Chicago Booth Review Podcast

Lying is wrong, right? And yet, almost everyone lies sometimes, and most of us see lying as not only acceptable but preferable in some situations. How does context affect the importance of the truth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, we examine the findings of research into how lying is perceived.

Total household debt in the United States is in the neighborhood of $17 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Who's funding that debt? One theory is that ultrawealthy Americans are, through their excess savings, and that the result is a destabilizing cycle of inequality. This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at the research behind this argument and what this dynamic could mean for the US economy.

Facebook and Google are each facing antitrust scrutiny in the United States, and they have come under the gaze of European regulators as well. But most people don't pay money to ei-ther company for the services they provide, so can Facebook and Google really be said to have monopolies? And if they do, does it matter? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Pod-cast, we revisit a debate between Booth's Luigi Zingales and George Mason's Tyler Cowen about the price of the tech giants' dominance.

When a business's customers object to its conduct, they generally have two options: exit (vote with their wallets and cut ties with the company) and voice (boycott, protest, or otherwise raise awareness of their complaint). Social media has changed the calculus behind this choice for both individuals and companies. On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert considers the impact of this change and how the relative appeal of exit and voice have evolved over time.

Exploring the trust in AI for decision-making, the podcast discusses how humans prefer human judgment in moral scenarios. It also looks into the diminishing sensitivity to forecasting errors when trusting algorithms, the preference for human forecasts over AI for perfection, and the importance of addressing bias and promoting equity in AI algorithms.

Many of us have a tendency to attach labels to the money flowing into and out of our hands—"wages," "windfall," "bills," "leisure," and so on—and to treat the money differently depending on where it came from or how we're using it. In behavioral economics this is called mental accounting, and it can lead to some irrational personal-finance choices. On this episode, the Chicago Booth Review Podcast looks at how researchers are mapping the mental connections we're making between various expenses, and how those research insights can help consumers and marketers make better decisions.

What are the qualities of a good CEO? What differentiates CEOs from other executives? How do companies seek them out, and should those recruiting practices adapt as corporate America seeks to improve diversity at its highest levels? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Chicago Booth's Steve Kaplan and a trio of experts in executive search discuss the business world's preeminent position with host Hal Weitzman.

What is within the power of free markets? What can capitalism do for society, what can't it do, and what should it do? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, Booth's John Paul Rollert explores how many people came to have an unshakeable faith in capitalism's broad ability to solve nearly any problem, while the experience of others has left them skeptical. In the era after "the end of history," capitalism's defenders need to reckon earnestly with a series of questions about what the system may leave unresolved, he says.

It may be in the nature of taxation that it should suffer a bad public image—but US law, with its convoluted tax code, doesn't help make it any more palatable. Why is it so complicated, particularly when simplifying it is one of the rare ideas that enjoys bipartisan support? And apart from making it more straightforward, how else might lawmakers improve it? This episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast examines three CBR articles exploring research around taxation from different angles.

Much has been said and written about the wealth concentrated in the highest-earning 1 percent of US households. But wealth and income are also similarly concentrated within that small slice of the US economy, with the 1 percent's 1 percent—that is, the .01 percent—far outpacing the rest of that elite group in terms of income and wealth share, according to some economists. Who makes up this small fraction of households, how rich are they, and how did they end up with so much wealth? On this episode of the Chicago Booth Review Podcast, host Hal Weitzman revisits a CBR feature probing the contours of wealth and income inequality in the US.