Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts

of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org or you can subscribe,

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Today is November 13, 2013, and my guest is Joel Moqueer, the Robert H. Strowth's Professor

of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History at Northwestern University.

He's written widely on growth and technology, which is our topic for today, and our conversation

will be loosely based on a forthcoming article on the City Journal. He's written

is growth really over. Joel, welcome to Econ Talk. Hello.

Now, you open with a famous quote that I've heard many times attributed to Charles Holland Duel,

a late 19th century American patent commissioner. He allegedly said,

everything that could be invented has been invented. You point out that he never said that. That's

an apocryphal inaccurate statement. What he actually said was the opposite. Quote, in my opinion,

all previous advances in the various lines of invention will appear today, will appear totally

insignificant when compared with those which the present century will witness. I almost wish

that I might live my life over again to see the wonders which are at the threshold. Now,

why are we so eager to believe the incorrect version of that quote that everything has already

been invented and there's nothing left? I don't know. That's a very good question. Why we're so

eager to believe that. I suppose everybody looks for some kind of straw man. If you're going to say

that, look, here's some idiot who said America would be never discovered five years before Columbus

or the earth is flat and then we all have a good laugh at this. But poor man, he never said

...