Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - September 13, 2015
Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio
Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.
This week
- Lots of people are trying to guess what will happen this week when the Federal Reserve meets to set interest rates.
- Asking economists to forecast recessions is an exercise in hilarity. Knowing that something is likely to occur is one thing. Betting on when it will happen is a huge mistake. Brilliant people with lots of their own money on the line have lost big by trying to guess economic cycles. That's because it's not a rational process -- it's very much an outcome driven by human psychology.
Why I want Capital Day to be a holiday
- Everyone should leave secondary school knowing a basic history of capital in the USA. When and how did we start to form corporations, partnerships, trusts, and other operations, and how did that lead to our economic standing today?
- Our aversion to talking about capital leads to a psychosis: We are a borrower nation and we should be an ownership society
- Lots of CEOs are hired for their skills regarding labor, not for their capital-deployment skills
- With no disrespect intended or shown to labor, we should acknowledge that capital and labor are complementary and neither one should be villified
Tin Foil Hat Award
Yay Capitalism Prize
Quote of the Week
"[I]f the spirit of a people is too martial or barbarous, such a spirit, by means of education, may be softned and tempered." - Benjamin Franklin
Listen on-demand
- Podcast of this episode (forthcoming)
- Official station page for this episode (forthcoming)