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Dec 2020
25m 31s

The Economy Is Not a Machine

J. David Stein
About this episode

How the drive for efficiency leads to greater wealth concentration and threatens capitalism. What can be done about it.

Topics covered include:

  • Why income growth has slowed for the middle class
  • Why the economy now follows a power-law distribution rather than a normal distribution, leading to skewed outcomes
  • Why the economy is a complex adaptive system rather than a machine
  • How the type of job you have and the company you work for affects your income
  • Why greater efficiency increases the risk of catastrophic collapses
  • What are ways to balance efficiency with resiliency


Show Notes

Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2016 to 2019: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances—The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

How America Banks: Household Use of Banking and Financial Services—Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency by Roger L. Martin

How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio—Video

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