In this episode, Dan Hugger speaks with Anne Bradley, vice president of academic affairs at The Fund for American Studies and professor of economics at The Institute of World Politics, about Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book Abundance, which she reviewed for Religion & Liberty Online. What is the concept of “abundance,” and who comprises the book’s audience? How do Klein and Thompson think through regulatory obstacles to material abundance? For Thompson and Klein, what drives innovation and growth? How much of the book’s rhetorical criticism of markets might be misdirection to potential critics from the left? Do Klein and Thompson really understand the economic way of thinking? Are there better programs for material abundance? How do you respond to conservatives who believe we had greater “abundance” in the past? Why are utopian visions of the future or the past dangerous? Do Klein and Thompson have a conception of civil society beyond the state?

The Curious Task of ‘Abundance’ | Anne Bradley

Abundance | Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson

Eat Today, Feed Tomorrow (Yogurt Commercial)

History | Thompson-Markward Hall

Building the Future the Past Promised | The Daily Economy

The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised | James Pethokoukis

Bootleggers and Baptists in Retrospect | Bruce Yandle

Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet | Marian L. Tupy, Gale L. Pooley

The Devil Went Down to Wall Street | Dan Hugger

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community | Robert D. Putnam

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Views on the Millennial Kingdom