Vox Talks

The Battle of Bretton Woods

Benn Steil, 29 April 2013

Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book ‘The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order’. They discuss the ‘realpolitik’ of the 1944 conference and the scheming of the two central characters, as well as lessons for today’s efforts to reform the Eurozone and the international monetary system. The interview was recorded in London in April 2013.

The architecture of innovation

Josh Lerner, 21 March 2013

Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his book "The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations". They discuss a variety of issues around the challenges of innovation, including corporate venturing, venture capital-based enterprises, patents and public investment in science. The interview was recorded in Washington, DC, at the annual meeting of the Toulouse Network on Information Technology in September 2012.

Reform or repression: The political constraints to effective banking reform

Charles W Calomiris, 28 January 2013

Charles Calomiris talks to Viv Davies about what he sees as a pervasive change in the politics of banking that has enabled banking regulators and supervisors to pursue bad practices. Calomiris maintains that the keys to effective prudential regulatory reform are, first, to recognise the core incentive problems that encourage risk-taking and ineffective regulation, and second, to design simple reforms that are 'incentive-robust', for which a political coalition of support will be required. The interview was recorded by phone on 24 January 2013.

Greekonomics

Vicky Pryce, 7 December 2012

Vicky Pryce talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about her book, "Greekonomics: The euro crisis and why politicians don’t get it". They discuss the flaws in the original conception of the single currency, Greece’s dire recent economic experiences and how Greek and European policymakers have responded to the crisis. The interview was recorded at the Bristol Festival of Economics in late November 2012.

Quantitative easing and unconventional monetary policy

David Miles, 27 November 2012

David Miles talks to Viv Davies about the conclusions of his recent research on quantitative easing and unconventional monetary policy. Miles discusses the different types of 'asset purchasing programmes' adopted by the Bank of England, the Fed and the ECB; they also discuss the importance of current research in these areas and the potential risks associated with quantitative easing. The interview was recorded at the Bank of England on 21 November 2012. [Also read the transcript]