World Reimagined

Today’s shifting economic and political landscape is reshaping the American labor market. But amid all of the change is an opportunity to create a better workforce for the future. What are the forces at play in our current labor market? How will these changes impact employees in the long term? What role should leaders play in creating a workforce that puts its people first?

This week, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two experts about the new administration’s economic policy agenda. Noah Smith has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan, taught finance at Stony Brook University, writes a column on economics for Bloomberg, and a substack newsletter, Noahpinion. Dr. Betsey Stevenson is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan, was a member of President Obama’s Economic Advisors, and hosts the think tank podcast Think Like an Economist.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, to say that, you know what, we've had so many bad shocks by this point that we're just going to have to be bold and go for broke... We're going to have to go into the foreign markets and compete on the international stage. We're going to have to train people as if there's a future. We're going to have to take big risks because our backs are to the wall after these two decades of disasters.”

— Noah Smith

“We look for the good in everyone in our family when we pull together. We need to do the same thing in our country. We need to be loyal to everyone in our country. We need to look for the good in everyone in our country, and we need to pull together.”

— Betsey Stevenson

Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com

Books Referenced:

The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas McGregor

The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights, by Douglas Conant

Guest Info:

Noah Smith is a writer for Bloomberg Opinion and writes a Substack newsletter called Noahpinion. He did his economics Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and worked as a finance professor at SUNY Stony Brook. He has also lived in Japan for several years. He has two very chubby, fluffy rabbits.

Dr. Betsey Stevenson is a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan. She is also a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a visiting associate professor of economics at the University of Sydney, a research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, and serves on the executive committee of the American Economic Association.

She served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 to 2015 where she advised President Obama on social policy, labor market, and trade issues. She served as the chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011, advising the Secretary of Labor on labor policy and participating as the secretary’s deputy to the White House economic team.