Episode Details

Join America's Roundtable Radio co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy in a conversation with Steve H. Hanke, a top economist and leading monetarist.

Dr. Steve Hanke provides an analysis of midterm elections, an update on America's economy, and raises concerns about the prolonged Ukraine - Russia conflict as the West's economic sanctions fail to bring an end to the war on the European continent. Dr. Hanke has been a strong critic of corruption in Ukraine and recent reports that he highlights raise red flags that US weapons are making its way to the black market. On America's Roundtable, principled leaders have called for greater oversight on how US taxpayer aid is being used in Ukraine and within NATO's Eastern European countries mired in corruption.

Professor Hanke also discusses the Misery Index, and "why it is essential for policy-makers to have a read of their constituents’ well-being, as viewed through the lens of economic statistics."

Report: Hanke’s 2021 Misery Index: Who’s Miserable and Who’s Happy?

Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI). What is it — and how should we conceive of man’s well-being? The human condition lies on a vast spectrum between “miserable” and “happy.” In the economic sphere, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs, and unemployment. The surefire way to mitigate that misery is through economic growth. Comparing countries’ metrics can tell us a lot about where in the world people are sad or happy. HAMI gives us the answers. My version of the misery index is the sum of the year-end unemployment, inflation, and bank-lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita. Higher readings on the first three elements are “bad” and make people more miserable. These “bads” are offset by a “good” (real GDP per capita growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the bads to yield a HAMI score.

Bio: Dr. Steve H. Hanke

Steve H. Hanke is a professor of applied economics and founder and codirector of the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Dr. Steve Hanke served as special counselor to the Center for Financial Stability in New York. Hanke is also a contributing editor at Central Banking in London and a contributor at National Review. In addition, Hanke is a member of the Charter Council of the Society for Economic Measurement and of the Euromoney Country Risk’s Experts Panel.

In the past, Hanke taught economics at the Colorado School of Mines and at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers in Maryland in 1976– 77, as a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1981–82, and as a senior adviser to the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress in 1984–88. Hanke served as a state counselor to both the Republic of Lithuania in 1994–96 and the Republic of Montenegro in 1999–2003. He was also an adviser to the presidents of Bulgaria in 1997–2002, Venezuela in 1995–96, and Indonesia in 1998. He played an important role in establishing new currency regimes in Argentina, Estonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia‐​Herzegovina, Ecuador, Lithuania, and Montenegro. Hanke has also held senior appointments in the governments of many other countries, including Albania, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yugoslavia.

Hanke has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (2003), the Free University of Tbilisi (2010), Istanbul Kültür University (2012), the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (2013), Varna Free University (2015), the Universität Liechtenstein (2017), and the D.A. Tsenov Academy of Economics (2018) in recognition of his s