Bretton Goods

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**Bretton Goods**

I talk to the most interesting people about economic growth

Latest Episodes:

Ep 44: Trade Policy Tragedy in India Jul 31, 2022

Show notes

I talked to Anupam Manur, a professor of economics about India's trade policy before 1991. We talked about:

The scarcity mindset about foreign exchange reserves
The controversial 1966 devaluation
How did the pre-1991 import licensing system work?
“The financial account was almost non existent”
“Hindustan Motors and Toyota were set up at the same time but in 15 years Toyota sold 280 times the cars”
“Productivity growth was almost absent before 1991”

Ep 43: Funding Science and Innovation in the UK Jul 17, 2022

Show notes

I spoke to Professor Richard Jones, about how science funding in the UK could improve. Some interesting questions we talked about are

“Penny wise, pound foolish” in science funding
Creating markets for technological advances
How he’d invest a billion £ to accelerate scientific innovation?

Ep 42: Parliamentarism Jul 10, 2022

Show notes

I talked to Tiago Santos, a diplomat, about his book Why Not Parliamentarism. Tiago and I explore some questions here

What makes parliamentary democracies superior to presidential ones?
The creeping presidentialisation of parliamentary democracies
The optimal rate of constitutional amendments

Ep 41: Libertarianism and podcasting with Amit Varma Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

I talked to Amit Varma who runs one of my favourite podcasts - The Seen and the Unseen about politics, economics and public policy. We talked about

Libertarianism within the Indian canon
Cultivating your audience
Being a public intellectual
The differences between generations

Ep 40: Progress Studies Jun 19, 2022

Show notes

I spoke to Jason Crawford of The Roots of Progress about the new movement of Progress Studies. We talked about

Building a culture of economic progress
Why are developed countries more averse to progress?
Is there a tradeoff between economic progress and existential risk?
What is the main constraint for the movement today?

Ep 39: Macro Investing Jun 05, 2022

Show notes

I talked with Mayank Seksaria of Liberty Mutual Investments about investing on macroeconomic views. We talked about

Translating macro views into investing allocations
A bottom up view of the macroeconomy
Evaluating macro talent
Why does institutional research cost so much?

Ep 38: The Bond King May 22, 2022

Show notes

I spoke to Mary Childs who is the author of the exceptional book The Bond King. We talked about

How finance became an interesting profession
How do you build institutions that succeed at investing?
Can we automate the Fed?
Financial history being undervalued

Ep 37: Australia: A Mine with a Parliament? May 15, 2022

Show notes

I spoke to Steven Hamilton professor of Economics at George Washington University about Australian economic policy, and their upcoming elections. We talk about

Why was Australian COVID policy so strict?
Australia as a nation of prison guards
Economic issues of the Australian election
“Australia is a mine with a parliament”
Dutch disease in Australia
Swimming, intermittent fasting and other personal habits

Ep 36: Labour Economics Versus the World May 08, 2022

Show notes

What is the labour market like? What are the largest barriers in the labour market? Nathan Young and I spoke to economist Bryan Caplan about his new book Labor Econ Versus The World. We also talk about

Censorship and dictatorships
Bets he is willing to take
Malengo and international migration
DALLE-2 and writing graphic novels
The literature on education
Why he is not an experimental economist
The effect of AI on jobs

Bets Bryan is willing to take

No important disruption to the politics of countries where Ukrainian refugees immigrate
Poland will gain over 3x of the GDP Ukraine loses with regards to immigration
Less than 20% chance of humanity ending by 2100
Less than 60% chance that he will consider misaligned AI to be a problem in 20 years
If >5% of people immigrate to a developed nation there will be no civil wars
Upper bounds on religious fundamentalism in the EU
What are the odds that mainstream psychiatry accepts his view of mental illness?