Capitalisn't
Is capitalism the engine of destruction or the engine of prosperity? On this podcast we talk about the ways capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today. Hosted by author and journalist Bethany McLean and world renowned economist Luigi Zingales, we explain how capitalism can go wrong, and what we can do to fix it.
Cover photo attributions: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/stigler/about/capitalisnt.
If you would like to send us feedback, suggestions for guests we should bring on, or connect with Bethany and Luigi, please email: contact at capitalisnt dot com. If you like our show, we'd greatly appreciate you giving us a rating or a review. It helps other listeners find us too.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 41 minutes
- Episodes
- 218
- Years Active
- 2017 - 2025
The Failure of Russian Capitalism With Bill Browder
Silicon Valley’s Corporate Culture Problem With Mike Isaac
Optimizing Our Healthcare System
Shareholder Vote Suppression With SEC Commissioner Rob Jackson
Is Elizabeth Warren Right About Private Equity?
College Admission (In)Justice: Harvard and Beyond
What It Takes To Win The Nobel Prize In Economics
Economic Research: Nothing Precisely or Precisely Nothing?
Should We Let Walmart Regulate Itself?
Shareholders vs. Stakeholders
Many are praising a recent Business Roundtable announcement that corporations should serve stakeholders as well as shareholders. On the surface, this may seem like a historic reversal of the status q…
Are Stock Buybacks Evil?
Are stock buybacks evil? A lot of politicians seem to think so. Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer wrote an op-ed in the New York Times this year calling for a limit on corporate buybacks. On …
Universal Basic Income: Why and How?
If you've been paying attention to Andrew Yang's Democratic presidential campaign, you're probably familiar with the concept of universal basic income. On this episode, Kate and Luigi give the econom…
The Student Debt Crisis: There's No Such Thing As A Free College
With Democratic presidential candidates making the student debt crisis one of the central issues of the 2020 race, Kate and Luigi give an in-depth economics look at the ideas of free college tuition …
The Mickey Mouse Monopoly Club
Last episode, Kate and Luigi discussed how the patent system creates a temporary monopoly designed to make the incentives to innovate. But the real question is does the patent system, and our entire …
Luigi Submits A Patent
After our series about the dangers of monopolies, we're going to investigate a situation in which the government actually works to create monopolies on purpose: the patent system. On the first of two…
Regulating Facebook and Google Pt 3: Tyler Cowen Rebuttals
In part three of our series investigating how digital platforms like Facebook and Google should be regulated, Tyler Cowen from George Mason University argues to Kate and Luigi that more regulation ma…
Regulating Facebook and Google Pt 2: Politics
In part two of our series investigating how digital platforms like Facebook and Google should be regulated, Kate and Luigi dissect the ways these companies interact with our political system by speak…
Regulating Facebook and Google Pt 1: Markets
As digital platforms like Facebook and Google become globally powerful, some countries are investigating and even proposing legislation to regulate these companies. Building off a conference happenin…
The Morality or Immorality of A Wealth Tax
With Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposing wealth taxes, Kate and Luigi break down how these taxes have or haven't worked in other countries an…
The Ups and Downs of IPOs
There’s an acronym you’ve probably heard in the news a lot lately: IPO. With companies like Pinterest, Airbnb and UBER all considering going public this year, Kate and Luigi break down why these comp…