When the stimulus package was passed, it was forecast that without the stimulus package, unemployment could get as high as whatever it was 9%. And it turned out with the package, it got to 10 and a half. Which should have ended the authority of economists forever, but it didn't. I think right now being an expert gets you just like if you're not JFK, you're Trump or Obama.
Author Martin Gurri, Visiting Fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, talks about his book The Revolt of the Public with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gurri argues that a digital tsunami--the increase in information that the web provides--has destabilized authority and many institutions. He talks about the amorphous nature of recent populist protest movements around the world and where we might be headed politically and culturally.