’s Climate Center for Energy Policy, about the Biden administration’s economic legacy.