What Caused the Tsunami?

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In 2011, the year I call the phase change year where it really showed that information could affect power. At the age of JFK, somewhere between 70 and 80% of Americans trusted the government. Today, if you're the president, you're instinctively distrusted. The elites that manage these institutions have reacted pretty badly in the sense of not being aware of what's happening.

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.