Is the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level Really True, or Have We Got the Wrong Group of People in Charge of Money in Financial Markets?

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Ex-Treasury official says financial markets are dominated by people who have been lucky three times in a row. David Cameron's government is trying to balance the books with spending cuts and tax hikes, he adds. But it has left Britain 10% poorer as a result of its failure to make public and private investments over the past decade and a half,. And another 10% poor because of the disaster of Brexit that was never supposed to happen.

Brad DeLong, professor of economics at UC Berkley, OG econ blogger, and Tyler’s Harvard classmate, joins the show to discuss Slouching Towards Utopia, an economic history of the 20th century that’s been nearly thirty years in the making.

Tyler and Brad discuss what can really be gleaned from the fragmentary economics statistics of the late 19th century, the remarkable changes that occurred from 1870-1920, the astonishing flourishing of German universities in the 19th century, why investment banking allowed America and Germany to pull ahead of Britain economically, what enabled the Royal Society to become a force for progress, what Keynes got wrong, what Hayek got right, whether the middle-income trap persists, his favorite movie and novel, blogging vs. Substack, the Slouching Towards Utopia director’s cut, and much more.

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Recorded November 11th, 2022

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