Episodes
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Excerpt: /234/ Three Articles: Restoration?
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
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Millennials Are Supercharging the Housing Market, Nicole Friedman, WSJ (attached)
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A tale of two elites in Washington and Beijing, Gideon Rachman, FT (attached)
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Excerpt: /224/ Three Articles: Labour Revolts?
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
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Wages are surging across the rich world, The Economist
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The Revolt of the American Worker, Paul Krugman, NYT
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US Workers Are in a Militant Mood, Alex N. Press, Jacobin
The full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
/213/ The Leopard Lockdown ft. Adam Tooze
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
On Covid and the end of the end of history.
Adam Tooze joins us to discuss his new book, Shutdown. In 2020 everything changed... so that everything might remain the same.
What were the reasons behind the global shutdown? Was it a result of over-protection, a policy of repression, or the result of structural tensions? Has China been the winner of the pandemic? How have central banks been victims of their own success? And does this represent the end of neoliberalism?
The latter part of the interview continues over on patreon.com/bungacast
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
/204/ Three Articles: People's Republic of Fleeing
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
Tuesday Jul 20, 2021
On Chinese investment, Swiss democracy, and fleeing from Afghanistan.
In this Three Articles, we discuss flight or departure in various ways: China opening the gates for its huge savings to spill onto world markets; Switzerland leaving (or remaining outside) the EU; and the US's sudden departure from Afghanistan, without telling anyone.
'Three Articles' episodes are normally for subscribers only - but this one's free. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast for regular access.
London book launch/bunga party: Register here
Articles:
- What happens if Chinese household wealth is unleashed on the world?, Thomas Hale and Tabby Kinder, FT (pdf in patreon)
- Swexit, Wolfgang Streeck, Sidecar-NLR
- US troops abandoned Bagram airport base in the dead of night..., various, Daily Mail
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
/195/ No Shock China ft. Isabella Weber
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
Tuesday Jun 01, 2021
On China, economic reform, and the future.
While Russia famously succumbed to destructive neoliberal "shock therapy", China managed to avoid it. How and why? Isabella Weber, author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy, tells us about China's opting for gradual reform instead.
What did reform mean for understandings of socialism? Do communists make the best capitalists? And is the pursuit of growth and development at any cost China's own version of the End of History?
Tuesday May 11, 2021
Excerpt: /192/ Three Articles: Pandemic (Dis)Satisfactions
Tuesday May 11, 2021
Tuesday May 11, 2021
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Stayed home, live streamed, got the T-shirt, Lev Parker, The Conservative Woman
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The Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown, Emma Green, The Atlantic
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Broad commodities price boom amplifies ‘supercycle’ talk, Neil Hume et al, FT
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
/187/ The Huge Package State ft. Anton Jäger
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
On cash welfarism and state investment. Plus regionalism in Belgium & the UK.
Anton Jäger is back on the pod to discuss the emerging 'transfer state'. We examine Biden's massive trillion-dollar spending plans and ask if this means we're leaving neoliberalism. What are the limitations to the 'cashification of welfare'? Also comparisons with cash transfers or lack thereof in the UK, Brazil and Belgium.
Plus Anton talks us through recent Belgian history and why its immobilism and bureaucracy has actually prevented a full-on neoliberal assault.
[Part 2 available at patreon.com/bungacast]
Readings:
- “Welfare without the welfare state”: the death of the postwar welfarist consensus, Anton Jäger & Daniel Zamora, New Statesman
- Joe Biden Is a Transformational President, David Brooks, NYT
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Excerpt: /158/ Three Articles: Cosmopolitan Austerity & Control
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Full episode is for subscribers only. Sign up at patreon.com/bungacast
In this latest Three Articles, we discuss cosmopolitanism, the end of austerity (maybe?) and social control in the pandemic.
Readings:
- Is cosmopolitanism our destiny?, Aris Roussinos, Unherd
- Meet the Philosopher Who Is Trying to Explain the Pandemic, Christopher Caldwell, NYT
- Global economy: the week that austerity was officially buried, Chris Giles, FT
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Excerpt: /151/ Reading Club: Full Employment
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Episode for patrons $10+. Subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast
This month we discuss Polish economist Michal Kalecki's landmark essay, "Political Aspects of Full Employment". This follows on from our recent free episode, 'It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism' (ep 149) focusing on unemployment.
Kalecki anticipated both the Keynesian postwar settlement as well as its undoing, and the neoliberalism that followed. We focus on how Kalecki introduces the question of political authority into economics.
For reference, the next five Reading Clubs have already been announced: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41524278
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
/149/ It's Not Robots, It's Capitalism ft. Aaron Benanav / Liz Pancotti
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
On unemployment.
The Covid crisis has led to millions out of work - but the situation was none too rosy before, either. Post-crisis recoveries seem increasingly 'jobless', while the overall labour force participation rate keeps falling as people drop out entirely.
We interview to Liz Pancotti of Employ America for a picture of what's driving US unemployment.
Then we talk to Aaron Benanav about his new book and learn that it's not robots who are stealing jobs, but rather capitalism's own stagnation. Why are both radical Keynesian ideas and UBI proposals no real solution? And, finally, what is the working class to do in a world with depressed demand for labour?
Running order:
- Liz Pancotti - (04:09)
- Aaron Benanav - (53:09)
Readings:
- Automation and the Future of Work, Aaron Benanav, Verso
- Unemployment Benefit Expansions: A Guide for Policy Responses in the Wake of COVID-19, Elizabeth Pancotti, Employ America
- Do not let homeworking become digital piecework for the poor, Sarah O'Connor, FT
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
/142/ Dollar Empire (2) ft. Daniel Bessner
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
On US foreign policy.
Following on from our episode on the political-economy of dollar hegemony (no. 139), we turn to look at how the dollar underpins American empire. Is 'permawar' a product of structural factors, rather than merely the result of poor policy decisions? And how is this related to the global financial architecture?
We also discuss how the current period fits into US history, how US foreign policy might evolve over the next four years, and what a left-wing alternative foreign policy might look like.
Readings:
- To End Forever War, End the Dollar’s Global Dominance, David Adler & Daniel Bessner, TNR
- Trump’s America may be declining in global soft power—but US empire rolls on, Daniel Bessner, Prospect
- The coronavirus crisis is an opportunity to finally move past the post-WWII era, Daniel Bessner, Responsible Statecraft
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
/139/ Dollar Empire ft. Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
On dollar hegemony.
Dutch disease has long been seen as the curse of resource-rich economies in which a currency appreciates and jobs are lost overseas. But what if the greenback is having the same effects on the US economy, the largest in the world? Many historians and economists have studied the global effects of having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But what is the effect on the US economy itself? The authors of an influential essay on this question join us to talk about the feedback effects of dollar hegemony.
Readings:
- The Class Politics of the Dollar System, Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder, Phenomenal World
- Dollar and Empire, Herman Mark Schwartz, Phenomenal World
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Excerpt: /124/ Three Articles: Money & Power
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
In this latests Three Articles we discuss power, money and the power of money - in a post-Covid world.
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The Death of the Central Bank Myth, Adam Tooze, Foreign Policy
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Why the Neoliberals Won’t Let This Crisis Go to Waste, Philip Mirowski, Jacobin
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Plan A for the coronavirus, Curtis Yarvin, Medium
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
/111/ Big Money Talk: The Case for MMT ft. Bill Mitchell
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
Tuesday Mar 10, 2020
- Reclaiming the State, Bill Mitchell and Thomas Fazi (book)
- MMT Has Been Around for Decades. Here’s Why It Just Caught Fire, Ben Holland & Matthew Boesler, Bloomberg
- An MMT response on what causes inflation, FT
- What you need to know about modern monetary theory, Gavyn Davies, FT
- MMT Is Already Helping, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Jacobin
Tuesday Dec 10, 2019
/100/ What Was the End of History? ft. Many Guests
Tuesday Dec 10, 2019
Tuesday Dec 10, 2019
On the 30 years since 1989.
For our 100th episode, we invited our favourite guests to reflect on the question: “What one event, personal or political, most captures for you the past thirty years, since 1989?”
Are we still living in the death throes of the 20th century, or is something new emerging?
Guests:
- (00:07:42) - Maren Thom
- (00:14:14) - David Broder
- (00:21:33) - Ashley Frawley
- (00:26:11) - Catherine Liu
- (00:33:05) - Angela Nagle
- (00:40:49) - Benjamin Fogel
- (00:46:25) - Alex Gourevitch
- (00:51:31) - BungaCast hosts
- (00:59:22) - David Adler
- (01:04:05) - Amber A’Lee Frost
- (01:08:48) - James Heartfield
- (01:16:17) - Anton Jaeger
- (01:23:24) - Leigh Phillips
- (01:30:25) - Lee Jones
- (01:36:03) - Karl Sharro
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