Mark Blyth is a political economist and the William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics at Brown University. He is the author of several books including Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (named one of the best books of the year in 2013 by the Financial Times and Bloomberg), Angrynomics, and a new book coming out in May 2025 called Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.
His research is in international & comparative political economy and focuses on the political power of economic ideas, how institutions change, and the political economy of rich democracies. Mark is a native of Scotland and received his PhD in political science from Columbia University in 1999 and taught at the Johns Hopkins University from 1997 to 2009 before joining the Brown faculty in 2009. (04:34) What is political economy?
(06:10) Mark's academic journey
(08:28) How economic consensus is formed
(11:01) What is inflation?
(13:23) Good vs. bad inflation
(17:55) The four main inflation "stories"
(18:51) Which story prevails currently
(20:57) How will tariffs affect inflation?
(26:23) The tariff narrative
(28:58) Capitalism 2.0 vs. 3.0
(29:43) The "hardware" & "software" of capitalism
(34:23) The "bug" in our current system
(37:13) The legacy of inflation in the 1970s
(44:41) The Federal Reserve's toolkit
(47:41) The Fed before the 1970s
(49:27) Hyperinflation in Germany and Argentina
(54:16) The structural causes of hyperinflation
(56:19) Economic indicators of political unrest
(59:01) The role of technological progress
(01:02:40) What should capitalism 4.0 be?
Pre-order Mark's book on inflation here