"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

Making Sense of Milei, AI & Employment, and America's Future

104 snips

Jul 31, 2025

Discover the intriguing economic reforms of President Milei in Argentina, tackling austerity measures and the complexities of dollarization. The hosts delve into income inequality, national security, and the delicate balance required in government intervention. Explore the significant implications of wealth distribution and its impact on macroeconomic policy, especially regarding the IMF's role. Also, examine how AI is reshaping labor markets, educational empowerment, and its unexpected influences on crime dynamics and fertility rates.

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INSIGHT

Argentina's Fiscal Austerity Success

Argentina under President Milei employed fiscal austerity to address chronic deficits successfully.
Using another country's currency as local currency was deemed a bad, politically impossible idea.

INSIGHT

Balancing Market and National Defense

The market efficiently raises incomes but struggles to provide national defense and strategic industries.
Government intervention is justified to maintain defense capabilities without overthrowing market principles.

ADVICE

Tailor Economic Policy to Needs

Identify your country's core economic problems to decide on free-market vs intervention strategies.
Address inequality with redistribution and improve basic necessities like healthcare and housing via abundance.

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In this episode, Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg explore Argentina's economic reforms under President Milei, development models in emerging economies like Vietnam and Malaysia, effective crime reduction strategies, and how AI might reshape our workforce and population dynamics in the coming decades.

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Argentina's Economic Reforms: President Milei's fiscal austerity measures to address chronic deficits without dollarization, focusing on necessary belt-tightening for a middle-income country supporting an upper-income welfare state
Development Models in Emerging Economies: Case studies like Vietnam and Bangladesh demonstrating different paths to economic development
The Crime Rate Decline: Focused deterrence approaches and community policing helping reduce violent crime, especially among high-risk populations
Education and Fertility Rates: The inverse relationship between women's education and fertility rates, and the impossibility of reversing it without dystopian measures
AI and Population Dynamics: How artificial intelligence might mitigate economic damage from population decline by replacing human labor

Quotes:

"If AI really can replace humans, then that will mitigate the economic damage from the losses of population." - Noah Smith

"Murders between people who know each other, between people who are like intimate partner violence has gone way down." - Noah Smith

"We need to basically create technologies that make it easy to take care of kids so that parenthood doesn't mean it's giant change in your life." - Noah Smith

LINKS:

Noahpinion newsletter: https://noahpinion.substack.com/
Erik Torenberg's Substack: https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/

Got questions for Noah and Erik to answer on air? Send them to Econ102@Turpentine.co

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