b"This week, the S&P 500 entered what analysts refer to as a bear market. The index has plunged around 22 percent from its most recent peak in January. Many growth stocks and crypto assets have crashed double or triple that amount.\\n\\nNew home sales declined 17 percent in April, causing some analysts to argue that the housing market has peaked. And, in response to rising inflation, the Federal Reserve just approved its largest interest rate increase since 1994, meaning asset prices could dip even lower.\\n\\nTo understand what\\u2019s happening in the stock market right now, you have to understand the era that preceded it. Rana Foroohar is a columnist at The Financial Times, and the author of several books on the economy including \\u201cMakers and Takers\\u201d and \\u201cDon\\u2019t Be Evil.\\u201d Her view is that a decade-plus of loose monetary policy has been the economic equivalent of a \\u201csugar high,\\u201d which kept the prices of stocks, housing and other assets going up and up and up, even as the fundamentals of the economy have been eroding. This \\u201ceverything bubble,\\u201d as she calls it, was bound to burst \\u2014 and that\\u2019s exactly what she thinks is happening right now.\\n\\nSo I wanted to have her on the show to discuss the economic choices \\u2014 and lack thereof \\u2014 that led to this point. We also discuss why the increasing power of the financial sector hasn\\u2019t resulted a stronger economy, whether the housing market has indeed hit its peak, the massive missed opportunity for public investment while interest rates were low, why policymakers treat asset price inflation so differently from other types of inflation, the true costs of the meat we eat and clothes we wear, why crypto represents the apotheosis of hyper-financialized capitalism, why I\\u2019m skeptical of the argument that we\\u2019re moving rapidly toward a less globalized world and more.\\n\\nBook recommendations:\\n\\nAll That She Carried by Tiya Miles\\n\\nBeautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang\\n\\nThe Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order by Gary Gerstle\\n\\nWe're hiring a researcher! You can apply here or by visiting nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/News\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris and Andrea L\\xf3pez Cruzado; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski."