E121: Elon vs. D.C. - Can DOGE Fix America’s $36 Trillion Debt Bomb? w/ Dr. Dirk Mateer

In this episode, Jesse is joined by Dr. Dirk Mateer, award-winning educator and professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin. Together, they dive deep into the growing U.S. national debt, the rise of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and whether Elon Musk can really trim $2 trillion from the federal budget.

Topics covered include:

• The real scale of government waste, fraud, and inefficiency
• Creative destruction and whether government can be “run like a business”
• What students today think about the $36 trillion national debt
• Why Social Security is a demographic time bomb
• Lessons from Japan’s debt and what a U.S. default could look like
• Modern Monetary Theory and why Dirk doesn’t buy it
• The risk of de-dollarization and losing global reserve currency status
• Whether AI could shrink the size of government
• Why U.S. education needs to be reimagined for a post-industrial world

Mateer also shares his favorite films for learning economics and gives a final message on how individuals can prepare for fiscal turbulence ahead.

📚 Books: Principles of Economics by Dirk Mateer (Norton)
📬 Contact: dmateer@utexas.edu | @dirkmateer on X

 

📺Watch the full episode on YouTube➡️https://youtu.be/OoKzo2N2pPo

🎙 The Pod is hosted by Jesse Wright
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