All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

55
Investing #218

Join Stanford GSB finance professor Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen of The Wharton School in a conversation with prominent business leaders about common flaws in the decision making process and what to do about them. Learn more at AllElseEqualPodcast.com.All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.

Recent Episodes
  • Ep60 “A Trade Deficit? More Like a Capital Surplus” with John Cochrane
    Apr 23, 2025 – 00:28:17
  • Ep59 “Why Tariffs Are Not The Ultimate Trade Weapon” with Dani Rodrik
    Apr 9, 2025 – 00:32:16
  • Ep58 How Rich Are The Ivy League Universities, Really? University Endowments Explained
    Mar 26, 2025 – 00:24:36
  • Rerun: Ep36 “Institutional Neutrality: Open Debate and Moral Stands” with John Etchemendy
    Mar 12, 2025 – 00:25:04
  • Ep57 “Effective Communication: Trump vs. Reagan” with Peter Robinson
    Feb 26, 2025 – 00:36:40
  • Ep56 “When Should We Lie for the Greater Good?” with John Ioannidis
    Feb 12, 2025 – 00:34:10
  • Ep55 “The Future Of The MBA: From 3 Top Business Schools” with Madhav Rajan
    Jan 29, 2025 – 00:32:03
  • Ep54 “The Rise And Fall of Great Societies: Lessons from History” with Victor Davis Hanson
    Jan 15, 2025 – 00:29:55
  • Rerun: Ep48 “Why CEOs are Underpaid” with Dirk Jenter
    Jan 2, 2025 – 00:29:09
  • Ep53 “The Truth About Inflation and Price Caps: Learn From Argentina” with Veronica Rappoport
    Dec 18, 2024 – 00:26:10
  • Ep52 “Should Legacy Admissions at Universities Be Illegal?” with Patrick Awuah
    Dec 11, 2024 – 00:26:49
  • Ep51 Celebrating 50 Episodes: The Biggest All Else Equal Mistakes
    Nov 14, 2024 – 00:27:24
  • Ep50 “Is Proxy Advising a Catch-22?” with Chester Spatt
    Oct 30, 2024 – 00:24:16
  • Ep49 “Making Regulation Work” with Jay Clayton
    Oct 16, 2024 – 00:27:24
  • Ep48 “Are CEOs Underpaid?” with Dirk Jenter
    Oct 2, 2024 – 00:28:45
  • Ep47 “Is the US National Debt Sustainable?” with Mohamed El-Erian
    Sep 18, 2024 – 00:35:36
  • Rerun: Ep12 Corporations as Job Security Providers
    Sep 4, 2024 – 00:20:36
  • Rerun: Ep1 "Making a Business Decision" with Ruth Porat
    Aug 21, 2024 – 00:24:52
  • Rerun: Ep17 "Can the Free Market Discourage Fraud?" with Marc Cohodes
    Aug 7, 2024 – 00:27:01
  • Rerun: Ep8 “Why Capitalism Works" with John Cochrane
    Jul 24, 2024 – 00:31:58
  • Rerun: Ep7 Can Investors Effect Social Change?
    Jul 10, 2024 – 00:25:49
  • Rerun: Ep6 "Can (and Should) Corporations Be Taxed?" with Larry Summers
    Jun 26, 2024 – 00:27:37
  • Rerun: Ep4 "Making Bad Investments Profitable" with Pete Briger
    Jun 13, 2024 – 00:27:50
  • Ep46 "May Contain Lies" with Alex Edmans
    May 30, 2024 – 00:29:04
  • Ep45 “The Future of Higher Education Part 2” with Niall Ferguson
    May 15, 2024 – 00:30:19
  • Ep44 “The Future of Higher Education Part 1” with Carmen Twillie Ambar and Kimberly Wright Cassidy
    May 9, 2024 – 00:30:31
  • Ep43 Examining Bad Investment Advice
    Apr 17, 2024 – 00:22:56
  • Ep42 Waiting to Invest
    Apr 3, 2024 – 00:25:43
  • Ep41 “Understanding the SEC's New Climate Disclosure Rules” with Lawrence Cunningham
    Mar 13, 2024 – 00:26:37
  • Navigating Workplace Power Dynamics with Deborah H. Gruenfeld feat. ‘If/Then’ Podcast
    Mar 4, 2024 – 00:28:35
  • Ep40 “Why the Private Debt Markets Have Exploded” with Laurence Gottlieb
    Feb 28, 2024 – 00:27:57
  • Ep39 “Why Does the Non-Profit Model Work?” with Daniel Diermeier
    Feb 14, 2024 – 00:28:56
  • Ep38 "The Power of Non-Monetary Incentives: Lessons from the Military" with Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick
    Jan 31, 2024 – 00:24:59
  • Ep37 Five Common Finance Mistakes
    Jan 17, 2024 – 00:29:47
  • Rerun: Ep15 "Shareholder vs. Stakeholder Capitalism" with Alex Edmans
    Jan 3, 2024 – 00:25:44
  • Rerun: Ep5 "Why You Can't 'Agree to Disagree" with Robert Aumann
    Dec 27, 2023 – 00:35:08
  • Rerun: Ep3 “Why Good Stocks Are Not Good Buys” with Cliff Asness
    Dec 20, 2023 – 00:29:10
  • Ep36 "Institutional Neutrality: Open Debate and Moral Stands" with John Etchemendy
    Nov 29, 2023 – 00:24:43
  • Ep35 “Does Common Ownership Affect Product Market Outcomes?” with Martin Schmalz
    Nov 23, 2023 – 00:27:39
  • Ep34 “Why Has Private Equity Grown So Much?” with Eric Zinterhofer
    Nov 1, 2023 – 00:29:15
  • Ep33 How Risky Should Your Retirement Savings Be?
    Oct 19, 2023 – 00:24:06
  • Ep32 “Labor Unions and Detroit Struggle” with Larry Katz
    Oct 5, 2023 – 00:26:31
  • Ep31 How Much Should You Save?
    Aug 30, 2023 – 00:27:16
  • Ep30 “Becoming a Better Communicator” with Matt Abrahams
    Aug 2, 2023 – 00:25:47
  • Ep29 “How Do You Become CEO?” with Dirk Jenter
    Jun 29, 2023 – 00:32:55
  • Ep28 Incentives and Externalities
    Jun 14, 2023 – 00:25:33
  • Ep27 "The Future of AI" with Michal Kosinski
    May 31, 2023 – 00:30:16
  • Ep26 “Investigating Implausible Theories: The Case of COVID” with Matt Ridley
    May 17, 2023 – 00:29:15
  • Ep25 “Bubble Trouble” with Will Goetzmann
    May 3, 2023 – 00:28:30
  • Ep24 “When Institutions Cry Wolf” with Jay Bhattacharya
    Apr 12, 2023 – 00:32:01
Recent Reviews
  • QuestioningListener
    All Else Equal, But sometimes “more equal”
    So, Professor Van Binsbergen was one of my favorite professors while at Wharton, and I learned a LOT in his Investment Management class However, in the most recent episode a few glaring things occurred. Effectively fawning over Trump’s communications style while not discussing the potential downfalls of what this may mean for our relationships with our allies. A discussion on his negotiation style should have also looked at how he views negotiations, especially with respect to The Art of the Deal. Trump views the world seemingly from a purely distributive lens, or at least that’s how he presents things. Maybe these strong man tactics are the most effective negotiating tool and all MBA courses should solely teach “slice the pie even if there’s a chance to grow it and be as selfish as possible in every negotiation” In addition, glossing over the forced displacement of 2 million people as “making people think differently” instead of “this is one of the textbook definitions of a human rights violation” and not pushing back in any way makes me question Professor Van Binsbergen’s ability to actually lead the Lauder institute. You can do better. I know you can. Please understand that human lives have value that is greater than a casino in Gaza, and we can maximize created value while maintaining human dignity in the world.
  • Efficientfrontierseeker
    National Debt episode was superb!
    Great discussion of the various methods to characterize the level of debt and which measure is the most “correct”. Also great discussion for the options to increase GDP growth. It would be nice if you could summarize the key ideas from each episode is some central learnings document that you could tie to the show notes. Also- would a good subtitle for the show be (“All Else is Never Equal”)?
  • BK9535
    Top Notch
    This excellent podcast is a public service.
  • padeosarran
    Love your concept professors
    Thank you for this. Solid learning material for entrepreneur/starter as myself. Keep going!
  • hpostley
    We’re you demonstrating your premise?
    In general, I love the show. Ep23, however, was a real disappointment. You made many of the mistakes that you are always cautioning against, presented your opinion as absolute fact, offered strawman alternatives and misidentified causation. There were some points that were somewhat valid, such as that banks do have some government subsidies, but most of those you identified aren’t them, specifically, FDIC insurance is not a subsidy; the banks pay for it. The more important issue is your supposition that banks exist essentially due to regulatory capture. There are some subtleties to the macro point but, in general, I think it’s wrong. The systemic need and purpose of banks is liquidity. It is difficult to construct an institution that provides zero risk and nearly instant liquidity. Certainly, none of the proposed alternatives do. in fact, they couldn’t because there is a cost to holding the money. Most people aren’t especially sensitive to bank deposit interest rates but they would not be willing to pay a bank to hold their money and would likely go elsewhere which would end up being a mattress which would, in turn not only effectively take a large amount of currency out of circulation, it would also create additional incentives for theft. Part of what was missed here was how much “dead money” is in banks. There are numerous other problems but, suffice it to say that i believe acting on the opinions expressed in this episode would lead to a far worse outcome. Do better.
  • LglezImbert
    Astounding Guest!
    Fantastic episode! Mr. Cohodes is a #Legend
  • LJGoodman
    Government Insurance
    Interesting take on corporate “insurance “ of employees. Government seems to take the security/insurance thing to a whole other level. Your thought? Louis
  • adge54
    More More
    Business Major and I can’t get enough. Thank you!
  • tritone_sub
    Fantastic!
    Engaging, clear, and thoughtful. Keep it up!
  • sandro c andrade
    excellent
    superb clarity of thought from two leading financial economists. The guests are excellent too.
  • ForrestND
    Pretty good!
    My second favorite All Else Equal podcast!
  • A vans
    Good potential, feels too scripted
    The authors are clearly knowledgeable about business decision making and can link current practices to historical developments in the thought of decision making. However, the podcast felt too scripted. The guest was given little latitude and opportunity to talk and instead was pressed into giving the answers the hosts expected. Something along the lines: Host: “data driven decision making is important, right?” Guest: yes, it’s important, I agree.
  • Tesingh
    Love “All Else Equal” podcast
    Great podcast analyzing deep insights into business decision making!!
  • CG WG18
    Feels like back at my b school classroom!
    Thanks Professor!
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