I'll spoke to Joseph Thomas Plummer, author of Rainy Day Economics. Joe trained as an architect and civil engineer before coming to economics through a run of hard times, from 9/11 to the financial crisis to more recent disasters, and his book asks how we you design an economy that holds up in the worst of times, rather than just the good ones. It mixes memoir with big-picture argument, built around ideas like resilience, sustainability, and putting people ahead of GDP. We talk about where his outsider's eye on economics is most useful, where I push back, and what it would take to build a society that plans for the rainy days instead of just reacting to them. We ended talking a lot about resillience and how much we need it to cope with the increasingly volatile world we live in. There's some interesting application of the design principles put forward by Joseph to the economy in the 21st Century.
Don't usually like linking to Amazon but Joe's book is self-published so it's the best place to get it: https://www.amazon.com/Rainy-Day-Economics-Designing-Thrives-ebook/dp/B0FDTZF2VP
Originally recorded on June 23rd, 2026.
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