If you want to hear about interesting economy related things this is the podcast for you

I’ve really enjoyed listening to this show. Some episodes are better than others—I’ve especially enjoyed the recent episodes “Making chips at home again” and “Does the Fed have a monopoly on ‘Fed’-ing?” (bad title, good episode). On the whole, I find the episodes about more complex and less covered topics more interesting and valuable. I do think the show could assume a greater level of sophistication among its listeners. Some of the episodes feel a bit Econ 101-y. I don’t think anyone is voluntarily listening to a MarketWatch podcast who doesn’t have a solid foundation in finance/economics. Finally, I don’t understand why the show doesn’t lean on Stephanie Kelton more. She’s a legit star economist and is great at communicating ideas to a broad audience. The structural conceit used in some episodes of a peer-like conversation between her and Charles Passy is a bit nonsensical in its current manifestation. She’s the expert. He’s a journalist. Why not frame it as Charles (the everyman) trying to make sense of a complex topic by asking Stephanie (the expert) questions? In this moment of near-constant blockbuster economic news, it feels like a real missed opportunity to not have Stephanie lend her topical commentary. It wouldn’t have to be with a political slant—she could frame the issue and the legitimate arguments on either side.

The Best New Ideas podcast often provides solutions that focus on government intervention, the modification of laws to force change that is in line with a particular way of thinking or a change in general government policy. I would have expected this podcast to be more focused on entrepreneurial innovation. Needless to say, nothing really groundbreaking.

I love this podcast because it applies academic economics to current issues and presents them in ways that everyone can understand. It is relatively apolitical and deals with facts and data, interpreting them so we can all understand how and why current economic issues affect us in our daily lives.

Another big government program. Wow I don’t see a problem there

I loved this podcast when it discussed new trends with money, new ideas, and good tips. Lately with the new hosts I have noticed that personal or someone’s political bias is governing more of the shows. They are less about “new ideas” and more out “my ideas” (referencing whomever is producing it). Great example is the recent episode about Adam Smith. How is that a helpful consumer tip about money? The episode goes into detail about how Adam Smith isn't a capitalist and expressing the political views of the production team. Get back to new ideas about money. Talk about budgeting software, nft’s, new financial advice, smartphone tools, money on mars, whatever. Skip the partisan conversation.

If Bernie Sander’s Economic Advisor (Stephanie Kelton) is one of the hosts you can expect the podcast to be obvious Leftist Propaganda. The Four Day Workweek episode for example talked about how concerned FDR was for the average American which is why he promoted the minimum wage laws. Yet, it mentioned nothing of the clearly racists background of minimum wage laws which were actually intended to price out lower skilled black and brown employees. The episode also talked about John M. Keynes as if he was some great genius; when most of his economic theories have been proven to be dead wrong.

Delivered in great nonsense style. No chatter.

So why don’t we talk about price controls for essential goods as a means of slowing inflation, as Melanchon is proposing?

Roughly 10-minutes into the most recent episode, they leave the door open about paying credit bills in full. This ignores payment history and credit utilization as two of the largest factors in calculating credit score. Save yourself 20-minutes and your credit score and don’t listen.