Chicago Booth Review Podcast

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Trumponomics: Expect higher inflation—with or without tariffs Feb 05, 2025

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In the launch episode of a new series about Trumponomics, we address tariffs — the most beautiful word in the dictionary, according to Donald Trump. The US President ran promising to increase duties on all imports. In office he has ordered, and then paused, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and started a tit-for-tat tariff feud with China. How is all this affecting the US economy? Chicago Booth's Michael Weber has conducted research that documents how consumers have for months been shopping in anticipation of tariffs being put in place. That looks set to raise inflation, and set the Trump administration on a collision course with the Federal Reserve.

How to make the best of layoffs Jan 29, 2025

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A conversation in which one person informs another that they're being laid off is never welcome. But trying to avoid it can lead to poor planning, unclear messaging, anger and frustration. Is there a way to do it better? Chicago Booth's Lisa Stefanac, an expert in interpersonal dynamics, talks about what's at stake, how to prepare, and what to do if you find out that you are the person being laid off.

This episode was re-uploaded to fix a technical issue.

Do other people make us more happy, or less? Jan 22, 2025

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Humans are social animals. Being with other people can make us happy, but it can also make us unhappy, depending on how we interact and think of each other. So do others make us happier, or less happy? Chicago Booth's Thomas Talhelm has conducted research on how different cultures think about happiness. His findings about rice-growing communities in China shed light on the behavior of social-media users in the West, and raise the question of what we are really measuring when we try to measure people's happiness.

Trump 2025 vs. Trump 2016 Jan 15, 2025

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Are the factors that propelled Donald Trump to power this time around broadly the same as those that helped him win his first election victory in 2015? While the circumstances are different from a decade ago, the secular societal forces that drive support for Trump are also strikingly familiar. Welcome to the Chicago Booth Review podcast, where we bring you groundbreaking academic research in a clear and straightforward way. I'm Hal Weitzman. Today, as we prepare for another Trump inauguration, we're digging into the CBR archives to revisit a conversation between Chicago Booth's Luigi Zingales and Amir Sufi about the fundamentals behind Trump's appeal. The conversation was filmed in May 2016 as part of our Big Question video series, which brings together Booth faculty for an in-depth discussion. We wanted to bring it back because we were struck more by a sense of continuity than change. For some observers, Trump's re-election was all about economics, chiefly voters' experience of inflation and their mistrust of globalization. To others, it reflects a general disenchantment with politicians and political institutions. Those are the same phenomena that Zingales and Sufi pinpoint. The discussion also touched on the rise of the far-right across the world, which at the time was still on the margins of politics, but has since taken power in several large democracies.

Should performance reviews be scrapped? Jan 08, 2025

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Many of us react to the term "performance review" with a shudder. It's that awkward periodic conversation in which we have to hear feedback, share our assessments of each other, and, occasionally clash with our colleagues. But do performance reviews have to be like that? We hear from Chicago Booth's Stacey Kole. Does she think that performance reviews are worth saving, and if so, how can they be revamped?

How to argue for change within an organization Jan 03, 2025

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Most of us have found ourselves at some point arguing that the organizations we work in need to change. Change is hard – which is why there's a multi-billion dollar change-management industry. But what can you do to make the case for change from within? Chicago Booth's James Janega is a former journalist who now works as a Managing Partner at Growth Innovation Strategy Group and teaches storytelling to MBA students and executives at Booth. He argues that stories can help us make the case for change, regardless of the organization we're trying to improve.

What do you want to achieve in 2025? Dec 25, 2024

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It's that time when we start to think about what we want to achieve in the coming year. What can you do to make sure that this year you stay motivated and focused on your goals? We ask two experts for advice: Chicago Booth's Ayelet Fishbach, author of Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation, and Wharton's Katy Milkman, author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.

Why Bitcoin will fail Dec 18, 2024

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Evangelists of Bitcoin say its strength is the distributed ledger that no one institution controls. But as it turns out, that makes it open to sabotage, a vulnerability that will prevent it from replacing real currencies. Chicago Booth's Eric Budish has spent his career thinking about market design and proposing fixes to flaws— work that has earned him the niche title of "the LeBron James of batch auctions." According to Budish, the cost of securing Bitcoin at a really large scale is too high, and that will always limit its growth.

How to craft a winning startup pitch Dec 11, 2024

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Crafting an effective startup pitch is hard. Entrepreneurs have a short amount of time to convey the problem they're trying to solve, establish the size of the market, cover their business plan, establish their credentials, and come across as likeable and easy to work with. We get advice from Chicago Booth's James Janega, a former journalist who now works as a Managing Partner at Growth Innovation Strategy Group and teaches storytelling to MBA students and executives at Booth.

How to fix the stock market Dec 04, 2024

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In recent decades, stock markets have increasingly been speeding up, with large numbers of high-frequency traders executing trades at speeds up to billionths of a second. Does that reward the most powerful computers at the expense of retail investors? Chicago Booth's Eric Budish, who argues that the incentives for high-speed trading stem from the flaws in the way financial markets are designed. At the same time, it's become cumbersome and complicated for institutional investors to execute trades as they would like to. With both challenges in mind, Budish outlines two simple ideas from his research that could transform stock markets for the better.

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