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138 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Do Age Verification Laws Work? Evidence from Adult Websites
27 oktober 2026 · 24 min
Since 2023, 25 states have passed laws requiring adult websites to verify visitors' ages. Meanwhile, total time spent on these sites has fallen by only about 10%. In this episode, UChicago economist Matthew Brown discusses new research that uses browsing data to trace where that traffic went, with implications for with implications for how policymakers regulate the internet more broadly. Lees meer
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The Everywhere Millionaire: Who's Really Rich in America
13 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 7 min
Roughly 3 million Americans own private businesses and have a net worth of at least $5 million. Together they hold more than $50 trillion, about 13 times the wealth of the entire Forbes 400. In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Eric Zwick discusses The Everywhere Millionaire, his new book with Owen Zidar, which draws on a decade of tax data to characterize this class of car dealers, dentists, and beer distributors in towns across the country. Lees meer
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Why Your Raise Didn't Keep Up with Inflation
29 september 2026 · 35 min
By 2024, inflation was falling and unemployment was low, yet consumer confidence had sunk to levels last seen during the Great Recession. In this episode, Erik Hurst of Chicago Booth and his co-author Christina Patterson draw on payroll records for roughly 16 million workers to show how wages fell behind prices during the recent inflationary period and haven't caught back up. Lees meer
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But the Cool Kids are Still Online: Behind Australia's Failed Social Media Ban
15 september 2026 · 43 min
Last December, Australia banned social media for anyone under 16. Four months later, only one in four 14- and 15-year-olds were complying, a share that has since fallen further. In this episode of The Pie, Leonardo Bursztyn, the Saieh Family Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and co-director of BFI's Political Economics Initiative, discusses why the ban hasn't worked, and what a successful one might entail. Lees meer
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Cut Off: How US Sanctions are Reshaping the Global Payment System
1 september 2026 · 49 min
US sanctions on Russian banks have complex spillovers for the importers and exporters who transact in dollars. On this episode of The Pie, Brent Neiman, the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, returns to discuss recent research tracing how those sanctions ripple through the global payments network, and whether they are pushing heavily sanctioned economies away from the dollar and toward China's yuan. Lees meer
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Scoop and Run: How Should Gunshot Victims Get to the Hospital?
18 augustus 2026 · 31 min
When a police officer is shot, is it safer to wait for an ambulance or to be driven straight to the hospital in a squad car? In this episode of The Pie, Prachi Sanghavi, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago and co-director of the Health Policy Data Lab, discusses new research tracing how shooting victims across 18 U.S. cities reach the hospital, and what it reveals about a decades-old debate over pre-hospital care. Lees meer
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Talking to Strangers: The Economics of Social Connection
4 augustus 2026 · 53 min
New research shows that people are strikingly bad at predicting how good it feels to connect with a stranger. In this episode of The Pie, Nick Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and author of A Little More Social, discusses what more than 120 experiments reveal about why we avoid reaching out to others, and what that avoidance may be costing us. Lees meer
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Passing the Pop Quiz: How Nursing Homes Predict Inspections, and What It Costs Patients
21 juli 2026 · 28 min
In the United States, regulators inspect nursing homes to ensure compliance with quality, safety, and other standards. While these inspections are not technically announced, they are easy for nursing home staff to predict because they usually occur annually. In this episode of The Pie, Maggie Shi, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, discusses how this predictability affects nursing homes' effort levels, and, in turn, resident health. Lees meer
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AI and Early Childhood Development: The Importance of Human Interaction
7 juli 2026 · 42 min
At a time when forty percent of American two-year-olds have their own tablet, a new generation of AI toys and chatbots is being marketed as a better alternative to screens. On this episode, Dana Suskind, pediatric cochlear implant surgeon, co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health, and author of the new book Human Raised, explains the importance of human interaction for children's brain development. Lees meer
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Signal and Noise: Why Politics Is About Culture When Voters Want Economics
23 juni 2026 · 30 min
Voters consistently say they care most about the economy — jobs, wages, inflation, the price of gas. So why are campaigns so often fought over culture? In this episode, Konstantin Sonin, the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and co-director of BFI's Political Economics Initiative, walks host Tess Vigeland through his theory of "multi-dimensional signaling." Because economic policy is too complex for voters to fully decode, they read a candidate's cultural stances as a proxy for what that candidate will do economically, and politicians exploit it. Lees meer
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How Should Parents Respond When Grades are Good, But Test Scores are Bad?
9 juni 2026 · 47 min
When a child brings home good grades but low standardized test scores, which signal should parents pay attention to? In this episode, Ariel Kalil of the UChicago Harris School of Public Policy discusses new research showing that parents lean heavily on grades, and high grades often crowd out the extra help low test scores would otherwise prompt. With pandemic learning losses disguised by inflated grades, Kalil discusses how this dynamic may mean that struggling kids aren't getting the support they need. Lees meer
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Tied to the Job: The Gains from Permanent Residency
26 mei 2026 · 25 min
When immigrant workers come to a country on a visa tied to a single employer, what is it worth to be free to switch jobs? In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Matt Notowidigdo discusses new research using Canadian administrative data to track temporary foreign workers when they gain permanent residency. Job-switching rates jump 21.7 percentage points and earnings rise 5.7 percent within three years, driven largely by workers sorting into higher-paying firms across industries. Lees meer
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Life as a Lab: John List on the Art and Ethics of Field Experiments
5 mei 2026 · 59 min
Have you taken a Lyft, shopped at Walmart, or used Facebook in the last decade? If so, you've likely been a participant in one of John List's experiments. In this episode of The Pie, List, Professor of Economics and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute, returns to discuss his new 900-page textbook, Experimental Economics: Theory in Practice — the field guide he wishes he'd had as he pioneered the use of real-world experiments to figure out what moves human behavior across policy and business. From a Wisconsin baseball-card table in 1985 to the White House, Lyft, and Walmart, List shares the lessons, mistakes, and ethical questions that have shaped three decades of discovery. Lees meer
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Wealth of Institutions: Randall Kroszner on Why Markets Stayed Calm While the Fed Came Under Fire
28 april 2026 · 1 uur 17 min
Earlier this year, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that political pressure on the Federal Reserve could turn the U.S. into "a banana republic." And yet long-term interest rates, inflation expectations, and the dollar have shown a remarkably muted reaction to President Trump's public pressure on Chair Jerome Powell. Why? In this episode of The Pie, Randall Kroszner, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at Chicago Booth and a former Federal Reserve Governor during the 2008 financial crisis, argues that markets are staying calm because they trust the institutional guardrails around the Fed, which include the courts, the Senate, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Recorded live at UChicago as part of BFI's Wealth 250 campaign marking the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Kroszner walks through the market data and draws on his time inside the Fed during the global financial crisis to explain the difference between independence and accountability. Lees meer
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A Conversation with Raghuram Rajan: Corporate Governance, Community, and Political Economy
21 april 2026 · 59 min
In this Extra Slice of The Pie, guest host Ben Krause sits down with Raghuram Rajan, Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from what 25,000 CEO letters reveal about corporate America's shift from maximizing shareholder value to prioritizing customers and employees, to why communities matter as much as markets and the state, the political equilibrium that determines whether societies thrive or collapse, how inequality drove the 2008 financial crisis, and why AI could create catastrophic outcomes without better support for workers. Rajan reflects on his path from observing development gaps as a child to prescient warnings about financial crises, explains why modern firms are fundamentally about managing power struggles between stakeholders, and makes the case for "inclusive localism," or, empowering communities while keeping borders open to competition. Lees meer
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The Uneven Promise of School Choice: Who Applies vs. Who Benefits
14 april 2026 · 24 min
When public school districts offer options like magnet schools and dual-language programs, families who are richer, whiter, and higher-achieving are more likely to opt in. Meanwhile, students who would benefit most are least likely to apply. In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Chris Campos explains why the participation architecture of school choice matters as much as the quality of the schools themselves, and why information campaigns alone aren't enough to close the gap. Lees meer
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The War in Iran: Oil, Cyber Warfare, and Alliances
31 maart 2026 · 43 min
On February 28, the US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran. Four weeks later, the conflict shows no signs of ending. Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, taking roughly 10% of global oil supply off the market. Energy prices have spiked to levels not seen since the 1970s, and Iran continues to strike US allies using drones, cyber attacks, and other tactics. In this panel recorded at the Harris School of Public Policy, three University of Chicago experts, Ryan Kellogg on energy markets, Paul Poast on military alliances, and Jake Braun on cyber policy, discuss why the US struck now, why European allies have been reluctant to join, and why there's no clear exit from the conflict. Lees meer
For more on the event:
https://harris.uchicago.edu/news-events/news/operation-epic-fury-and-problem-undefined-war
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The Geography of Human Capital: Why Rich Regions Stay Rich
17 maart 2026 · 49 min
People in the Netherlands average nearly 11 years of schooling, compared to about 2.5 for those in the Central African Republic. Why don't these gaps close? In this episode, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg of the University of Chicago explains recent research that divides the entire globe into more than 16,000 grid cells to study the costs of acquiring human capital, and how these valuable skills drive economic development. Lees meer
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Eugene Fama on 60 Years of Finance Research, Index Funds, and Market Efficiency
12 maart 2026 · 48 min
If you have money in an index fund, you are benefiting from Eugene Fama's work. In this Extra Slice of The Pie, the Nobel laureate and "father of modern finance" reflects on a career that reshaped how trillions of dollars are invested, including his development of the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which provides the theoretical foundation for passive investing. Lees meer
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The Transformation of Capitalism: 250 Years After Adam Smith
3 maart 2026 · 47 min
Two hundred fifty years after The Wealth of Nations, capitalism looks nothing like Adam Smith imagined (and nothing like Karl Marx predicted, either). Smith envisioned small, decentralized producers, while Marx foresaw concentration dominated by the rich. In this lecture, Yueran Ma of Chicago Booth draws on centuries of global data to show how production concentrated while ownership diffused, and the giants at the top keep getting toppled. Lees meer
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Laboratories of Autocracy: What Happens When China Shuts Down Its Policy Experiments
17 februari 2026 · 21 min
The common perception of Chinese governance is a strong, centralized state. For decades, however, the vast majority of the country's policies originated with local governments, as officials experimented, competed, and copied each other's successes. In this episode, Shaoda Wang of Harris Public Policy describes his research analyzing 3.7 million government documents to trace the origin and diffusion of Chinese policies, revealing the economic costs of the country's shift toward centralized policymaking. Lees meer
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Who Really Paid for the Tariffs? Brent Neiman on Liberation Day's Economic Aftermath
3 februari 2026 · 30 min
Who bore the cost of 2025's sweeping tariffs? UChicago economist Brent Neiman returns to The Pie to discuss his new research with co-author Gita Gopinath examining the effects of last year's tariffs. Neiman reveals a gap between statutory rates and what was actually collected, explains why US importers absorbed the vast majority of costs, and discusses China's dramatic collapse as a US trading partner. He also explores the longer-term implications, including potential retaliation, shifting global alliances, and diplomatic costs that may outlast any short-term revenue gains. Lees meer
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Venezuela After Maduro: What Comes Next?
20 januari 2026 · 44 min
Days after the Trump administration's surprise military operation captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a panel of UChicago scholars gathered to make sense of what it means for Venezuela, the United States, and the region. Professor Christopher Blattman, Deputy Dean Ryan Kellogg, and Associate Professor Paul Poast join moderator Rebecca Wolfe to discuss Venezuela's decline from one of the hemisphere's wealthiest nations, the regional migration crisis that followed, and the uncertain road ahead. Lees meer
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Why Banks Exist and Why They Fail: Douglas Diamond on Runs, Regulation, and the Risks of Short-Term Debt
13 januari 2026 · 1 uur 6 min
Financial crises are "everywhere and always" a problem of short-term debt. In this Extra Slice of The Pie, Nobel laureate Douglas Diamond explains his groundbreaking research on why banks exist in the first place, and why they're vulnerable to runs. Diamond discusses his role advising policymakers during the 2008 crisis, reflects on predicting the savings and loan disaster as a graduate student in the 1970s, and explains why the 30-year mortgage is like Michael Corleone: something good that went bad when it hung around with the wrong crowd. Lees meer
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At What Age Does Family Income Most Shape Your Future? Timing and Intergenerational Mobility
6 januari 2026 · 45 min
Standard measures of intergenerational mobility treat parental income as a single average across childhood. In this episode, Steven Durlauf, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and Director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, describes how parental income during the tween and adolescent years (ages 12-18) is far more predictive of adult outcomes than parental income during early childhood. Lees meer
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The Pie, Wrapped: Innovation, Faith, Purpose, and Market Power
23 december 2025 · 35 min
As we close out 2025, host Tess Vigeland highlights research from UChicago scholars. Hyuk Su Kwon, Assistant Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, explains the design of electric vehicle subsidies. Eduardo Montero, Assistant Professor at Harris, reveals how Seventh Day Adventist churches adapt when members face costly trade-offs between faith and farming. Virginia Minni, Assistant Professor at the Booth School of Business, shares how a one-day purpose workshop where workers connect childhood passions to their current roles drives measurable productivity gains. Plus, Leo Bursztyn discusses why green text bubbles create lock-in effects for Apple. Full versions of these conversations are available wherever you get your podcasts. Lees meer
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A Conversation with Roger Myerson: Harmonicas, Xenophon, and Why Your Mayor Matters More Than You Think
16 december 2025 · 1 uur 51 min
In this wide-ranging conversation, Nobel Prize–winning economist Roger Myerson reflects on a career studying how rules shape human behavior, from optimal auction design to Ukraine's decentralization reforms. Myerson explains the foundations of mechanism design and incentive constraints, tracing economics back to Xenophon and arguing that local democracy is what holds democracies together. Lees meer
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Chat2Learn: Using Simple Conversation Prompts to Boost Early Childhood Development
9 december 2025 · 51 min
Large gaps in language skills between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds emerge early and persist throughout schooling. In this episode, Ariel Kalil, Professor of Public Policy at UChicago's Harris School, discusses her research on "Chat2Learn," a technology intervention that sends open-ended conversation prompts to parents' phones. The low-cost behavioral nudge increases vocabulary, encourages back-and-forth conversation, and fosters curiosity in young children. Lees meer
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Human Capital for Humans: An Accessible Introduction to the Economic Science of People
25 november 2025 · 57 min
What's the greatest driver of economic growth? Love. In this episode, UChicago economist Pablo Peña presents his new book Human Capital for Humans, inspired by Nobel laureate Gary Becker's legendary doctoral course. In conversation with host Tess Vigeland, he discusses how simple economic principles illuminate life's biggest matters, from parenting and marriage to jobs and schooling. Lees meer
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Liberalism and the Great Enrichment: Why Ideas, Not Capital, Made the Modern World
18 november 2025 · 1 uur 5 min
Deirdre McCloskey argues the world's jump from $2 to $50 per day in average income came from a radical 18th-century shift: equality of permission, or letting ordinary people have a go at bettering themselves. She traces how liberating human creativity through what she calls the "bourgeois deal" sparked innovation from Holland to Scotland to America, while state control stifled it elsewhere. McCloskey critiques modern economics for reducing humans to "vending machines" and argues we need "humanomics" that recognizes love, ethics, and human complexity alongside mathematical models. She challenges the field's statist turn, defends Adam Smith's complete vision beyond self-interest, and explains why India may become the next great creative economy while Europe's trillion-dollar spending plans repeat the old mistake of top-down investment instead of unleashing individual creativity. Lees meer
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Economics for Everyone: Teaching the World to Think Like an Economist
11 november 2025 · 1 uur 6 min
According to the TIAA Institute, American adults correctly answered just 49% of basic financial questions in 2024, suggesting a fundamental gap in economic literacy. In this episode Robert Shimer, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, and John List, Professor of Economics and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute, discuss Economics for Everyone, a groundbreaking program that teaches economic reasoning without the math. From classroom experiments that predict market equilibrium to 60 professional videos watched worldwide and teacher training programs across Chile, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia, they explore how economic thinking shapes everything from Instagram scrolling to tariff policy, and why critical thinking about causality versus correlation has never been more important. Lees meer
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You Might Also Like: Farmer’s A.I. Manac, from Shocked
4 november 2025 · 41 min
A warmer world is here. Now what? Listen to Shocked, from the University of Chicago’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and hear journalist Amy Harder and economist Michael Greenstone share new ways of thinking about climate change and cutting-edge solutions: https://lnk.to/shockedpodcastFD!thepie Lees meer
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Economic Cheat Codes: How Game Theory Can Help You Win at Work, Love, and Life
28 oktober 2025 · 35 min
The secret to winning in a rigged economy isn't changing the rules, argues Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather, but mastering the game. In this episode, Fairweather, the first Black woman to earn a PhD from UChicago's Economics Department, reveals economic "cheat codes" for navigating the modern workplace, from decoding performance reviews to discovering your true market value. Lees meer
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Moving to Opportunity: Together?
21 oktober 2025 · 33 min
When couples move for work, whose career takes the hit? UChicago economist Matt Notowidigdo discusses research showing that when heterosexual couples relocate, men's incomes increase by 10-15% while women's earnings barely budge, generating earnings gaps that last for years. Plus, couples are more likely to move when the man loses the job compared to the woman. Lees meer
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The Economics of Early Childhood: Why the First Five Years Matter Most
8 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 46 min
Nobel laureate James Heckman explains why ages zero to five are critical for brain development and lifelong outcomes. He discusses the Perry Preschool Program's surprising health benefits 35 years later, why low-cost home-visiting programs that engage parents outperform expensive institutional interventions, and how "dynamic complementarity" means early skills beget later skills. Heckman also critiques economics' "credibility revolution," arguing the field has traded big-picture understanding for narrow "clean" answers—illustrated by his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed showing that contrary to popular belief, the China trade shock created net job gains for the US. Lees meer
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The Law of Unintended Consequences: How Dobbs Changed Contraceptive Choices
30 september 2025 · 23 min
What happened to contraceptive choices when the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022? UChicago's Yana Gallen uses health insurance claims from millions of Americans to examine the ripple effects and reveal surprising patterns.
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Finding Your Why at Work: The Economics of Purpose
16 september 2025 · 35 min
Can a day of self-reflection improve workplace performance? UChicago economist Virginia Minni reveals findings from a randomized trial involving nearly 3,000 employees who participated in a "Discover Your Purpose" workshop. Minni explains how bottom-up meaning-making creates lasting change, and why helping employees connect their personal purpose to their daily work benefits both human fulfillment and business results. Lees meer
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Stuck: How Housing Regulation Ended America's Mobility Revolution
2 september 2025 · 50 min
America was once a nation in constant motion: One in three Americans moved every year in the 19th century, chasing opportunity from one town to the next. But that mobility has collapsed, falling by more than half since 1970. In this episode, University of Chicago economist Peter Ganong and Atlantic deputy executive editor Yoni Appelbaum explore how housing regulations have created a two-tier system where only high earners can afford to move to opportunity-rich cities. Lees meer
View the related interactive Research Brief by The BFI Data Studio.
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Building Costs vs. Housing Prices: Why Construction Isn't Driving the Crisis
19 augustus 2025 · 25 min
Historically, one major reason has consistently been cited for the growth in housing costs in this country: the rising cost of building homes. But that relationship is changing. In this episode, University of Chicago economist Chad Syverson breaks down 75 years of data to reveal a surprising truth—construction costs and housing prices have become "completely decoupled." From the post-WWII boom to today's record-breaking market, Syverson explains why building materials and labor costs can no longer explain skyrocketing home prices, and what factors are really driving the housing affordability crisis. Lees meer
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Pay Isn’t Everything: How Economists Put a Price on Job Perks
5 augustus 2025 · 30 min
Economists often focus on wages when studying the labor market, but paychecks tell only part of the story. University of Chicago economist Evan Rose and his co-authors surveyed 20,000 Danish workers to put a dollar value on the intangible perks of a job, things like flexible hours, workplace culture, and stress levels. Rose discusses how these “hidden benefits” shape labor markets, why economists need better data on job quality, and what this all means for workers, firms, and policymakers. Lees meer
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Decoding Educational Content: A Computational Comparison Between Public and Religious School Textbooks
22 juli 2025 · 27 min
Textbooks don't just teach facts, they shape how children understand the world and their place in it. In this episode, UChicago economist Anjali Adukia discusses her study of textbooks across public schools, religious private schools, and homeschools. Using advanced AI tools to analyze tens of thousands of pages, she uncovers both unexpected similarities between politically divergent states and meaningful differences in how religious and secular curricula present topics from evolution to gender representation. Lees meer
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When Religion Meets the Marketplace: Faith, Farming, and Trade-Offs
8 juli 2025 · 23 min
What happens when your religion forbids the production of crops that dominate your local economy? In this episode, UChicago economist Eduardo Montero unpacks new research on the economic costs of religious prohibitions, and how these trade-offs shape church membership, satisfaction, and even sermons. Lees meer
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Green Bubble Stigma: Texting, Status, and Market Power
24 juni 2025 · 27 min
A text bubble might seem trivial, until it shapes market dynamics, personal identity, and federal lawsuits. In this episode, UChicago economist Leo Bursztyn discusses how Apple’s green bubble design creates a powerful lock-in effect that reinforces Apple’s market dominance. Lees meer
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AI, the Economy, and Public Policy
11 juni 2025 · 25 min
How is AI impacting the economy today? What might this mean for tomorrow? This episode brings you inside a discussion hosted at BFI in April. Moderated by Caroline Grossman, Executive Director of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, the conversation features: Anders Humlum, Assistant Professor of Economics, Chicago Booth; Sanjog Misra, Professor of Marketing, Chicago Booth & Faculty Director of the Center for Applied AI; Samir Mayekar, Associate VP and Managing Director, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and Alex Tamkin, Research Scientist at Anthropic and lead researcher on the new Anthropic Economic Index. Lees meer
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Tariffs, Trade, and a Misused Model
27 mei 2025 · 41 min
Economist Brent Neiman recently returned to UChicago from his position as Deputy Undersecretary for International Finance at The US Treasury, only to find his research being used (and misused) in the Trump administration’s sweeping new tariff policy. In this episode, Neiman walks us through what the original study actually showed, how it got misinterpreted, and why today’s tariff regime marks one of the most consequential trade shifts in decades. Lees meer
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Between a Chip and a Hard Place: The Economics of Security and Sovereignty in Taiwan
13 mei 2025 · 29 min
What does Taiwan’s precarious position reveal about global power, economic leverage, and the unraveling of diplomatic norms? In this episode, economist Chang-Tai Hsieh returns to unpack Taiwan’s tangled political history, its deep economic entanglement with China, and the global stakes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). From fears of abandonment to the high-stakes semiconductor supply chain, Hsieh explores how Taiwan balances sovereignty, security, and survival in an increasingly transactional world. Lees meer
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An Extra Slice of the Pie: Choosing with Uncertainty
1 mei 2025 · 49 min
How can policymakers make choices when confronted with uncertainty? What happens when the public loses confidence in scientific authority? Are scientists, including economists, overconfident? Nobel Laureate and UChicago economist Lars Hansen, a leading authority on uncertainty in economic decision-making, tackles these and related questions in this Extra Slice of The Pie, hosted by BFI Executive Director, Ben Krause. The answers will surprise you. Lees meer
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Tariffs, Trust, and the Twilight of Norms: U.S.–China Relations in the Trump Era
29 april 2025 · 27 min
What happens when trust in longstanding economic norms starts to break down? In this episode, economist Chang-Tai Hsieh explores the geopolitical and economic consequences of the Trump administration’s foreign policy, particularly its approach to China. From China’s post-COVID recovery stumbles to a global flood of low-cost EVs, Hsieh unpacks the domestic roots of China’s malaise, the surprisingly muted bite of Trump-era tariffs, and why Canada, not China, may be the unexpected target of economic aggression. Lees meer
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War Economies: How Ukraine and Russia Are Adapting in Year Three
16 april 2025 · 25 min
More than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war continues to reshape not only geopolitical alliances but also the economies of both countries. In this episode of The Pie, host Tess Vigeland is joined by Konstantin Sonin, John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, for a discussion about the economic realities on the ground in Ukraine and Russia, and what might lie ahead. Lees meer
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Crypto’s Fatal Flaw: Trust, Scale, and the Economics of Blockchain
1 april 2025 · 46 min
Crypto’s most groundbreaking innovation, permissionless consensus, may also be its greatest vulnerability. In this episode, Chicago Booth economist Eric Budish breaks down the core mechanics of blockchain trust, the staggering energy costs behind mining, and why these systems are fundamentally exposed to majority attacks. Tune in for a deep dive into the economic limits of cryptocurrencies, and what they mean for the future of decentralized finance. Lees meer