Introduction

Noah Smith is an economist, former Bloomberg columnist, and now the writer of the No Opinion Substack. Noah deviates from pretty much every political tribe out there. In this three-hour conversation, almost everyone will find a lot to disagree with. The first half is more focused on empirical topics, machine learning, economic forecasts, regulatory policy, and political economy. And the second half is more speculative, more normative, more about the political vibeshifts and cultural changes in the past few decades.