Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
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About the Show
Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards and co-host Robin Rauzi talk about the fundamentals of the economy and how to build a better future one problem and solution at a time. Our premise is that the United States has remarkable economy — and yet for tens of millions of Americans it is not performing up to its potential. It could be more open to aspiring workers, less hostile to change, safer for workers, less risky for retirees, and so on.
✨ Support the podcast at: optimisteconomy.com ✨
Ask questions or share your economic worries with us at: [email protected]
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37 episodes — long track record
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Recent Episodes
S1E34 What’s the Skinny on Laws that Make Salaries Public?
Listener Max did his grad thesis on pay transparency laws in Colorado and found that they narrowed the gender wage gap by 8 cents on the dollar. But some big-name economists reported that such laws…
S1E33 Thanksgiving Prep: An Optimist’s Guide to Dinner Table Debate
Your drunk uncle calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Your crypto-bro cousin thinks tariffs make China pay. Your grandfather blames working women for tanking wage growth. Economist Kathryn Edwards…
S1E32 Retcon on Season One (+ Executive Orderpalooza)
Optimist Economy got its start almost exactly one year ago with a phone call that began, "Hear me out…" Thirty-two episodes later we ask, “What have we done?” Mostly we conditioned ourselves to keep…
S1E31 How Health Insurance Got Shackled to Jobs
Why is anyone’s health insurance tied to their job? It's because of a superintendent in Dallas, World War II wage freezes, a 1953 tax code quirk, and decades of inertia. This accident of history…
S1E30 Optimist Q&A: Evidence for UBI, What to Do About Billionaires, and Where Will the U.S. Economy Be After Trump?
In the final Q&A of the season, economist Kathryn Edwards answers listener questions on recent universal basic income experiments, legislative budgeting tricks, and the value of more aggressive…
S1E29 Can We Fix America's Broken Unemployment Insurance System?
Just how broken is Unemployment Insurance? Consider this: During every recession since the 1950s, the federal government has had to step in and prop it up. Of people looking for work, only half…
S1E28 The Ghost Recession: A Brief Economic History of Now
The economic pain that Americans experienced in 2022-23 was dubbed the “vibesession,” suggesting that negative public sentiment was out of sync with a healthy economy. But what we were truly…
S1E27 The Cash-for-Kids Study: Misread and Misrepresented
You might have heard recently that a years-long poverty study “found” that giving $333 monthly to kids with poor parents didn’t make a difference. But here's why that’s the wrong takeaway: The…
S1E26 The Case for Going Big on Paid Leave
Paid family and medical leave is a confusing mess: only 27% of private-sector workers get paid leave from their employer. Some others are covered by state programs, but those vary. The rest of us…
S1E25 Aren’t Free School Meals a Conservative's Dream Policy?
Free breakfast and lunch for every public school student — an idea associated more with countries like Sweden and Finland — should instead be viewed as a truly American policy that liberals and…
S1E24 Looking Beyond the Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate has been hovering around 4.2%. But in today’s highly unsettled economy, many people feel this headline number from the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t capture their economic…
S1E23 GDP Was Never Going to Make You Happy
Gross Domestic Product is the big dog of economic numbers. But this measure of the economy’s size has massive blind spots. It ignores income inequality and citizens’ wellbeing. It rewards consumption…
S1E22 How to Actually Help Young Men Struggling in Our Economy
The "boys and men crisis" conversation set in motion following the 2024 election is now shooting off in erratic directions, leading to a lot of hand-wringing about college enrollment, long-gone…
S1E21 What You Don’t Know About Poverty
About 11% of Americans have a household income that puts them below the official government threshold for poverty. Is poverty a state of being, or a risk? Are the poor people themselves the root…
S1 Q&A Part 2: Working Two Jobs, Incentives vs. Handouts, the Gold Standard, and Government ROI
Economist Kathryn Edwards is back with more answers. In Part 2, she talks more about student loans, who actually “lives off taxpayers,” why gold reserves aren’t a great idea anymore, the importance…
S1E20 Q&A Part 1: Tax Philosophy, Liberal vs. Conservative Economists, Marriage vs. Poverty and More
In the first of two mailbag episodes, economist Kathryn Edwards answers questions from optimist listeners on taxation on wages vs. investments, whether student loans are regressive, how bona fide…
S1E19 A Million Reasons to Raise the Minimum Wage
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn’t been raised since the era of flip phones. Competing bills introduced in Congress recently would set it at $15 or $17. Is that high enough, and how can…
S1E18 Collective Bargaining Without the Unionization Battles
Labor unions’ public approval has been increasing since 2009, and is now at levels not seen since the 1960s. And yet rates of union membership have been falling. Today just 10% of U.S. workers are…
S1E17 The Tax We’re 99.93% Sure That You Will Never Pay
The Estate Tax is one that half of Americans worry about, but that affects only the richest 0.07% after they die. For nearly 25 years, the U.S. has – through loopholes and ballooning exemptions –…
S1E16 About That College Grad Who Can’t Find a Job…
Newly minted college graduates are having a harder time landing that first job than in recent years. Is it AI? Is college useless? Is it a crisis? (No. No. And not yet.) College graduates under 27…
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