Conversations with Tyler10 Mars 2021

John Cochrane on Economic Puzzles and Habits of Mind

What unites John Cochrane the finance economist and "grumpy" policy blogger with John Cochrane the accomplished glider pilot? For John, the answer is that each derives from the same habit of mind which seeks to reduce things down to a few fundamental principles and a simple logical structure. And thus, piloting a glider can be understood as an application of optimal portfolio theory, and all of monetary policy can be made to fit within the structure of a single equation.

John joined Tyler to apply that habit of mind to a number of puzzles, including why real interest rates don't equalize across countries, what explains why high trading volumes and active management persist in finance, how the pandemic has affected his opinion of habit formation theories, his fiscal theory of price level and inflation, the danger of a US sovereign debt crisis, why he thinks Bitcoin will eventually die, his idea for health-status insurance, becoming a national gliding champion, how a Renaissance historian for a father and a book translator for a mother shaped him intellectually, what's causing the leftward drift in economics, the need to increase competition among universities, how he became libertarian, the benefits of blogging, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded January 4th, 2021

Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow John on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(288)

Stewart Brand on Starting Things and Staying Curious

From psychedelics to cyberculture, hippie communes to commercial startups, and the Whole Earth Catalog to the Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand has not only been a part of many movements—he was there...

26 Jan 202257min

Russ Roberts on Israel and Life as an Immigrant

In this special crossover special with EconTalk, Tyler interviews Russ Roberts about his new life in Israel as president of Shalem College. They discuss why there are so few new universities, managing...

19 Jan 202259min

Ana Vidović on Prodigies, Performance, and Perseverance

Is genius born or made? For Croatian-born classical guitarist Ana Vidović the answer is both. Born into a musical family, she began playing guitar at five and was quickly considered a prodigy. But she...

12 Jan 202244min

Conversations with Tyler 2021 Retrospective

Want to support the show? Visit donate.mercatus.org/podcasts. On this special year-in-review episode, Tyler and producer Jeff Holmes talk about the past year on the show, including one episode's appe...

29 Dec 202155min

Ray Dalio on Investing, Management, and the Changing World Order

Want to support the show? Visit donate.mercatus.org/podcasts When Ray Dalio was 23, President Nixon announced that the United States would no longer be adhering to the gold standard for American curr...

15 Dec 202158min

Ruth Scurr on the Art of Biography

The most challenging part of being a biographer for Ruth Scurr is finding the best form to tell a life. "You can't go in there with a workmanlike attitude saying, 'I'm going to do cradle to grave.' Yo...

1 Dec 202151min

David Rubenstein on Private Equity, Public Art, and Philanthropy

Baltimore native David Rubenstein is a founding figure in private equity, a prolific philanthropist, and author. From leveraged buyouts to his patriotic philanthropy to his leadership roles within ins...

17 Nov 202156min

David Salle on the Experience of Art

When the audience for visual art expanded from small circles of artists and collectors into broader culture, the way art was experienced shifted from aesthetics to explanation. Art, it became thought,...

3 Nov 202146min