What's Your Favorite Video Game Right Now?

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In late 1993, I had to decide between being a civilization addict and a deputy assistant secretary of the treasury. Red Plenty by Francis Spufford is a wonderful novel about economics. Does UC Berkeley have the right amount of intellectual diversity? If it were the only Berkeley, I would say yes. A U.S. educational system that has even 20 places in which I'm as far right on the faculty as I am at UC Berkeley would not be a terribly healthy situation.

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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