Paul Krugman on Politics, Inequality, and Following Your Curiosity
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2018
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After winning the Nobel, Paul Krugman found himself at the "end of ambition," with no more achievements left to unlock. That could be a depressing place, but Krugman avoids complacency by doing what he's always done: following his curiosity and working intensely at whatever grabs him most strongly.
Tyler sat down with Krugman at his office in New York to discuss what's grabbing him at the moment, including antitrust, Supreme Court term limits, the best ways to fight inequality, why he's a YIMBY, inflation targets, congestion taxes, trade (both global and interstellar), his favorite living science fiction writer, immigration policy, how to write well for a smart audience, new directions for economic research, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Recorded September 25th, 2018
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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. |
| 0:12.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithTyler.com. |
| 0:31.1 | Today I'm here with Paul Krugman, who needs no introduction, and just to remind you all, |
| 0:35.6 | this is the conversation with Paul I want to have, not the one you want me to have. |
| 0:40.6 | To start with a very basic question, the major tech companies have become increasingly |
| 0:44.7 | controversial. |
| 0:45.7 | Do you think there's a significant market failure there, and if so, what would it be? |
| 0:50.5 | Oh, wow. |
| 0:51.1 | I mean, it's hard. |
| 0:54.5 | I think that it's hard even to start with the market failure. |
| 0:57.9 | I mean, everything about tech, certainly everything about networks is a violation of the, |
| 1:04.3 | you know, the principles that say that a market should be efficient. |
| 1:08.7 | The trouble is it's hard to sort out. |
| 1:11.7 | It's not that there's any one thing. |
| 1:13.5 | It's got increasing returns, it's got imperfect competition, it's got spillovers. |
| 1:19.1 | So I'm not sure what I know is the particular market failure, but there's no reason at all |
| 1:23.1 | to think that Facebook or Twitter or Google are supplying, you know, are doing the optimal |
| 1:29.5 | thing from a social point of view. |
| 1:31.7 | The trouble is trying to figure out what to do as an alternative is not trivial. |
... |
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