The Decline of Productivity in Europe

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productivity, in my opinion, is a function of innovation and technology combined with the massive energy surplus we get from fossil fuels. We've taken those latter two things for granted because we've always had more and it's generally been cheaper. But productivity growth peaked 50 years ago at exactly the early 70s when also oil production growth peaked. And what we're doing is trying to keep all the demographics and the various aspects of society fed and happy and stabilized by artificially low interest rates or too big to fail guarantees.

On this episode, financial historian Edward Chancellor joins Nate to give a meta-history of interest rates and human societies. With recent news of global financial turmoil in response to rising interest rates, taking a look at our history could help us interpret our present and plan for the future. How deeply entangled is this financial predicament that we’ve gotten ourselves into? Can we learn from the past to reshape a more stable monetary policy in the future, or are inflating financial bubbles (and popping them) simply in our human nature?

About Edward Chancellor:

Edward Chancellor is a financial historian, journalist, and investment strategist. He is the author of Devil Take Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation and his latest book, The Price of Time, where he explains the story of capitalism is really the story of interest: the price that individuals, companies and nations pay to borrow money. He is currently a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, MoneyWeek, the New York Review of Books and Financial Times.

For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/67-edward-chancellor

To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/q5PWaYw6h5k