Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Why capitalism doesn't live up to its promises (with Martin Schmalz)

Dec 14, 2022

01:16:47

Why doesn't capitalism seem to be living up to its promises of free and fair competition, low prices, and high quality goods and services (at least in Western nations)? What did Adam Smith fail to foresee about the ways economic systems would change on the way to 2022? What is "common ownership", and what effects does it have on economies? What interventions should be implemented to keep an economy healthy? Is it easier to put pressure on business leaders or politicians? In terms of shifting incentives for the sake of mitigating climate change, how effective is it to divest from "brown" businesses and invest instead in "green" ones? What is the AI revolution really about? Is it conceivable, even in theory, that AIs could make predictions in "uncharted territory" where the present is completely unlike the past? (But for that matter, how well can humans make predictions in such cases?) Is the hubbub around AI just a distraction from other more important issues? How can we keep AIs from reinforcing existing biases?

Martin Schmalz is Professor of Finance and Economics at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He holds a graduate degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in mechanical engineering from the Universität Stuttgart (Germany) and a M.A. and PhD in Economics from Princeton University (USA). Prof. Schmalz is the Academic Director of Oxford's Blockchain Strategy Programme, and co-director of the Open Banking & AI in Finance Programme. He co-authored The Business of Big Data: How to Create Lasting Value in the Age of AI, and was featured as one of the "40 under 40" best business school professors worldwide at the age of 33. Read his writings on his blog, learn more about him on his website, and follow him on Twitter at @martincschmalz (governance & antitrust) and @oxfordfrom (everything else).

Staff