Disruptive economics | Dan Gross | TEDxWestportLibrary
Economy | Information | History | Online | Facts | World | Global | Money
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Rapid and unpredictable economic growth in companies and countries means that we have to be careful about making predictions while remaining flexible, protected and alert to opportunities for personal and corporate economic development. We are living in a time when you have to constantly evaluate where you are and recognize that skills are only good for 6 months to 2 years and constant relearning is essential for success. Journalist and author Daniel Gross is editor of global finance for Daily Beast/Newsweek. He was formerly Senior Editor at Newsweek, and between 2010 and 2012 was employed at Yahoo! Finance. A native of East Lansing, Michigan, Gross graduated from Cornell University and holds an A.M. in American history from Harvard University. About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Comments
-
Mr. Gross, you are certainly correct that over the long-run there is a certain continuum of historical trends with regard to human settlement. Once we began to settle and develop permanent communities, we were faced with decisions on the control over the land and natural resources essential to survival. The moral thing to do would have been to come up with rules that guaranteed equal access. Early tribal societies tried to achieve this but eventually (nearly) every society experienced the appearance of hierarchy. The hunter-protectors evolved into warrior-oppressors into monarchy and aristocracy. The knowledge bearers evolved into priesthoods who acquired power within the society based on their self-proclaimed ability to communicate with the gods. And, the remainder of the population was charged with producing the goods needed by everyone. The rules of the game created privileges for the few, enforced by tradition, ritual and coercion.
A side-effect of the system that evolved was and is the tendency for property (in nature, in capital goods and (even to this day) in people to become concentrated in the hands of those who are the beneficiaries of entrenched privilege under law. These problems appeared very early on. Some of the details are found in the ancient scriptures of the world's religions.
Fast forward to the 17th century and the story is retold in the writings of people like Richard Cantillon, John Locke, Adam Smith and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot. These writers began to investigate the dynamics at work, employing the methodology of the scientist. What they identified was the destructive character of monopoly over nature held by a rentier elite. Turgot and his Physiocratic colleagues came up with the first theory of economic cycles supported by historical evidence and by the gathering of data. Turgot's most important insight was that as population increases and as the capacity to produce greater output of real wealth (i.e., goods) increases, rent increases as a claim on that production, enriching those who capture rents and impoverishing those who must pay the rents.
Turgot's analysis was refined considerably over the next century, particularly by the American political economist Henry George. To counter the boom-to-bust character of our economic systems, George argued for the public collection of the rent of land and land-like assets (e.g., today this would include the broadcast spectrum and take-off and landing slots at airports). As rent is societally-created, this was not technically taxation, and George argued against the taxation of capital goods, of wages and other earned income flows and of commerce. In that era of the robber barons, the rentiers were successful in keeping Henry George's proposals from gaining wide adoption. Yet, a small number of economists around the world recognized the accuracy of George's analysis and, despite disdain within their discipline, continued to argue George's case. One such economist, William Vickrey, received the Nobel prize in economics for his work.
The 2008 crash of the financial system and the global economy has renewed the debates over the usefulness of mainstream economic theory to describe how economic cycles operate and to forecast when downturns are about to occur. One economist who has vigorously resurrected the analysis of Henry George is Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank economist. Stiglitz has identified the rewards to "rent-seeking" built into every society's system of property law and taxation as the main culprit of income and wealth inequality, and of this inequality as the major reason why economic growth cannot be sustained. Essentially, our laws reward speculation and gambling over the production of goods and the delivery of needed services.
Nothing government has done since 2008 has attacked "rent-seeking" privileges. Rather than move to a rent as public revenue system, the U.S. government has joined forces with the central bank to create monetary units out of thin air. When the speculation-driven cycle next reaches its stress point, the crash will be even deeper and last longer than the one we just had.
23m 53sLenght
2Rating