In our previous episode, we had a wide-ranging conversation about presidential

history and presidential power with the University of Chicago legal scholar Eric Posner.

The founders could not possibly have imagined

that the president would become as powerful as he has.

And we wondered, is the US presidency turning into something like a dictatorship?

Yes I think that is happening although you know dictatorship is such a freighted term.

But that conversation with Posner was recorded in 2016 a couple months before Donald Trump was elected president.

Trump is of course now running again against Vice President Kamala Harris.

So today on Freckin economics radio we go back to

Eric Posner to talk about what's happened over the past eight years and what the

future may bring. I think it's actually pretty hard to be a dictator. You have to be kind

of smart, you have to be tough, you have to be brave.

Also, have you lost faith in election polls? If so, how would you feel about an election betting market?

A market doesn't delay information, a market doesn't spin numbers, a market just gives you numbers.

This is our election special, not what you are likely to hear elsewhere,

and it starts now. This is Freakanomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything with your host Stephen Dubner. The University of Chicago Law Professor Eric Posner has written more than a dozen books on topics ranging from antitrust regulation to human rights to the US Constitution.

As I mentioned earlier, we interviewed him eight years ago,

eight long years ago, about the evolution of presidential power.

I listened to the interview this morning and I will say that I have changed my views

about the presidency to some extent because I do think Trump was a shock and not the sort of person I

expected to become a president at the time that I did a lot of my earlier writing

on presidential powers which tended to be more optimistic

...