Reality Check with Élena
Podcast Description
Our new podcast explores the realities that lead to informality: a notion represented by reduction of the middle class, and spread of insecurity, through a series of dynamic on-the-ground interviews in Europe, the US, and the Global south. You will hear what informality is really like, from people who have lived in it all their lives; from those who have escaped it and risen to middle class; and others who have fallen into it. We invite global intellectuals, along with journalists, policy makers, and investors to share their views on what is informality and why we must tackle it now.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Explores the complexities of informality, focusing on themes such as the shrinking middle class, economic insecurity, and social dynamics across episodes that include guest insights on topics like the effect of informality on elections and the housing crisis.
Our new podcast explores the realities that lead to informality: a notion represented by reduction of the middle class, and spread of insecurity, through a series of dynamic on-the-ground interviews in Europe, the US, and the Global south. You will hear what informality is really like, from people who have lived in it all their lives; from those who have escaped it and risen to middle class; and others who have fallen into it. We invite global intellectuals, along with journalists, policy makers, and investors to share their views on what is informality and why we must tackle it now.
In this episode I have the privilege to talk with “the doer” Pablo Bustamante. The man who innovated finance and helped move Peru’s informal sector into the middle class. In this 26 min video podcast, recorded in the spirit of untold stories that drive change, Bustamante shares how Peru emerged from a collapsed state and 25 years of economic turmoil to build one of the most dynamic middle classes in Latin America.
He recounts how a generation of doers, working both inside and outside institutions, sparked a quiet revolution. From designing the return of consumer credit to helping unlock property rights for hundreds of thousands of informal families, Pablo helped reshape how finance worked for the people.
We talk about informality not as a problem, but as a parallel economy with massive potential, and how it took vision, innovation, and persistence to bring it into the formal fold. This is the story of how the market didn’t just take care of it: people became the market.
Time Stamps:
3:34 – Peru’s 1968 Autarchy: 25 Years of Economic Meltdown and Hyperinflation
6:15 – Vargas Llosa’s Heroic Vision: Pablo Joins the Fight to Transform Peru
6:38 – A New Beginning: The 1993 Constitution and Economic Reintegration
7:33 – Reimagining Credit: Pablo Designs Consumer Lending for All
9:40 – Rebuilding Trust: Legal Reform as the Foundation for Investment
11:26 – Property Rights Matter: Understanding and Tackling Informality
19:00 – Financial Inclusion: Innovating for the Informal Sector
20:10 – The Long Game: 7 Years to Convince the World Bank
24:00 – Peru Today: A Country of Opportunity
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