Gene Tunny

EP65 – Behavioural Finance with Dr Tracey West

The latest episode of my Economics Explored podcast considers the emerging field of behavioural finance, which is basically the application of behavioural economics to finance. It considers lessons from this field for households, investors, and governments. The episode features an interview I conducted earlier this week with Dr Tracey West of the Griffith Business School.

Tracey teaches behavioural finance to undergraduates and postgraduates at Griffith’s Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) campus. She’s also an active commentator on economic policy issues. For instance, last year, Tracey wrote an excellent Conversation article on 3 lessons from behavioural economics Bill Shorten’s Labor Party forgot about, three lessons which Tracey and I consider in our conversation. Those lessons are:

1. People are loss averse

2. Limited decision-making

3. Now is worth more than later (and much more so than economists would typically assume using typical discount rates).

Tracey and I had a great discussion about behavioural finance theory and practice, including the need for regulation of financial markets and investments. The Storm Financial collapse, which wrecked the finances of many North Queenslanders, was given as an example illustrating the need for regulation of financial investments. I hope you enjoy our conversation. A transcript is available via my business website.

Links relevant to the conversation include:

Tracey’s LinkedIn profile

Tracey’s academic publications via Google Scholar

EP64 – Adam Smith & Margaret Thatcher with Dr Eamonn Butler

First, I should say that Gillian Anderson nailed Margaret Thatcher’s voice and mannerisms in season 4 of the Crown, but she had to work with some pretty dreadful scripts at times. Thatcher was cast as the villain responsible for high unemployment and social dislocation in 1980s Britain, but we weren’t reminded of crisis-ridden 1970s Britain which Thatcher inherited and needed to repair. There was the 1976 IMF Crisis and the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent, among other debacles. During the latter, with council workers on strike, Leicester square in London’s West End was turned into a temporary garbage tip. The country was literally a mess, and the heavy state intervention, which Thatcher partly wound back in the 1980s, was to blame. Certainly, the Iron Lady had her flaws, but she deserved a much fairer portrayal than was given her in the Crown.

I recently spoke about Margaret Thatcher, and Adam Smith, too, with Dr Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute, and our recorded conversation is now available as Episode 64 of my Economics Explored podcast. We spoke about the lessons of Adam Smith, why Thatcher’s economic measures were necessary, why the Adam Smith Institute is unashamedly neoliberal, and finally about the deleterious consequences of wage and price controls which have been observed since Babylonian and Roman times. I hope you enjoy our conversation.