Podcasts by prominent economists

I have been listening today to some sensational podcasts by economists from Bloomberg.com. Strongly recommended – fascinating introduction to the major ideas of economics particularly interesting to economists but economists as well.

The highlight for me was Ken Arrow on Hayek, on some amazing reminiscences, recent Nobel Prize Winners, global warming and Sir John Hicks. He strongly endorsed the recent Nobel Prize winners. Arrow was the 1972, Nobel Prize Winner.

A shorter piece by Paul Samuelson gave equally amazing reminiscences particularly on Hurwicz, relates mechanism design theory and game theory to global warming. He was the 1970, Nobel Prize Winner.

Some whining liberal ideas from Paul Krugman who discusses his new book ‘The Conscience of a Liberal’, the modern liberal age and the role of radical, modern conservatism. Has strong views on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon – he seems these two as driving modern conservatism. Krugman accepts the proposition that the median household’s welfare has probably not improved in 30 years – that there are questions about this but no question about the dramatic increase in incomes among the very rich suggests the depths of achievement failure in the US.

Krugman strongly advances his well-known preferences for universal health insurance, higher taxes and bigger public spending in the US.

Drew Fudenberg from Harvard talks briefly about game theory and mechanism design but this was boring to me. He is modern specialised, inarticulate American economist.

If you have 30 minutes or so well worth a listen.