This is a bracing, no-nonsense talk from economist Mark Blyth of Brown University, who is the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century and Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea. Unlike many on the left, he harbors few illusions about how and why the public at large has not done much to contest a clear deterioration in their standard of living (stagnant wage levels, less job stability, cuts in benefits, longer hours and more employer incursions onto what used to be private time). And not to suffer from confirmation bias, but as reader Gabriel U, who flagged this video, pointed out:

Much that’s good in interview, but one bit I think the NC team will like is he agrees virtually to the letter with view that, without having a Plan B from the outset, the original Tsipiras-Varoufakis government was “criminally irresponsible” in its negotiation strategy (this is a little after the 22:00 mark).

This interview was conducted by Andrew Mazzone on his show Smart Talk.