- #20 +8Politik & Verwaltung
- #20beste Platzierung
- alle zwei WochenErscheinungsrhythmus
- 51 mintypische Länge
- 22. Okt.letzte Folge
We investigate how capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today.
Hosted by economist Luigi Zingales and business journalist Bethany McLean, our podcast explains why capitalism can go wrong and what we can do to fix it.
Send us your questions or comments by emailing capitalisntpod@gmail.com
Cover photo attributions: chicagobooth.edu/research/stigler/about/capita….
Folgen
2026 Midterms: Promises vs. Economics
Everyone covers the 2026 midterms like a sports match, so we pulled the candidates' actual economic platforms and stress-tested the math. Instead of asking who is up by two points in Michigan, Texas, or South Carolina, this special 2026 Mid
The Case That Could End Super PACs - ft. Larry Lessig
Everyone blames Citizens United for super PACs. Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig says they're blaming the wrong case, and he is actually taking his argument to court. The ruling that actually created super PACs, he argues, is SpeechNow
The Workplace Is a Dictatorship? - ft. Elizabeth Anderson
At the center of our market economy sits an institution that runs more like a dictatorship. The firm you work for writes the rules and enforces them. There is no vote, no appeal, and no constitution. The only real remedy is to leave. Univer
Why Congress Protects Car Dealers More Than Elon Musk - ft. Eric Zwick
For every member of the Forbes 400, there are more than 4,000 private business owners worth at least $10 million. You probably have never heard of any of them. They own the beer distributorship in your town, the dental group with four offic
Can Capitalism Serve the Common Good? - ft. Mariana Mazzucato
The drugs in your medicine cabinet were probably discovered on your dime, in a university lab, with NIH money. You don't hold the patent. You don't set the price. Same story with the touchscreen, the GPS and the voice assistant in your pock
The One Thing That Could Decide If AI Takes Your Job - Ft. Luis Garicano
AI is coming for your job; AI isn't coming for your job. Economist Luis Garicano thinks both camps are asking the wrong question. In Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach, Garicano and co-authors Jin Li and Yanhui Wu argue that all know
Can Liberalism Survive This Kind of Capitalism? - ft. Daron Acemoglu
For most of the last century liberal democracies offered a simple deal: the economy grows and, if you work hard, you get a fair shot at the rewards. According to 2024 Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, that deal is broken. Acemog
How Washington Privatized The Capital Market - ft. Renée Jones
Amazon went public three years after it was founded. SpaceX stayed private for 24 years. What changed and why does it matter? The standard story is that companies avoid an IPO because public markets carry too many government rules and too m
A Conservative's Attack On Neoliberalism - Ft. Chris Griswold
The Republican Party is often associated with free-market fundamentalism, deregulation, and tax cuts. But a new faction on the right is challenging that consensus. In this episode, Bethany and Luigi sit down with Chris Griswold, the Policy
Was The Constitution An Anti-Democratic Coup? - ft. Michael Klarman
Were the foundations of American governance engineered to protect the wealthy? Harvard Law professor Michael Klarman argues that the US Constitution was actually a counter-revolutionary coup to constrain democracy rather than protect it. Th
Our Personal Finance Mistakes Are The Industry's Profits - ft. John Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai
Is personal finance rigged against ordinary people? Economists John Campbell and Tarun Ramadorai argue the system rewards the wealthy and financially savvy at the expense of everyone else. Their book Fixed points to a troubling pattern: the
Was Free Trade Ever Really Free? - ft. Fmr. Biden Trade Rep. Katherine Tai
Free trade was never actually free? That's the case Katherine Tai, Joe Biden's former U.S. Trade Representative, brings Bethany McLean and Luigi Zingales this week. For decades, the economic consensus treated free trade as an engine for che
Why Corporations Always Win At The Supreme Court - ft. Adam Winkler
Corporations are people in the eyes of the law. But how did that happen, and why does it hand them rights you don't have? UCLA law professor Adam Winkler, author of "We the Corporations", traces a 200-year campaign by business to win the co
You Can't Buy Trust - ft. Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales
How does a free, decentralized, volunteer-run encyclopedia produce something more trusted than nearly any for-profit institution? Luigi Zingales and Bethany McLean sit down with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales to explore how the platform o
Is Healthcare Making Capitalism Sick? - ft. Zack Cooper
Are stagnant wages the hidden price tag of a broken healthcare system? On this week's Capitalisn't, Yale health economist Zack Cooper tells Bethany McLean and Luigi Zingales that the U.S. healthcare market is failing because of structural f
How “Muskism” Is Changing American Capitalism - ft. Quinn Slobodian
For the better part of the 20th century, the American economy relied on the steady social peace of "Fordism"—an era of mass production and consumption that helped reconcile capitalism with democracy. Today, a radical new paradigm threatens
Is Capitalism Delivering For The Majority? - ft. Steve Kaplan
The US economy looks great on paper: high GDP, low unemployment, and booming markets. So why does it feel like the system is broken for so many people? To unpack the disconnect between macroeconomic data and everyday financial anxiety, we’r
Is The College Promise Broken? - ft. Noam Scheiber
For decades, Americans were promised that a college degree guaranteed a secure spot in the middle class. But instead of entering corporate management, many graduates are finding themselves trapped in low-paying service roles with crippling
The Real Cause Of Wage Stagnation - ft. Arin Dube
Economic models have treated the labor market like a perfectly competitive system where wages naturally align with worker value. Arin Dube, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of “The Wage Standard”, ch
Is Everyone Getting Adam Smith Wrong? - ft. Glory Liu
Most people associate Adam Smith with free markets and “the invisible hand”. But does this conventional narrative purposefully ignore Smith’s deep suspicions about monopolies and power? Georgetown assistant professor Glory Liu argues this n
Why Human Progress Is Not Inevitable - ft. Carl Frey
We tend to view technological advancement as an unstoppable force that naturally improves our living standards over time. From the printing press to the internet, modern society assumes that groundbreaking ideas will always find their way i
The Hidden Economic Dangers Of Supreme Court Overreach - ft. Steve Vladeck
For decades, Americans viewed the Supreme Court as an impartial referee standing above the political fray. However, public trust in this vital institution has recently plummeted to historic lows. Many observers blame a surge in ideological
Adam Smith In The Age of The “Epstein Class” - ft. MP Jesse Norman
As we approach the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's “Wealth of Nations" this March, his theories on competition and the invisible hand remain part of the bedrock of modern economics. But, have we undermined those theories in our economy to
How Inequality Distorts the Law - ft. Katharina Pistor
If we want to understand why capitalism feels broken, do we need to stop looking at the economy and start looking at the legal code that underpins it? In our system, capital is often described as money, machinery, or raw materials. But Colu
Are Betting Apps Engineered for Addiction? - ft. Jonathan Cohen
If a sports betting app has the data to know exactly when a user is struggling financially, should it have a legal duty to cut that person off? On this episode of Capitalisn't, we dive into the murky waters of the American sports betting ex
Can We Build a Middle Class Without Factories? - ft. Dani Rodrik
Is the era of manufacturing-led growth officially over? For decades, the path to a stable middle class was paved through industrialization, but today, even manufacturing giants like China are losing millions of factory jobs to automation. I
Who Should The Fed Answer To? - ft. Sir Paul Tucker
Is the Federal Reserve’s independence a pillar of democracy or a convenient shield that allows elected officials to duck their responsibilities? This week on Capitalisn’t, we confront a shift in Washington after the Justice Department serve
How To Fix The American Tax System - ft. Ray Madoff
Is the American tax code a fair engine for growth, or a "second estate" where the rich choose whether or not to pay? We are often told that the top 1% of earners already pay 40% of all taxes, while nearly half of Americans pay nothing at al
How Capitalism Became Global ft. Sven Beckert
Is capitalism a force of nature, or a human-made order that we have the power to shape? In this episode, Luigi and Bethany sit down with Sven Beckert, a Harvard historian and author of the new book A Global History of Capitalism, to tackle
How to Stop “Ensh*ttification” Before It Kills the Internet - ft. Cory Doctorow
There’s a word that’s gained a lot of popularity in the last year: “ensh*ttification”. It refers to a trajectory many see with digital platforms: they initially offer immense value to users, only to systematically degrade that quality over
