Benjamin Friedman on the Origins of Economic Belief
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
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🗓️ 27 January 2021
⏱️ 67 minutes
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Summary
Benjamin Friedman has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, whose accomplishments include writing 150 papers, producing more than dozen books, and teaching Tyler Cowen graduate macroeconomics at Harvard in 1985. In his latest book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ben argues that contrary to the popular belief that Western economic ideas are a secular product of the Enlightenment, instead they are the result of hotly debated theological questions within the English-speaking Protestant world of thinkers like Adam Smith and David Hume.
Ben joined Tyler to discuss the connection between religious belief and support for markets, what drives varying cultural commitments to capitalism, why the rate of growth is key to sustaining liberal values, why Paul Volcker is underrated, how coming from Kentucky influences his thinking, why annuities don't work better, America's debt and fiscal sustainability, his critiques of nominal GDP targeting, why he wouldn't change the governance of the Fed, how he maintains his motivation to keep learning, his next big project on artificial intelligence, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded December 4th, 2020
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.6 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:26.0 | Hello everyone. |
| 0:27.0 | Welcome back to Conversations with Tyler. |
| 0:29.4 | I'm very happy to be here today with Ben Friedman, who has a new, wonderful book out, Religion |
| 0:35.0 | and the Rise of Capitalism. |
| 0:36.8 | I'm a big fan of Ben's other books. |
| 0:39.2 | He is a professor of economics at Harvard, a leading macroeconomist, and I'm very honored |
| 0:44.6 | to have taken his macroeconomics class way back in, I believe, 1985. |
| 0:50.4 | Ben, welcome. |
| 0:52.2 | Thank you, delighted to be with you Tyler, and it's great to see you after all these years. |
| 0:56.4 | To dig right in. |
| 0:57.9 | Why do so many Americans believe in ghosts? |
| 1:01.0 | And from that, what should we infer about our economic future? |
| 1:04.2 | Well, I have no idea why so many Americans believe in ghosts, to be honest with you. |
| 1:10.2 | But I do have views about why Americans have such strong views about the way we should |
| 1:17.0 | run our economy and what that means for our economic future. |
| 1:20.7 | Similar to most people who think of our modern economics as a secular product of the Enlightenment, |
| 1:28.2 | I think that there are very deep intellectual roots behind the creation of modern Western |
... |
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