Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff on Muskism

For those in the Global North, the twentieth century was the Fordist century—an era of mass production and mass consumption. But as Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue in their new book, there's another order afoot: Muskism [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477340/muskism-by-tarnoff-quinn-slobodian-and-ben/9780241805114]. Elon Musk, they show, is an avatar for a whole range of phenomena that have shaped our world: from a vision of white supremacy fostered in South Africa; to a symbiosis between Silicon Valley and the warfare state; to a world where founders become technokings; to a dream of a posthuman future where man and machine have merged into a networked whole. Muskism, they reveal, is a new operating system for the twenty-first century. Listen in to this very special episode—recorded live and in person—to learn more.

Jessica Levy on the Strange Career of Black Empowerment

Today, we welcome Jessica Levy, co-host of Who Makes Cents, onto the program—not as an interviewer, but as a guest. She's here to talk about her remarkable new book, Black Power, Inc: Corporate America and the Rise of Multinational Empowerment Politics [https://www.pennpress.org/9781512828573/black-power-inc/]. This book traces the strange career of black empowerment: from civil rights protests to the boardroom, and from the streets of urban America to the townships of South Africa. Black empowerment, she reveals, was a protean concept, at once radical and conservative, that allowed different constiutencies to sometimes push for change, and at other times, to co-opt more transformative alternatives. Along the way, we'll grapple with a big question: is it possible to use corporations to combat the inequalities that racial capitalism has created?

Sean Vanatta Joins for a Banking Mega-Pod

To many, banking remains largely invisible—a hidden circulatory system that allocates capital and credit throughout the economy. If it's worth paying any attention to at all, it's only in moments of crisis—when things clot up, and circulation stops entirely. But in recent years, business and financial historians have reminded us that banks are far more than quiet functionaries. In fact, they are foundational to virtually every aspect of modern life: from public and private investment, to the relationship of the state to its citizens, to the distribution of wealth, to the geographical apportionment of money. In short, understanding banking is essential to seeing how power works under capitalism. To help us do that, I can think of no one better to have on than Sean Vanatta, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and the author of the two books we'll be discussing today: Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America and Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards, and the End of Financial Control. Listen for some big-brained takes on the history—and just possibly the future—of banking in the United States.

Sven Beckert on a Global History of Capitalism

Popular histories tend to locate capitalism's origins in Europe, only later moving outward to other parts of the globe. Not so says historian Sven Beckert. Capitalism, he argues, was born global, forged through the connections made by merchants and others from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In this month's episode, Beckert brings listeners on an epic ride, tracing global capitalism's rise during the past millennium and around the world, from merchant businesses in Aden, onto the terrifyingly violent sugar plantations in Barbados, and, finally, to the rising industrial power of contemporary China. Colonialism, coercion, and, notably, state power all featured prominently in capitalism's rise, helping this radical new way of organizing economic life overcome elite and non-elite resistance to become one of the most powerful forces in human history. This episode is brought to you by Columbia University Press' Series on the History of US Capitalism and listeners like you.

Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs

Few historical tableaus are more iconic than the midcentury suburbs of Long Island. I can see it now: rows of identical houses, subsidized by federal spending, inhabited by white middle-class heteronormative families 2.3 children, attending well-funded schools. If there's a stereotypical image of the "American Dream," this is it. But after reading Mike Glass' new book, Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America, I can promise you'll never think about the suburbs quite the same way. Glass reveals that the way we paid for those homes and those schools—through debt financing on the capital markets—left midcentury suburbs unstable, unequal, and racially segregated. Even in the so-called "golden age of capitalism," suburban life was more precarious than I'd ever imagined. If you're ready to demolish all of the things you thought you knew about postwar suburbia, listen to today's episode with Mike Glass.