Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

205 | John Quiggin on Interest Rates and the Information Economy

Jul 25, 2022

01:19:09

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Are You Recommending That the Government Just Offer More Information?

03:29

Just Price

01:55

The Need for Public Investments in Things That the Market Is Not Going to Naturally Do

02:08

Introduction

6min

What Is a Black Hole?

2min

The Opportunity Cost of a Market

2min

Are You Always Making Choices?

3min

The Pro Market and the Opportunity Costs

2min

A Democracy Bat Sone Democracies

2min

Get Out of the Office and Enjoy a Break

4min

Just Price

2min

Do You Really Know What the Market Is All About?

2min

10.

Is There a Mismatch Between Our Intuitive Psychology and How Were Modelled in the Situation?

3min

11.

Is There a Revolution in Game Theory?

3min

12.

Is There a Way to Deviate From Equilibrium?

2min

13.

The Ways in Which Markets Fail

3min

14.

Climate Change

2min

15.

Getting Started With 80 Thousand Hours

3min

16.

Climate Change - Is the Market the Best Solution?

2min

17.

Climate Change

3min

18.

Is There a More Emotional, or in a Wellfare State Liberal Kind of Critique of the Market?

2min

19.

How Much Scope Should the Market Have?

3min

20.

Are We Going to Have Any More Booms and Busts?

4min

21.

Cryptocurrency

2min

22.

The Value of the Time

5min

23.

Is There a Need for Capital Investment in Ecolomy?

2min

24.

I've Got a Dollar Now, I'll Give You Back a Five Dollar

4min

25.

What Is the Value of a Company?

2min

26.

Are We Beyond Capitalism, or Is It Just Intrinsically Dangerous or Bad?

2min

27.

The Bust Is Always Waiting for You

3min

28.

The Economics of the Economy, Is It a Good Idea?

3min

29.

The Need for Public Investments in Things That the Market Is Not Going to Naturally Do

2min

30.

Are You Recommending That the Government Just Offer More Information?

3min

The idea of an “interest rate” might seem mundane and practical, in comparison to our usual topics around here, but there is a profound philosophical idea lurking in the background: if you lend me money now against the promise of me paying you back more in the future, I am relating the different values that a certain sum has to me at different moments in time. Traditionally, the interest rates set by the government have been a major tool for influencing the economy, but in recent decades they have increasingly fallen near zero. John Quiggin relates this change to the shift from manufacturing to an information economy, and we talk about what that means for the public interest in having information be reliable and widely available. And yes, there is a bit about crypto.

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John Quiggin received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of New England. He is currently a VC Senior Fellow in Economics at the University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Among his books are Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us and Economics in Two Lessons: Why Markets Work So Well, and Why They Can Fail So Badly.

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