Capital Record

Episode 284: The Oren Cass Case for Central Planning Does Not Indict Wall Street for Anything

The New York Times published a long, redundant, somewhat odd screed from Oren Cass this weekend, bemoaning “financialization” and suggesting that Wall Street has duped everyone, from their investors to their own clients, about what they really do. The wide net of the attack manages to capture exactly no one, and exposes what the anti-market, pro-statism new right fail to grasp about markets. David takes on the piece point by point, and the rebuttal is worth a listen.Show notes:Oren Cass NYT piece on financializationDavid’s AIER paper on financialization Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 283: A 7 Percent Growth Economy??

When economic analysis and partisan cheerleading get mixed together, one suffers, and the other becomes embarrassing. David dissects Kevin Hassett’s claim that the economy is growing at 7 percent per year, and the dissection is not kind. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 282: Human Action in the Age of Isolation

We are living in a time period where humans are spending less time together than ever, and more and more mechanisms in the market are facilitating this. Cultural trends and a host of demographic realities are reinforcing a human isolation that is problematic at best, and catastrophic at worst.In today’s Capital Record, David addresses the human element of social interaction, and the very nature of things that undergirds this. He laments this social trajectory and recognizes where market forces can serve to accommodate unhealthy trends if human beings stay determined to do unhealthy things. But he suggests that the solution is not in criticizing the natural accommodation of markets but rather in reversing those feedback loops through intentional and deliberate action. Naturally, he finds the state’s role in this to be dubious. Rather, and with some biographical confessions, he suggests that the solution to people being increasingly alone, lonely, and devoid of healthy, human interaction, starts with us.Show notes:Derek Thompson on the anti-social century Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 281: Market Discipline, Greenland, and President Trump

We all got a lesson this week in one of the most powerful forces in world history. It is maybe the most important political dynamic on the globe today -- even more powerful than the separation of powers found in the Constitution. Indeed, unlike the latter, market discipline cannot be willed away. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode 280: Credit Card Cockamamie

The limit of a 10 percent interest rate on credit card debt is a perfect storm, an unintended consequence, a territory for bad policy. Since that Friday night announcement of the president, inspired by the Sanders/Warren wing of political ideology, we have now seen support from the president for the Credit Card Competition Act. Here, more nuances abound, and more opportunities for shaking one’s head exist. In this episode of Capital Record, David:Takes on the “credit card fees are usury” argument, some conveniently jump onto.Explains who is hurt the most by a government price control on credit card interest.Unpacks the Credit Card Competition Act.Reminds us of the most important law in economics -- “there’s no free lunch” -- accompanied by the most important question in economics -- “compared to what?” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.