The Rise of Behavioral Economic Masulinity
American Literary History, Volume 32, Number 1, Spring 2020, pp. 77-110 (Article). Published by Oxford University Press
1. The “Real Invisible Hand”: From Howard Roark to Homer Simpson and the Economy Explained
On 6 September 2008, before Lehman Brothers had collapsed but after the churn in the housing markets had become apparent, National Public Radio (NPR) international economics correspondent Adam Davidson launched a podcast called Planet Money (2008–), with the tagline: “the economy explained.” And the economy, as it lurched toward a global meltdown, seemed a topic urgently in need of clarification. Planet Money was an early entry in a boom in cultural products promising to explain the financial crisis.[1] Its success came despite the fact that NPR already broadcast the prominent show Marketplace (1989–), which, along with the Marketplace Morning Report, provided daily economic news coverage. Planet Money primarily offered a new form and tone for financial coverage.
Davidson was explicit that it was the mode of explanation and its relationship to economic authority that were new: instead of the authoritative voice typifying business journalism, “there is no authority. It’s a process” (qtd. in Seward). Planet Money would be different. The authoritative voice of the business gods is embodied in Kai Ryssdal, the host of Marketplace since 2001, who uses the lexicon of conventional business-page coverage, interpellating an audience of managers and financial insiders. He speaks with the clipped, self-assured bluntness one might expect from a former naval aviator…
The brilliant Melinda Cooper introduced me in 2019 when I was in Sydney, and the school of Philosophy, Politics and Economics put my talk based on this article out as a podcast. Like the paper, the talk covers Michael Lewis's rather hubristic assessment that he invented behavioral economics on his own before he wrote a book about behavioral economists (Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky as pictured in Lewis's book, right).
You can hear the whole talk here.
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