Unlearning Economics

Helena runs the channel NoJusticeMTG. She is an active streamer on Twitch and comments extensively on UK politics and economics. With the UK budget coming on November 26th, Rachel Reeves is constrained by her promises to balance the budget while not increasing income tax. Helena and I will discuss the UK economy, austerity, balanced budget ideas, and what we might see economically from this Labour Government. We had chatted a bit via our respective streams but never had a chance to properly discuss things. This was a really fun talk which covered everything UK politics and economics, Helena's knowledge is inimitable plus she's a great conversaionalist! We'll probably chat again after the budget to see where things are headed.Originally recorded on November 18th, 2025.

William B. Thorne is a PhD candidate at The CUNY Graduate Center who is researching the effects of rent control. We had a good chat about the pros and cons of this controversial policy.His website: https://wbthorne.com/My recent article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/rent-control-is-fine-actuallyOriginally recorded on October 20th, 2025.

Brett Scott is an anthropologist and former financier who has been working on changing the global financial system since the days of Occupy Wall Street. We read his 2013 book The Heretics Guide to Global Finance in the UE reading club (available to £5+ tier Patrons!) and we really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d ask Brett to reflect over a decade later. I also took a look at his newer book, Cloud Money, on the dominance of fintech in the financial world today. We had a wide-ranging discussion about the future of finance.Originally recorded on Tuesday 5th August, 2025.

Matt McManus is a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Michigan. He has written the book The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism, which threads together thinkers from Mary Wollstonecraft to John Stuart Mill to Karl Marx. Matt asks whether liberalism and socialism should be considered at loggerheads in the way they usually are today. The book is mostly an exercise in ‘retrieval’ i.e. recovering the liberal socialist tradition, but McManus considers himself a liberal socialist and I’m now wondering whether I do too!Originally recorded on July 29th, 2025.

Nat Dyer is an author, journalist, and economist. His recent (and first) book is Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray. I’ve seen Nat’s work with the organisation/website Promoting Economic Pluralism, but I didn’t realise he had a book in the works! He emailed me offering to send a copy over and we agreed to chat about this topic. Obviously, the idea of economists getting lost in modelling is one that I’ve spoken about plenty.Nat's book was excellent, as I told him in the interview, and it was a fun and freewheeling discussion about some really important stuff. Enjoy!You can get Nat’s book here:https://www.natdyer.com/ricardos-dream/Originally Recorded on Jun 18, 2025

Rethinking Economics is an organisation that I have been affiliated with for a long time. They are a registered charity who are committed to transforming economics education across the world. For so long, students have complained that the curriculum is too abstract, focused on rote learning of ideas set in stone instead of critical assessments of our economic system. Rethinking Economics acts as an umbrella organisation for the countless student societies that have sprung up to campaign for a better education more in line with the needs of the 21st Century.In 2014, I was a member of Post Crash Economics Manchester, who made a big impact with our 2014 report on the state of economics education in Manchester. We found that most courses were focused on mathematics and were detached from what was going on outside the classroom. Recently, PCES have updated the report for 2024 in Manchester, while RE have released a report on twenty universities across the UK. I spoke to Kasvhi Singh and Shloka Murarka about the report, and it was just great to see how the student movement is going stronger than ever!You can read the reports here:https://www.rethinkeconomics.org/edu-material/uk-curriculum-healthcheck-is-economics-education-fit-for-the-21st-century/https://www.rethinkeconomics.org/blog/2024/05/01/is-economics-education-fit-for-the-21st-century/Originally recorded on 5th June, 2025.