Business
**The Joe Walker Podcast**

Well-researched interviews on ideas, technology, and policy. (Plus a recurring series on Australian public policy.)

Latest Episodes:

The Indiana Jones Of Anthropology On The Origins Of Western Psychology — Joe Henrich Jan 18, 2021

Show notes

Joe Henrich is Professor and Chair of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is the author of The Secret of Our Success and The Weirdest People in the World.

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Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism — Angus Deaton Jan 11, 2021

Show notes

Sir Angus Deaton is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and coauthor of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.

Read the full transcript at: josephnoelwalker.com/deaton

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On Ayn Rand, Cooperation, And Successful Societies - David Sloan Wilson Dec 31, 2020

Show notes

David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist.

Read the full transcript at: https://josephnoelwalker.com/atlashugged

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What I Learned In 2020 - John Hempton Dec 21, 2020

Show notes

John Hempton is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Bronte Capital.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow John: Blog | Twitter
'Approaches to Studying Policy Representation', paper by David Broockman
'Indebted Demand', paper by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

Lessons from past market cycles. 4:51
Astarra-Trio. 10:43
Retail investors: Welcome to the party. 24:14
When John met Jim (Simons). 28:13
Can you predict market tops? 33:00
Are there any good reasons for believing this time really is different? 40:37
The Dunning-Kruger effect is everywhere. 52:18
A behavioural model of the coronavirus. 55:45
The illusion of the political centre. 1:10:19
How inequality may be distorting monetary policy, and vice versa. 1:23:00
SPAC attack. 1:26:03
The puzzle of Middleby. 1:31:15
Bull masturbating. 1:33:01
2020: a year of puzzles. 1:42:30

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Rational Minds Part 5: Heuristics Make Us Smart - Gerd Gigerenzer Dec 21, 2020

Show notes

Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist and director emeritus of the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

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Rational Minds Part 4: The Blind Leading The Blind - David Hirshleifer Dec 20, 2020

Show notes

David Hirshleifer is a professor of finance and currently holds the Merage chair in Business Growth at the University of California.

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Rational Minds Part 3: Rethinking Bubbles - Vernon Smith Dec 19, 2020

Show notes

Vernon Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002. This is his second appearance on the show.

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Rational Minds Part 2: The Myth Of Tulip Mania - Anne Goldgar Dec 17, 2020

Show notes

Anne Goldgar is an historian and holds the Van Hunnick Chair in European History at the University of Southern California Dornsife.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Anne: Website | Twitter
Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden, by Anne Goldgar

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Rational Minds Part 1: A Nation Of Gamblers - Ed Glaeser Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Ed Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Ed: Website
'A Nation Of Gamblers: Real Estate Speculation And American History', 2013 Ely Lecture by Ed Glaeser
One Hundred Years Of Land Values In Chicago, by Homer Hoyt
The Land Boomers, by Michael Cannon
'25 years of housing trends' report by Aussie Home Loans

Topics discussed

A potted history of real estate speculation in the United States. 8:51
How would Ed describe the Great Convulsion of the 2000s to an alien observer? 13:40
Why is real estate well-suited to being a speculative asset? 16:04
If speculators aren't crazy, what are they? 17:00
Was the Great Convulsion primarily driven by credit availability? 20:44
What would a good Bayesian have thought in response to the 2000s housing market in the US? 22:23
Radical uncertainty and its implications for rationality in the context of housing markets. 24:06
Are extrapolative beliefs rational? 26:22
Are housing bubbles irrational? 29:51

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The Roaring Twenties And The Birth Of Consumer Credit - Martha Olney Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

Martha Olney is an economist and Teaching Professor in Berkeley's Economics Department.

Show notes

Selected links

Follow Martha: Website | Twitter
Buy Now, Pay Later: Advertising, Credit, and Consumer Durables in the 1920s, by Martha Olney
Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression, by Peter Temin
Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920 – 1940, by Roland Marchand
Traitor to his Class:The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by H. W. Brands
'The Consequences of Mortgage Credit Expansion: Evidence from the U.S. Mortgage Default Crisis', paper by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi

Topics discussed

How did Martha become interested in the history of consumer credit? 3:28
The birth of consumer credit. 6:54
How consumer credit companies and advertisers midwifed a change in cultural attitudes regarding borrowing. 16:41
What is the relationship between the increase in inequality and the rise in consumer credit during the 1920s? 31:34
Political elites in the Great Depression versus the Great Recession. 47:35
How did studying the 1920s prepare Martha for the Great Recession? 54:58
If private debt is capitalism's Achilles Heel, what should we do about it? 57:54

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