Strain’s New Respect

Michael Strain, Remnant regular and beloved economic policy wonk at AEI, returns to the program ...

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Michael Strain, Remnant regular and beloved economic policy wonk at AEI, returns to the program to explore the state of inflation and kvetch about the Federal Reserve. He and Jonah also provide some unwashed commentary on House of the Dragon, discuss whether economics really is a dismal science, and mix in some thoughts on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Can inflation be fought at the state level? When should economics and politics mix? And is it possible for a Remnant episode to be too long and nerdy?

Show Notes:

– Michael’s page at AEI

– Jonah: “Not Everything Is a Morality Tale”

– Russia’s oil riches

– Celebrate Kevin D. Williamson’s arrival at The Dispatch with a 30-day free trial

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Comments (13)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Blake

    Re: episode length - bring on as long of conversations as you want, Jonah. I’m here for it. And look, you don’t have to go Joe Rogan and be 3 hours long 5x a week but he does have 11 million people listen to his show, so to me it’s pretty clear episode length is not the primary concern of listeners.

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    Denise Cote

    I don't mind your pod going over an hour, it's always a good conversation.

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  3. The.Cullens

    You say undisclosed location but we all know it was “The Meadows”!

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  4. Hayden

    House of the Dragon is a character drama while setting up for the worst dragon-laden civil war experienced on that continent... Imagine Succession but everyone has access to tactical nukes. You can't just jump straight to the explosions, you gotta show how we got there. All the petty slights and offenses that made everyone take sides.
    Also, regarding the "following a formula" remark... yeah, they are literally following the "history" written by G.R.R. Martin. Does history, in fact, NOT repeat or rhyme? Well it does in Westeros. Before there was a Cersei, there was Dance of the Dragons. This isn't an original story, it's an adaptation. And it's loosely based on multiple events that occurred in real life.

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    Ben Connelly

    Overflow is totally the Remnant brand! The ideal Remnant length is 80-90 minutes (maybe 70-95). Beyond that unless it’s with KDW or KMW or Jack Butler or Charlie Cooke it might be dragging a little. But anything under 70 is too short! Jonah, you’re absolutely right: if a listener is enjoying the podcast at 45 minutes, they’ll gladly enjoy it for another 45 (speaking for myself).

    (I support Adam’s idea that the others should all be kept to one hour. I like all TD podcasts, but the Remnant is in a league of its own. The others all do start to feel lengthy after 65. Also, Adom, sorry if I misspelled your name. If you read this, please feel free to correct me.)

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    AndreaLeane75

    To me, the issue with Star Wars was that it was derivative, except The Last Jedi and that was a deconstruction. The formulaic story wasn't the problem. The formula, or tropes, can be effective if used well. They weren't in the Disney version. They went in without an outline of the complete story they wanted to tell, played on fans' sentiment with Force Awakens, created a narrative disconnect with most of the OG characters and the end of Return of the Jedi, created an unconvincing, whiny villain who threw temper tantrums and wasn't scary at all, and it all went downhill from there.

    Rey being a female main character wasn't the problem. It was that she didn't have much growth. They tried to create instant likeability and cheap connection by having her take over the Falcon and be instantly beloved by Leia. It made little narrative sense to me. The actress was good. The writing did her a great disservice. Rey could have been awesome. Sure, make her more powerful than Anakin and Luke. But make her earn it. Have her struggle more before she fully comes into her powers. Their explanation for why she didn't is completely lame and again derivative. I will never trust JJ Abrams again. Everybody goes on about Rian Johnson. I hated his SW movie too but at least he tried something different.

    I hated everything they did with Chewie, Han Solo and Luke. They had a real opportunity to have the older characters hand off the franchise to the new group. What they did was awful. You never got to see the original group together and the new group was never really cohesive or convincing as a unit. They didn't seem to know how to write them, especially Poe and Finn. I'm offended for them TBH. heh. I wanted to like them. I didn't hate them. I am just indifferent. And I'm going to shut up now because I'm getting mad all over again and nobody needs more of my ranting.

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    Adicesa14

    Excellent conversation, thank you.

    Given my ‘101’ and ‘102’ education in economics and Michael’s comments, the Biden, Trump, and some prior Administrations and their accompanying Congresses have committed governmental malpractice. Is it possible these folks don’t understand, or don’t care?

    Jonah’s suggestion that sociology was once more useful (?) takes me back to my days (long ago) at a fine midwestern University. It quickly became obvious that the answer to sociological questions that would get the best grades had to be in concert with a certain ideology. If I were a Republican or conservative politician, the papers I wrote (none of which were true to my opinion) then would be a problem, now. Suffice to say, I got a very good grade. Nothing has changed.

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    The Bell Tower

    Strain nails it. This stuff is formulaic. Except the formula isn’t female empowerment. It’s men are jerks, especially white men and definitely straight white men.

    The Lectures of Power, Obi Wan Terrible White Guy, House of Awful Men Who Hate Women, Star Trek: Men Are Jerks. Captain America: White People are Mostly Racist. She Hulk: Men Are Insensitive Jerks….. etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

    Hollywood has turned into the drunk guy at the bar who keeps telling the same story over and over and over (I’m usually this guy). I get it, pal. You met Tom Cruise at a party once. Do you have anything else to say or is that all ya got?

    The old 80’s action flicks were also pretty formulaic. Bad guy does bad things, good guy saves the day.

    The difference is that those shows weren’t cumbersome lectures. They were just brainless fun. If you’re gonna take a serious approach, have a serious message and don’t beat me over the head with it repeatedly. Better yet, don’t have any message. Have an interesting story with compelling characters. Lots of great literature and cinema exists without having some super obvious political message.

    And I think the Dragon actually has compelling characters even if the plot is pretty nebulous. I get the plane taxiing on the runway analogy but so far, I’m looking forward to each episode.

    The men are jerks message is definitely there but it isn’t overbearing like it is on other shows. All the characters have flaws and weaknesses and that sets it apart from some of these other shows.

    I feel entertained, not bludgeoned. So long as that’s true, I’ll keep watching.

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    1. Avatar photo
      The Bell Tower

      Note: Andor seems to get this so far. It’s almost as if they just want to tell me a story or something.

      Weird.

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    CynthiaW

    This is really nerdy.

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    NashLives

    A better version of Jonah's fed independence question: should we have something akin to the fed for fiscal policy? Doesn't our long term prosperity depend just as much, if not more, on how policymakers handle the coming entitlement/social insurance crisis (i.e., likely very badly perhaps disastrously)? The argument that monetary policy is simply too important to leave to elected officials really does beg the question, isn't fiscal policy too important to leave to EOs? More generally, this kind of argument could apply to lots of other policy areas - isn't the decision to launch nuclear weapons too important to leave to EOs?

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