The K-Shaped Economy

Fraternities are so deeply embedded in the culture of American universities, that even rape and sexual assault scandals like the one at Cornell University don't seem to jeopardize their status. That's in part because of their ubiquity. Across the country there are some 6,000 fraternity chapters and six million alumni. Adam and Cameron examine the economics of fraternities as an institution.

This year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences was awarded to two Americans, Michael Woodford and Robert Hall, for developing “new macroeconomic models that have significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilisation policy.” Adam and Cameron discuss.

Diesel prices are hitting record highs, with the average price per gallon in the United States as high as $6.43 in late September. Adam and Cameron discuss the history of the fuel and the impact that the spike is having around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The housing market in the United States is in gridlock these days, largely because of high interest rates. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is now above 7 percent, making it difficult for would-be first-time buyers to get into the market. Adam and Cameron discuss the broader implications for the U.S. economy.

Adam and Cameron discuss the newly released memoir of Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist whose influential paper in 1989—which was later expanded into a book—posited that liberal democracy had won the world's ideological battle. The thesis was heralded as prescient when the Berlin wall fell a short time later but has been subjected to much criticism over the years. In the memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, Fukuyama sets out to account for events that have transpired since 1989. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices