Paul Krugman on climate, robots, single-payer, and so much more The Gray Area with Sean Illing

It’s cliché to call podcasts wide-ranging. But this conversation, with Nobel-prize winning economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, really is. A sample of what we discuss:
- How economists mucked up the climate debate
- What a Democratic president should pass first
- The politics and policy of Medicare-for-all
- Krugman’s three-part test to determine whether a program needs to be paid for (don’t miss this!)
- Why Pete Buttigieg is wrong on tuition-free college 
- Why Andrew Yang is wrong on automation
- What the Obama administration got wrong, and right, in the financial crisis
- The means-testing vs. universal program debate is a false dichotomy 
- What it would take to revitalize the economies of middle and rural America
- The productivity puzzle
- The antitrust problem
- Geographic inequality
- Whether elite or mass opinion is the key constraint on policy ambition
- Path dependence in social welfare states
- Whether private insurers should exist 
And much more. Don’t miss this one.
References:
Krugman's upcoming book, Arguing with Zombies
Book recommendations:
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume 
Plagues and Peoples by William McNeil 
Collected essays of George Orwell

My book is available for pre-order! You can find it at www.EzraKlein.com.
Submit questions for our upcoming "Ask Me Anything" at ezrakleinshow@vox.com
You can subscribe to Ezra's new podcast Impeachment, explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or your favorite podcast app.
Credits:
Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld
Researcher - Roge Karma
Engineer - Cynthia Gil
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