Lots More with Brad Setser

Joe Weisenthal (0:00)

Hey, Brad. I didn't realize you were going to be in person.

Brad Setser (0:05)

I didn't realize you were going to be in person. I thought you were like...

Tracy Alloway (0:09)

And normally we're just disembodied voices.

Brad Setser (0:13)

Singing country tunes from some undisclosed Texas location.

Joe Weisenthal (0:17)

I wish. Oh my God.

I did a deadlift. One, two, three.

Tracy Alloway (0:24)

Hegemony. Barges.

Joe Weisenthal (0:29)

This is an after school special, except...

Tracy Alloway (0:31)

I've decided I'm going to base my entire personality going forward on campaigning for a strategic pork reserve in the US.

Joe Weisenthal (0:36)

Where's the best squid ink pasta?

Tracy Alloway (0:38)

These are the important questions. Is it robots taking over the world?

Joe Weisenthal (0:41)

No, I think that like...

In a couple of years, the AI will do a really good job of making the Odd Lots podcast and people will think, I don't really need to listen to Joe and Tracy anymore. But we do have the perfect guest.

Tracy Alloway (0:56)

Until then, this is Lots More.

Joe Weisenthal (0:58)

A weekly chat about whatever is on our mind.

Tracy Alloway (1:01)

And we really do have the perfect guest.

Joe Weisenthal (1:08)

Do you recall the first time we talked about Argentina?

Tracy Alloway (1:12)

Yes.

Brad Setser (1:14)

Worst decision of my life.

Joe Weisenthal (1:16)

No, not at all. The worst, without a question, the worst interview I've done as being interviewed. The biggest bomb I've ever had.

Tracy Alloway (1:25)

Will you tell me the story?

Joe Weisenthal (1:27)

Yes. So it was 2006, probably, maybe 2007, 2006

Brad Setser (1:32)

I think it was 2005

Joe Weisenthal (1:34)

Maybe it was 2005 I was living in New York. I was more or less unemployed. I think I was doing like, you know, temp work or something like that. And I saw an ad online, I forget where, that the Rubini Global Economics was hiring for someone to do economic analysis. And I was like, I need a job and I'm kind of interested in economics. I just stopped a job that I had working for a small portfolio management company.

And so I sent an email and I'm like, I think I've studied a little economics and maybe I could do this. And I went to an office on the lower west side, I think it was Tribeca.

Was that where it was, Brad? Somewhere around there.

Brad Setser (2:13)

It was north of Tribeca. It's like there's a warehouse to the west of Soho.

Joe Weisenthal (2:19)

I met with Brad.

I was applying for the job. I met with Brad. I knew actually in advance of this interview that Brad was interested in Argentina specifically and all the problems that it had. And I tried to cram the day before to learn something about Argentina.

And I think the first question, Brad asked me something about some policy prescription I'd have for that. And you know that experience, like if you're trying to speak a foreign language that you used to know 15 years ago and you think maybe you know it and your mouth opens but nothing comes out. That was me.

Tracy Alloway (2:52)

I also know the experience of having a bad interview in real time and you realize that it's going terribly.

Joe Weisenthal (2:59)

It's just like the mouth opens and it's like no words came out and I'm like, well, I guess I'm going to do something else. Anyway, it worked out fine.

Brad Setser (3:06)

Anyway, we should have hired you on the strength of your blog alone. Bad business model. We should have recognized, we should have moved to meet the talent where the talent was.

Joe Weisenthal (3:19)

18 years later, here we are. 17 years later, here we are and people are still talking about Argentina.

Tracy Alloway (3:27)

Well we are here with Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He's been on the show multiple times.

Joe Weisenthal (3:34)

He's got to be, he might be the number one now.

Tracy Alloway (3:38)

I don't know.

Brad Setser (3:38)

I'm sure I've been eclipsed. I was out of commission for two years.

Joe Weisenthal (3:44)

When Brad was at Treasury, there were a couple of years where we didn't get to speak, we didn't get a chance to speak to him, but it's been a lot now.

Tracy Alloway (3:51)

But to your point, Joe, it does, it always feels like deja vu with Argentina. Like it's always, it's either they've just defaulted on bonds because someone decided to give them money again for reasons I don't understand, or something kind of crazy is happening. Like with Argentina, it just feels like the craziest outcome is like the one that tends to happen.