Noah Smith is one of the most prolific and thought provoking econ bloggers writing today. We covered a lot of ground in this episode including Noah’s intellectual influences, how much room macroeconomics has for innovation, Keynes’ idea of the 15 hour work week, Piketty’s theory of inequality, Africa’s economic development, why you should watch anime, and much more. Timestamps and links are below.
Timestamps
(0:00:00) Intro
(0:00:30) Noah’s intellectual influences
(0:10:20) Javier Miles
(0:11:43) Which macroeconomist would Noah give the highest grade?
(0:13:47) Defining mainstream macro in 2024
(0:18:22) Innovation in macroeconomics
(0:21:48) NGDP targeting
(0:24:35) Keynes and the 15 hour work week
(0:30:25) Is inequality a problem?
(0:34:16) Thomas Piketty and r>g
(0:39:37) Africa’s economic development
(0:44:47) What has Noah changed his mind about recently?
(0:47:59) Noah’s prolific output
(0:52:25) Noah’s goals for the blog
(0:53:41) Anime
(0:55:46) Japanese policy in the US
(0:57:56) Inheritance tax
(1:04:38) Japanese zoning policy
(1:06:12) When is technology dangerous?
Links
Noah’s post, “How are Milton Friedman's ideas holding up?”
Noah’s post, “All futurism is Afrofuturism”
Noah’s post, “Heterodox vs. mainstream macroeconomics”
Noah’s post, “Techno-optimism for 2024”
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Noah Smith