"What Went Wrong with Capitalism?"

Alex Nowrasteh interviews Ruchir Sharma about his new book on CSPAN

Appearing on CSPAN is the most enjoyable television experience for me. The hosts are very cordial, ask good questions, give me a chance to answer, and then invite callers to ask the hard (and sometimes weird) questions. Unlike Fox News or MSNBC, the hosts act like they're interested in what you have to say and don't use the interview as an opportunity to ask partisan gotcha questions. The CSPAN format doesn't allow me to verbally defeat opponents in a debate like I did with Tucker Carlson, but public debates are overrated and don't allow for each side to explain their perspectives or explore evidence. Debates also don’t change many minds.

Recently, CSPAN asked me to interview authors about their new books on AfterWords, which is the author interview program on BookTV. Interviewing authors is great fun because it combines many of my interests, like reading, critically evaluating other writings, exploring ideas, and talking in front of an audience (even if it's separated by space and time). CSPAN just aired another episode where I interview Ruchir Sharma about his new book What Went Wrong with Capitalism?

Sharma is a contributing editor to the Financial Times, chairman of Rockefeller International, and author of several books. He has a successful career in finance and sees the impact of different policies through his lens of working in global capitalism, which means he's aware of how political and policy changes affect his business. Perspectives like his shouldn't be the first or last words read by people seeking to understand how policy affects the economy and human relations, but social scientists don't talk to businessmen enough and spend too much time theorizing in the Ivory Tower. Economists should do more fieldwork and actually ask firms, workers, and consumers why they do the things they do – just as Ronald Coase did when he wrote his famous "The Nature of the Firm." Economists should be more willing to take insights from fieldwork and add a layer of testable theory.

Fieldwork can't dominate economics – we're not sociologists, after all – but the marginal value of more fieldwork likely exceeds the cost. This strategy risks veering into economics-by-anecdote, but it can yield insights that are ignored by economists who rarely talk to the subjects of their studies. Economist Catherine Pakaluk does this well with her new book Hannah's Children, in which she interviewed fifty-five American women who intentionally have many children while average birth rates are cratering. Sharma’s book is informed by his experiences but it’s not fieldwork. Still, I learned from asking him about what he’s experienced from inside the model.

I try to fulfill two goals when interviewing an author about their book. The first is to give the author a chance to explain their book's thesis, their main arguments, and illustrative anecdotes and to allow them space to address the most obvious counterpoints. Authors put much effort into their books, and the least I can do is allow them space to explain it to an audience in the hopes that they'll convince some viewers to take a deeper look. My second goal is to offer my own assessment, critical or not, of the book through a few pointed questions, criticisms, or praise. The latter goal is consistent with a verbal book review, the former with a book report. I tried this earlier with Jennifer Burns' biography of Milton Friedman, but I did better with Sharma's What Went Wrong with Capitalism?

I agree with Sharma's main point that what went wrong with capitalism is that we don't have enough of it, and most of the problems that people have with capitalism are caused by government interference that produces poor and, often, unintended consequences. However, I disagree with Sharma regarding his concern about economic inequality and economic concentration. Those concerns give the critics too much credit and, if followed by policymakers, lead to further restrictions on markets that cause more problems that people blame on capitalism. Regardless, you may like the interview. I hope I have the opportunity to interview many more authors on CSPAN.

Follow the link if you want to watch it on CSPAN’s website.