Political Economy with Jim Pethokoukis
Latest Episodes
Scott Winship: Measuring Poverty
When we talk about poverty in the United States, what do we mean? And how do we measure it? My AEI colleague Scott Winship returns to Political Economy to give us a primer on how the "war on poverty" is going.Scott is a senior fellow and Directo
J.C. Bradbury: The Case Against Stadium Subsidies
Professional sports teams love to ask local governments for public funds to build their stadiums. The teams claim these subsidies will "pay for themselves" through increased tourism and entertainment spending. But economists aren't so sure. For decades, r
James Capretta: Reforming US Health Policy
We often hear that health care in the United States is expensive, but what does that mean exactly? How can policymakers reform our healthcare system with a market-based approach? My colleague James C. Capretta, author of US Health Policy an
Stan Veuger: The State of the US Economy
At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, my AEI colleague Stan Veuger told me we needed to support firms until the US economy could rebound. Two and a half years later, how have we fared? Dr. Veuger is back to discuss our fiscal response to the pandemic, the
Kyle Pomerleau: A Tax Policy Primer
When voters and politicians discuss tax policy, the rates we have to pay and the revenue government will raise are front of mind. But what about the other economic effects of the tax code? Taxes can affect savings and investment, economic growth
Bryan Caplan: Free Markets, Demagoguery, and More
Why has the American political scene seemed to be so irrational in the past several years? Economist and author Bryan Caplan says it all comes down to social desirability bias, the observation that people prefer what sounds good to what's true. In this ep
Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin: How the World Became Rich
Poverty was the norm for most of human history. Then, starting in Britain in the 18th century, economic growth took off. So what happened? Economists have theories about the origins of the Industrial Revolution, from geography to culture to inst
Ali Hajimiri: Space-Based Solar Power
When you think of the future of clean energy, wind and solar might be the first things that come to mind. But when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, the need for alternative sources of power becomes apparent. From advanced geothermal to nuc
Anna Stansbury: Is the Productivity-Pay Link Broken?
When the topic of productivity growth comes up, a common retort is that productivity and pay have delinked, meaning all the gains of productivity growth go to the top while workers' wages remain stagnant. So how well do productivity gains translate into h
Michael Strain: Is a Recession on the Horizon?
The Federal Reserve recently announced a 75-basis-point rate hike the largest since 1994 in an attempt to curb inflation. The Fed's aim is to thread the needle by cooling the economy just enough to rein in rising prices without inducing a recession. B