This TED Talk features author and policy analyst Michelle Walker, recorded live at Ted Salon,

Imagine If 2019.

So what if there were a highly obvious problem right in front of you?

One that everyone was talking about, one that affected you directly?

Would you do everything within your power to fix things before they got worse?

Don't be so sure. We are all much more likely than any of us would like to admit

to miss what's right in front of our eyes.

And in fact, we're sometimes most likely to turn away from things

precisely because of the threat that they represent to us

in business, life, and the world.

So I want to give you an example from my world, economic policy.

So when Alan Greenspan was head of the Federal Reserve, his entire job was to watch out

for problems in the U.S. economy and to make sure that they didn't spin out of control.

So after 2006, when real estate prices peaked,

more and more and more, respected leaders and institutions

started to sound the alarm bells about risky lending

and dangerous market bubbles.

As you know, in 2008, it all came tumbling down.

Banks collapsed.

Global stock markets lost nearly half their value.

Millions and millions of people lost their homes to foreclosure.

And at the bottom, nearly one in ten Americans was out of work.

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