Justin Wolfers is a master of demystification. This thing we call the economy runs our lives, sometimes invisibly, sometimes very, very visibly and tangibly, but it often eludes our understanding.
So I caught up with Justin in this conversation and put to him some of the economics questions that have been on my mind lately:
— What is the true cost of the war on and in Iran, who pays it, and what might we have built instead if we spent the money on investing in our commons?
— Are billionaires right that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is driving them out of New York? Is Mamdani right that his taxes won’t drive them away in any meaningful numbers, but that, in fact, it is the working class that is more often being pushed out? Or is there a different argument to be made: that it is actually a worthy policy goal to reduce the oligarchic population of a city?
— Should there be billionaires? And what should one make of the new proposals around the country to tax billionaire wealth?
— What did traditional economics get wrong about the economy? What is a new generation of economists doing to make the field more true to life as it is lived?
You won’t want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.
We are opening this video to all in the public interest — no paywall. But we invite you to subscribe to keep this work going.
Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.
Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription.
