Interview with Larry Summers, Former Secretary of the Treasury | The Problem with Jon Stewart
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters link it in threads on greedflation and corporate pricing power as an accessible exchange of opposing views.
What it is
A short excerpt of Jon Stewart interviewing former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers about the causes of inflation and whether workers or corporate profits are to blame. It comes from an episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2023 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends NotACop182 · 2023-03 · on “America’s banks are missing hundreds of billions of dollars”
Lots point to Covid-19 ppp and spending to be the cause of inflation. When the majority is supply chain and corporate opportunist. Great interview with Jon Stewart ad fed chair here: [this video]
Recommends bb88 · 2023-05 · on “Once a fringe theory, “greedflation” gets its due”
There's an episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart about two months ago where he interviews Larry Summers about inflation in general and corporate profits being part of the issue. It's a real good exchange of viewpoints on the matter -- better than you'd get with most other commentary. Relevant clip is here: [this video]
Recommends batmaniam · 2023-06 · on “IMF: Largest driver of EU inflation is corporate profits”
Jon Stewart touches on this issue (but for the US): [this video] It's rather funny (and sad) to watch the entire conversation reflecting how inflation solutions are geared towards benefiting corporations over the people.
Recommends Supermancho · 2023-10 · on “Jon Stewart's Show on Apple Is Ending”
I dunno. I think he's the only person doing serious journalism. He had access and was willing to speak truth to power, publicly. [this video] [LINK] It's not surprising that the show was finally shuttered.
Cites jmyeet · 2023-03 · on “Unchecked corporate pricing power is a factor in US inflation”
This is why corporate taxation is so important as well as the real solution to rising inflation. We have the additional factor that the banking sector may not be able to withstand further interest rate hikes due to bad risk management. Protecting the banking system is pretty much the only thing that could prompt lawmakers into action (eg a windfall profits tax) but these aren't ordinary times. But this will never happen. It's not even a partisan issue. Particularly since the awful "money = speech" decision [1], both sides of politics are bought and paid for by unchecked corporate power (eg [2]). Corporate consolidation makes this worse. Terms that might otherwise be illegal like "price gougi
Cites jmyeet · 2023-03 · on “Banks as Collateral Damage in a Class War”
I wouldn't call this "class war". It's more accurate to say "neofeudalism". Real wages have been relatively stagnant for 40+ years while we've seen a massive concentration of wealth at the top. Trickle-down economics and deregulation have repeatedly shown themselves to be nothing more than tools for increasing income and wealth inequality. Every aspect of your life is increasingly financialized. College, once free or cheap, now saddles you with lifelong debt. Mortgage debt and rent as a ratio to income have massively increased. Medical debt can wipe you out in the blink of an eye. All of this is by design. It's an inevitable consequence of hyper-capitalist neoliberalism. All of this debt wit
Cites Supermancho · 2023-10 · on “Millions of Homes Still Being Kept Vacant as Housing Costs Surge, Report Finds”
> Asset inflation at this point is a runaway process caused by companies raising prices to cover increased costs and adding a margin for safety because of volatility Aka profit inflation, instead of wage inflation. [this video]
Cites Supermancho · 2023-10 · on “You've Never Had It So Good. Which Is Why You're Stuck”
This is the classic WSJ defending the Fed protecting the upper class wealth and telling the lower classes to suck it up, imo. Greedflation. [this video]