Episodes
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The Starlink-Ukraine Scandal, Phase 2
Billionaires should not be making decisions critical to national security. That’s straightforward. And the case of Elon Musk and his attempt to undermine Ukraine makes that clearer than ever. Recent events, that is in the past 24 hours, really don’t change that point. If anything, they reinforce...
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The Midterms!
. . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with David Nir and G. Elliott Morris (recorded 10/1/26) Paul Krugman: Like almost everybody I know, I spend about 17 hours a day thinking about the midterms, and I’ve got G. Elliott Morris and David Nir from Strength in Numbers and The Downballot…
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A Globalist Comeback?
Transcript On September 28th Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, one of the most prominent, most successful financial figures in the United States, published an article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “The Hell with Trump, Let’s Go Back to Globalism.” Okay, that’s a lie. That wasn’t what the...
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Will Crypto Crash the Blue Wave?
Transcript Will crypto crash the blue wave? Probably not a question you’ve been asking, but you should. Paul Krugman here with a video update for September 22nd. I want to talk about something that was a very big deal in the way we talked about the 2024 election, which was the role of the...
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Henry Farrell and Abe Newman on Weaponized Interdependence
. . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman (recorded 9/10/26) Paul Krugman: So, it’s a world full of choke points. Weaponized interdependence is a term I think coined by Henry Farrell and Abe Newman. Certainly I learned it from them. And there’s a big...
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Where’s the Beef (Coming From)?
Transcript “Mary had a little lamb, but when she saw it sicken, she sent it off to Packingtown, and now it’s labeled chicken.” Hi, Paul Krugman here. That’s a little ditty that was circulating, I can’t find any original source, around 1905, when Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle” — about the...
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From Kakistocracy to Cheatistocracy
Transcript At this point, it’s almost a commonplace to say that under DonaldTrump, America has become a kakistocracy, ruled by the worst. But I don’tthink it’s fully appreciated the extent to which we’ve also become a cheatistocracy, ruled by the most corrupt. Today’s commentary is a follow-upon...
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Talking Interest Rates with Ricardo Caballero
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. I’m spending a lot of time thinking about high interest rates, both for obvious reasons and because I’m reconsidering some of my own long-held views. So I thought I’d have a long talk with someone who has really studied these issues and now, I...
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Der Untergang
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Note: After I recorded this it was reported that Trump officials are threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center if it can’t be renovated to Trump’s taste (and presumably with his name added). Matches my argument exactly. Der Untergang naht....
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Jared Bernstein on Debt (Reposted with better transcript)
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Better transcript! . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Jared Bernstein (recorded 8/20/26) Paul Krugman: Hi everyone. Paul Krugman talking with Jared Bernstein, former chief economist, head of the Council of Economic Advisers...
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Defending the Bonds
Get full access to Paul Krugman at paulkrugman.substack.com/subscribe
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The Misery Will Continue Until Morale Improves
According to an old military maxim, amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics. But these days we need a third category: Immature, insecure guys think that war is about acting tough and looking cool. Hi, Paul Krugman with a podcast update for today. I want to weigh in on the...
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Vanessa Williamson on Taxes and Democracy
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Vanessa Williamson (recorded 8/12/26) Paul Krugman: This week, I’m talking to Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of a fantastic short history of…
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What Malta Tells Us About Oligarchy
Link to primer here. Transcript If you want to understand how we went so far down the road towards oligarchy, Malta is a good place to look. Hi, Paul Krugman, doing a video today. Yesterday, my weekly primer was another episode in the series about the rise of oligarchy and the policies that have...
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Talking With G. Elliott Morris About the Midterms
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with G. Elliott Morris (recorded 8/6/26) Paul Krugman: I am returning for another of multiple conversations with G. Elliott Morris, whom I find the most informative polling and political data...
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An Explosion of Misery
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Contrary to what Trump administration officials say, we are not experiencing explosive economic growth. We are, however, experiencing an explosion in misery — and Donald Trump deserves full credit. Hi, Paul Krugman here, slightly...
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The Fire This Time
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice. Robert Frost wrote that in 1920. With more than a century gone by, we have a verdict. It’s fire for the win. Hi, I’m Paul Krugman. I thought I’d talk today about a story that...
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Talking Again With Gabriel Zucman
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. In my writing about wealth concentration and oligarchy, I steal a lot from lean heavily on the truly work of Gabriel Zucman, who is a hugely important researcher (winner of the 2023 Clark Medal) who is also starting to play a major role in...
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Oligarchy and the Media
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Good news. The second richest man in America might be prevented from taking over CNN. That's the good news. The bad news is, aside from thefact that he probably will manage to pull it off anyway, the bad news is that that would be...
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Lina Khan on AI and More
Lina Khan, who chaired the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden, is one of the smartest and most influential thinkers about antitrust in our high-tech era, and one who has blazed new paths in policymaking. I spoke with her at a Graduate Center event back in March, and caught up with her again...
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The Forever War Gets Scary
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript The war with Iran has just reached a very scary phase, and I’m not talking about the bombs and the drones. Hi, Paul Krugman here, doing a brief podcast instead of a full post, because I actually spent the day with friends and doing...
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Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. With everything else going on, the ongoing demolition of financial regulation and supervision, which is raising the risks of financial crisis, isn’t getting much attention. So I spoke with Dennis Kelliher, president of Better Markets, an...
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An Encouraging Encounter With Real Americans
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Today i want to give you some encouraging news about the state of the heartland. Well, actually New Jersey, but you got a problem with that? But I did something kind of different yesterday — which has prevented me from producing a...
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The Pain in Spain is Mainly in Trump's Brain
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Yesterday, Donald Trump ordered Scott Bessent, the Secretary of theTreasury, to cut off all trade with Spain. Bessent said “Yes, sir.” Trump also said that this is because the Spaniards had stolen his strawberries. Okay, I made up...
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Pump and Dump and Trump
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript Donald Trump has distinguished himself in many ways. One of them is that he is our first pump and dump president. Hi, Paul Krugman here. A podcast today rather than a full-on piece: I’m a little exhausted from number-crunching over...
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Lisa Graves on the Supreme Court
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Lisa Graves is the author of Without Precedent, a history and analysis of the Roberts Court and the expert on how the Federalist Society has been working to undermine democracy. Yesterday this happened: So I managed to arrange a conversation...
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The Court Sides With Dictatorship — and Chaos
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Note: It’s Lisa Cook, not Lisa Graves. Talking to Lisa Graves shortly. Earlier today, the Supreme Court declared war on U.S. democracy. It also declared war, basically, on modern society, on everything it takes to function in the 21st century....
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Corruption for Make Benefit Glorious Family of Trump
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript It’s kind of hard to believe, but the original Borat movie was 20 years ago. It’s time for a second sequel. And I already have the title. It would be Corruption for Make Benefit Glorious Family of Trump. I hope that some of my...
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On Holding Elon Musk Accountable
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Transcript For most of last year, Elon Musk was the second most powerful man in America. He was running a large part of the government’s budget. And during that time, he established a track record of evil incompetence. I mean, really evil and...
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Catching Up With Ro Khanna
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. Ro Khanna represents a large part of Silicon Valley, and not surprisingly is a very smart guy. Perhaps more surprisingly, he’s also a very interesting progressive, who has drawn considerable ire from the tech lords, with Elon Musk most…
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The Chips Are Down
For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube. A short talk in lieu of a post. Back on full duty tomorrow. Transcript: Hi, Paul Krugman here. I’m recording this on Tuesday afternoon. I just won’t have time to write a normal post for tomorrow when you’ll see this. And I would take the day...
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Arindrajit Dube on Wages
I often think of labor economics as a role model for the field: a subfield in which theory is disciplined by evidence and (most) researchers are willing to listen to that evidence even when it challenges their preconceptions. And hardly anyone does modern labor economics as well as UMass…
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Power and Geopolitics After Trump
Transcript Hi everyone. Instead of a regular post today, I’m going to put up a video. There are a number of reasons why I feel like doing that instead of the usual. One of them is that this is a dry run for a talk that I will be giving virtually later today. There’s a conference on the economics…
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Lunch Money with Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson
Thank you Michael Scarmack, Scotland Explained, Oakbridges.ca, Kim G, Cathy Stein, and many others for tuning into my live video with Heather Cox Richardson! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Paul Krugman at paulkrugman.substack.com/subscribe
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Talking With Azeem Azhar
I last spoke with Azeem, the proprietor of Exponential View, 18 months ago — ancient history on this subject. So we revisited the state of AI. . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Azeem Azhar (recorded 6/12/26) Paul Krugman: Hi everyone. Paul Krugman back on my usual schedule of...
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A Gesture of Contempt
A quick video, thankfully not from Midtown Manhattan Hi there. Paul Krugman with a very quick update. I haven’t done a regular post today because I’m jet-lagged out of my mind, but I just wanted to weigh in on something that will be happening a few minutes after I record this. Which is that a...
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Comments on a Freaky Friday
Hi everybody. I’ve been having an extremely busy week, so no two talking heads conversation this week. Just my head talking alone for a relatively short time. Hi, I’m Paul Krugman. I’m winding down some travel, and I’ve been meeting all sorts of people face to face, so virtual interactions are...
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Learning from a Mentally Ill President
Transcript The President of the United States is mentally ill, but everybody knows that. So while we should continue to focus on this degeneration taking place in front of our eyes, we should also, beyond that, ask what we can do about the powers, the interests, the system that put this…
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How to Win a Trade War
Chad Bown and Soumaya Keynes have a terrific new book with that title — a breezy survey of our chaotic new world of international economics, couched as advice for nations trying to get the upper hand. The book is here. I spoke with them last week about their book and the world in general. Fun…
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Lunch Money with Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson
I’m posting our Wednesday conversation as this week’s video. Transcript below. . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Heather Cox Richardson (recorded 5/20/26) Heather Cox Richardson: How are you doing, Professor Krugman? I know you’re on vacation. Paul Krugman: Yeah. As I wrote the...
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A Whiff of Stagflation
For more videos, visit my YouTube channel. Transcript Hi, Paul Krugman here. Different city, different country, still not home. Unfortunately, couldn’t manage to do this one in a cafe, but we have been sitting in cafes a fair bit. I just want to weigh in on a really kind of alarming report on...
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G. Elliott Morris on Vibes and the Midterms
For more videos, visit my YouTube channel. I’m away but alas staying in touch with political news at home, and thought I would check in with one of the best public opinion quants about where we stand right now … TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with G. Elliott Morris (recorded 5/13/26)…
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My President Went to China, and All I Got Was Even More Expensive Gasoline
Transcript My president went to China, and all I got was even higher gas prices. Hi, Paul Krugman here. Recording a video today rather than one of my usual posts,.I just feel like I’ve been too immersed in charts and wanted to do something shorter, simpler, whatever. It’s Friday. The summit…
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Why Did Trump Take Elon Musk to China?
Transcript What’s good for Elon Musk is not necessarily good for America. In fact, it may go the other way around. So why did Donald Trump take Musk and a bunch of other top executives to China with him? Hi, Paul Krugman, again from a cafe, a little noisy behind me, but I hope it’ll be tolerable....
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Remember Tariffs?
Remember tariffs? They have not gone away. Hi, Paul Krugman with another video update from another cafe. You may remember that back in April 2025, which was seven years ago — well, actually just about one year ago, but it feels like longer — Donald Trump shocked us all with massive tariffs on...
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The Super-Rich are Different from You and Me
Transcript The super rich are different from you and me. They are pettier and more self-centered than most of us can easily imagine. Hi, Paul Krugman here. This video is partly me trying to show that yes indeed I am on vacation, sort of, although on my laptop too much of the time. But anyway, I’m...
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Don't Cry for Jeff Bezos's Yacht
Transcript According to press reports, Jeff Bezos is planning to sell his 417-foot yacht, the one with a carved figurehead of Lauren Sanchez, his second wife, at the front. According to these reports, he’s unhappy at the attention that the yacht is getting. Funny how that works. Hi, Paul Krugman...
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Talking Vibes With Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein, former top Biden economist and all-round economic expert, and I bat around the puzzle of persistent negative economic sentiment. Recorded Wednesday. . . . TRANSCRIPT: Paul Krugman in Conversation with Jared Bernstein (recorded 4/22/26) Paul Krugman: Hi everyone. This week I’ve…
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Kevin Warsh is Trump's Sock Puppet
Some quick thoughts about yesterday’s hearing. Transcript Kevin Warsh, the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, is Donald Trump’s sock puppet. But we knew that. The question during yesterday’s confirmation hearing was whether he was sufficiently brave, sufficiently good at acting to pretend that...
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Trump Can't Even Surrender Right
Transcript When you’re losing a war, but it’s not an existential defeat, your country, your government can continue pretty much as before. Aside from the humiliation, there’s a well-established technique, which is to declare victory and pull out. But it appears that Trump can’t even pull that…
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