The So, It's an incredible pleasure for me to welcome Professor William Mitchell to Bad Faith

podcast. I first came across Bill Mitchell when listening to an episode of Macro and

Cheese. People who listen to both of these

podcasts will know that I frequently find myself so stimulated by conversations

that happen over there that I want to continue them over here on bad faith. But

for those of you who don't already know, William Mitchell is one of the

world's leading heterodox economist and professor of economics at the University of

Newcastle, Australia. His books include Eurozone Distopia and this one which I have had the pleasure of

getting into over the past week or so reclaiming the state a progressive vision of

sovereignty for a post-neoliberal world. Welcome to Vad Faith Podcast, Professor.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

So what was so compelling about both your interview on mackerel and cheese

and this book, which I found myself

immediately wanted to grab when I read the synopsis of it is that it does I

think provide somewhat of an antidote to I think the stagnation and frustration that's been breeding on the left in what we've come to call the post-Burney era.

And it also gives a diagnosis of sorts for what the left, the broader left has been getting wrong about how to meet the challenge of addressing neoliberalism and right populism. So I wondered if we could start by you giving your theory of the case of what the

left has been getting wrong.

I'm old enough now to have seen a broad span of developments over the last, you know,

it was 50-odd years and the left really started losing traction and direction in the 1970s in my view and that's what the book you

were holding discusses traces the tipping points of when that happened.

And what happened in was that during the post-Second World War period from 5060s into the early 70s. The left was fairly well organized and had a good message

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