Connect your Claude, Codex or OpenClaw for full transcripts on millions of podcasts. Two week free trial, cancel anytime.
Start free trial →Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers · Money & Markets · November 2026
A listener said stock gains let him absorb higher living costs. Wolfers uses a pie metaphor for GDP to explain that the share of national income going to owners rather than workers is at a record.
…we Americans get together and we bake an economic pie. We call that pie GDP. Oh, wow, P ends in pie. Can you come up with a really good acronym, something, something pie for GDP? I'm in a Zachros, domestic pie, but giant delightful. Our giant delightful pie. Thank you. You're a lifesaver, Augusta.
Anytime.
…of whom Mark is one, and the smaller share goes to workers. We worry about that because most ownership is very concentrated among the very wealthy. Mark might describe himself, I think, as quite comfortable, but not quite a billionaire. But a lot of the money does go off to the billionaire class. Workers, much more equally distributed. Then the question was: do we expect this out? And so, what we have right now is the United States is giving the largest share of our giant delightful pie to owners rather than workers than we've ever had at any point in our history. And then, Augusta, your question, Mark's question, is that likely to continue? Do we see some reversal? It's a very hard question. One, I want to bite on the politics and then I'll come back on the economics. You could say, is this issue going to change? And I would ask you, is any economic issue going to change? Which strikes me as one of the most important things coming out of last night. So…
Civics 101. They don't make you take that as an part of the immigration test.
Well, they do. And actually, now I'm going to sound like President Trump. I aced that test.
Yeah, you probably know more about it than I do. Those tests are hard.