Irving Fisher podcast

This is from Economics in Ten podcast, season six, episode three. Irving Fisher was hailed by Schumpeter as ‘the greatest economist America has ever produced’, which makes it all the more striking that his reputation collapsed spectacularly after he publicly declared stock prices had reached ‘a permanently high plateau’, days before the 1929 crash. The episode covers his debt-deflation theory, which enjoyed a major revival after 2008, and his work on the quantity theory of money and interest rates. There’s a cautionary tale here about forecasting hubris that students tend to find satisfying, and the 2008 parallel is genuinely useful for macro teaching. Slightly beyond standard spec in places, but the debt-deflation and financial crisis content is accessible and directly useful for macro students, making it a strong extension listen for higher-attainers.  Listen here