logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2024
1h 11m

Debt is political: Why wealth flows from...

Ben Norton
About this episode
How does the structure of the international financial system cause a drain of wealth from the poor to the rich? Political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss the politics of debt. VIDEO (with the charts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bu9dHGRpmE Read the transcript (with the charts) here: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/debt-politics-wea ... Show More
Up next
Apr 17
Why is Trump blockading Iran's blockade? This is the crazy, and dangerous, US strategy
The peace talks held between the US and Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan failed. Despite a temporary, two-week ceasefire Donald Trump announced a naval blockade of the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Ben Norton explains the USA's strategy, and how it is targeting China and A ... Show More
27m 59s
Apr 13
China just prevented a war over Taiwan. This is how
The US government has pushed for years for a war with China, selling billions of dollars of weapons to separatists in Taiwan. However, those plans are falling apart, after the leader of the KMT, the Nationalist Party based in Taipei, took a historic trip to the mainland, promotin ... Show More
36m 25s
Apr 9
US and Israel immediately violate ceasefire with Iran: The war is not over
The United States and Iran agreed to a temporary, two-week ceasefire. However, Tehran said Washington immediately violated it, by allowing Israel to bomb Lebanon. Ben Norton explains how the USA has repeatedly lied about its diplomacy, and how Donald Trump's "art of the deal" is ... Show More
23m 28s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2016
Faiza Shaheen: Inequality
The world's richest 62 people now own as much wealth as the poorest 50%, according to a new report released by Oxfam. But what are we measuring when we talk about wealth and inequality? Why does it matter? And what can we do about it? Kirsty chats to Dr Faiza Shaheen. Weekly Econ ... Show More
15m 32s
Aug 2025
Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs
Today on the show, President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs go into effect this week. Fareed speaks with Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, and Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of the conservative think-tank American Compass, about what this trade war ... Show More
41m 52s
Dec 2024
A Nobel prize for explaining why there's global inequality
Why do some nations fail and others succeed?In the late 1990s and early 2000s, three economists formed a partnership that would revolutionize how economists think about global inequality. Their work centered on a powerful — and almost radically obvious — idea: that the economic f ... Show More
28m 29s
Jul 2020
Episode 85 - Banks sway the narrative
Discussion of economic and political news starts at 05:57, analysis on the banks winning the narrative begins at 27:10. After managing to record the podcast between power cuts, Ben and Nizar analyze the political and economic news of the past week, including Alain Bifani's resign ... Show More
48m 36s
Aug 2025
What's Really Happening with the US Economy?
While the White House claims the US economy is booming, recent data indicates otherwise, with one report in particular fueling concerns about a weak job market. In response, President Trump fired the person responsible for producing the numbers he claims were "rigged." So what's ... Show More
56m 13s
Nov 2025
Why Economists Should Care About Inequality, with Branko Milanovic
<p>Recently, Bethany and Luigi joined economist and wealth inequality expert Branko Milanovic in front of a live audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival to explore how capitalism, democracy, and income inequality interact. Together, the three discussed the pervasiveness of income in ... Show More
46m 41s
Sep 2024
How to cut government debt, with Robin Wigglesworth
<p>Jamaica’s economy struggled for decades, and at one point it had amassed debts worth more than 140 per cent of GDP. Even the IMF wouldn’t return its calls. But somehow, in the 2010s, it managed to halve its government debt – over just seven years. Today on the show, we ask how ... Show More
28m 24s
Aug 2024
The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes: What’s wrong with economics?
<p>This week, we’re bringing you something from our fellow FT podcast, The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Sir Angus Deaton won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2015. So when he says he is rethinking many of his assumptions about the field, it matters. Today on ... Show More
34m 42s
Mar 2025
Why a Worrisome Economy Doesn’t Seem to Worry Trump
<p>As President Trump has rolled out his economic agenda, the assumption has been that he would quickly scale back his most aggressive policies once they began to scare consumers and the financial markets. But that assumption turned out to be wrong.</p><p>Ben Casselman, who cover ... Show More
30m 15s
Jul 2024
Veep show: America meets J.D. Vance
<p>J.D. Vance was largely unknown in American politics until <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/07/16/jd-vance-is-now-the-heir-apparent-to-the-maga-movement?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.a ... Show More
25m 45s