![[Abridged] Presidential Histories - BONUS! The Hail Mary Effect in Presidential Politics, an interview with William Silber](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/tl0hd57uzysfc7brkh26z9taoqob?.avif)
BONUS! The Hail Mary Effect in Presidential Politics, an interview with William Silber
[Abridged] Presidential Histories
07/01/24
•48m
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It's commonly accepted wisdom that presidents are less effective in their second terms, when the term limits of the 22nd amendment turn them into Lame Ducks who cannot be elected to office a third time.
But what if that common wisdom is wrong?
Former NYU economics professor William Silber, author of The Power of Nothing to Lose: The Hail Mary Effect in Politics, War and Business, argues that lame ducks only appear less effective because, with nothing left to lose, they pursue goals that are more ambitious and more difficult. And nothing-to-lose, gamble-it-all-on-the-win behavior can also be seen in presidential campaigns when candidates trail badly in the polls or fear a defeat will end their careers.
With two former presidents on the ballet this fall, Silber forecasts what to expect from the campaigns and potential administrations of the contendors.
Previous Episode
39.A) Jimmy Carter, the outsider, an interview with Jonathan Alter
June 17, 2024
•54m
When Jimmy Carter won the presidency, his Democratic party held a 61-37 majority in the Senate and a 292-143 majority in the House. Why then, with such a clear governing majority, were his relations with Congress so poor, and his agenda so challenged?
Jonathan Alter, a long-time journalist and author of numerous books on the presidency, including His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, discusses how Carter's outsider status and a healthy heaping of luck swept him to the presidency, but betrayed him in the White House.
Next Episode
When unemployment and inflation began to rise side by side in the 1970s, nobody knew what to do. Economic theory suggested it should have been impossible, and yet the numbers couldn't be denied. Stanford Historian Jennifer Burns, author of Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative, discusses how American presidents of the 70's tried and failed to curb stagflation, what led Carter to Paul Volcker, and how Volcker's medicine may have saved the economy, but doomed Carter's presidency in the process.
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