{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Design Economics Podcast with Vinny Tafuro","title":"Cahal Moran: Clandestine Origins; Economics' Prize and Its Borrowed Authority","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3345,"description":"For nearly 60 years, October headlines have announced the \"Nobel Prize in Economics.\" Alfred Nobel never created one. Sweden's central bank simply invented it in 1968, borrowing the Nobel name and the authority that came with it. Just six years later, winner Friedrich Hayek warned the prize would confer \"an authority which in economics no man ought to possess,\" then accepted it anyway. Days after this year's award, host Vinny Tafuro sat down with Cahal Moran, economist and host of Unlearning Economics. Unlike the Nobel Prizes in physics or chemistry, Cahal argues, this prize rewards no discovery, yet gives its winners real and undemocratic influence over policy. Their conversation explores the prize's dodgy origins, who it elevates, who it almost entirely leaves out, and why it perhaps shouldn't exist at all.\nGuest Links\nUnlearning Economics on YouTube\nWhy We're Getting Poorer: Economics for an Unfair World, Cahal Moran (2025)\nWhy You Should Ignore the Economics Nobel Prize, Cahal Moran, IAI\nReferenced in this episode\nRethinking Economics\n2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize announcement, Robert Hall and Michael Woodford\nSwiftynomics, How Women MasterMind and Redefine Our Economy, Misty L Heggeness\nWho Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?, Katrine Marçal\nReferenced Design Economics Podcast Episodes\nEpisode 19: Misty Heggeness on Swiftynomics\nEpisode 20: Erin Hotchkiss on Fragments & Frameworks\nTeam Human: Enshittification – And How We Stop It (w/Cory Doctorow)\nA note on black holes: The famous first photo of a black hole, mentioned in the episode, came in 2019 and did not win a Nobel. A year later, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez for proving black holes are real, including a supermassive one at the center of our galaxy.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/P3wg-xEkpRvkpDT15uNl06Lyxqq441lxmltvmKML17Q/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xODll/MmJhYWIwMGZhNGRl/ODI0NjVlMDg2YjE0/ZDI0My5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}