Brink Lindsey and Steven Teles on the Captured Economy

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2017

⏱️ 70 minutes

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Summary

Brink Lindsey of the Niskanen Center and Steven Teles of the Niskanen Center and Johns Hopkins University talk with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about their book, The Captured Economy. Lindsey and Teles argue that inequality has been worsened by special interests who steer policy to benefit themselves. They also argue that the influence of the politically powerful has lowered the overall growth of the American economy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.0	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast,
0:17.0	and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.0	Today is November 30th, 2017, and I guess our Brink Lindsey of the Nascana Center,
0:39.0	where he directs the Open Society Project and Stephen Talis of Johns Hopkins and the Nascana Center.
0:44.0	Steve appeared on Econ Talk in April of 2014, discussing Clujocracy, his term for overly complex political governance.
0:53.0	Today, Brink and Steve will be discussing their book, The Captured Economy,
0:57.0	How the Powerful Enrich Themselves Slowdown Growth, and Increase Inequality.
1:02.0	Brink, Welcome to Econ Talk, and Steve, Welcome Back.
1:05.0	Russ, thanks for having us.
1:08.0	Thank you for having us, Russ.
1:09.0	Now, in the beginning of the book, you write, here's a quote,
1:12.0	the rise of inequality is to a significant extent a function of state action rather than the invisible hand.
1:19.0	And this state action by suppressing and misdirecting entrepreneurship and competition has rendered our economy less innovative and dynamic as well as less fair.
1:28.0	I want you to expand on this central idea of the book and give us a short sketch of the argument.
1:33.0	Brink, why don't you start us off?
1:35.0	Here in the 21st century, the US economy is suffering a kind of double whammy mailays.
1:41.0	Inequality, rising inequality, particularly with increasing shares of total income going to a favored few at the very top, and also slow growth.
1:52.0	The average growth rate so far in the 20th century has been about 1% in terms of growth annual growth in real GDP per capita.
	...

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