Jason Furman on Productivity, Competition, and Growth

Jason Furman on Productivity, Competition, and Growth

Note: This conversation was recorded in January 2020.

Tyler credits Jason Furman's intellectual breadth, real-world experience, and emphasis on policy for making him the best economist in the world. Furman, despite not initially being interested in public policy, ultimately served as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama thanks to a call from Joe Stiglitz while still in grad school. His perspective is as idiosyncratic as his career trajectory, seeing the world of economic policy as a series of complex tradeoffs rather than something reducible to oversimplified political slogans.

Jason joined Tyler for a wide-ranging conversation on how monopolies affect investment patterns, his top three recommendations to improve American productivity, why he's skeptical of place-based development policies, what some pro-immigration arguments get wrong, why he's more concerned about companies like Facebook and Google than he is Walmart and Amazon, the merits of a human rights approach to privacy, whether the EU treats tech companies fairly, having Matt Damon as a college roommate, the future of fintech, his highest objective when teaching economics, what he learned from coauthoring a paper with someone who disagrees with him, why he's a prolific Goodreads reviewer, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded January 16th, 2020

Other ways to connect

Avsnitt(284)

Hal Varian on Taking the Academic Approach to Business

Hal Varian on Taking the Academic Approach to Business

Before he became the Adam Smith of Googlenomics, Hal Varian spent decades as an academic economist, writing influential papers, a popular book about the information economy, and several textbooks tha...

19 Juni 201956min

Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator

Russ Roberts on Life as an Economics Educator

What are the virtues of forgiveness? Are we subject to being manipulated by data? Why do people struggle with prayer? What really motivates us? How has the volunteer army system changed the incentives...

5 Juni 20191h 1min

Ezekiel Emanuel on the Practice of Medicine, Policy, and Life

Ezekiel Emanuel on the Practice of Medicine, Policy, and Life

Ezekiel Emanuel is a reflection of his upbringing: a doctor for a father who loved to travel, a mother interested in policy and community activism, and all the competition and friendship that comes wi...

22 Maj 20191h 2min

Karl Ove Knausgård on Literary Freedom

Karl Ove Knausgård on Literary Freedom

What is Karl Ove Knausgård's struggle, exactly? The answer is simple: achieving total freedom in his writing. "It's a space where I can be free in every sense, where I can say whatever, go wherever I ...

8 Maj 20191h

Margaret Atwood on Canada, Writing, and Invention (Live at Mason)

Margaret Atwood on Canada, Writing, and Invention (Live at Mason)

Margaret Atwood defines the Canadian sense of humor as "a bit Scottish," and in this live conversation with Tyler, she loves to let her own comedic sensibilities shine. In addition to many other thoug...

24 Apr 20191h 14min

Ed Boyden on Minding your Brain

Ed Boyden on Minding your Brain

Ed Boyden builds the tools and technologies that help researchers think about and treat the brain, an organ we still know surprisingly little about. When it comes to how our brains make decisions, for...

10 Apr 20191h 1min

Emily Wilson on Translations and Language

Emily Wilson on Translations and Language

In a recent Twitter thread, Emily Wilson listed some of the difficulties of translating Homer into English. Among them: "There aren't enough onomatopoeic words for very loud chaotic noises" (#2 on the...

27 Mars 201956min

Raghuram Rajan on Understanding Community

Raghuram Rajan on Understanding Community

Raghuram Rajan thinks a lot about how to empower individuals, both at the community and international level. In his new book, Rajan draws upon experience both as an academic and policymaker to break d...

13 Mars 201956min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
alska-oss
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
nu-blir-det-historia
not-fanny-anymore
roda-vita-rosen
johannes-hansen-podcast
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
rss-viktmedicinpodden
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
sektledare
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
allt-du-velat-veta
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
rib-podcast
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-basta-livet