Keen: Keynes predicted a kind of leisure society would come to the West reasonably soon and people still work quite a bit. Keen: I'm tempted to follow, you know, Richard Easterlin and say that modern economic growth is not a triumph of humanity and technology over material want,. But in the very long run, no, in the medium run, you'll definitely look at the Apple TSMC as an extremely taught and low bureaucracy organization.
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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded November 11th, 2022
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