Why is Australia’s economic growth grinding to a halt while the US is going gangbusters? Might it have something to do with cutting red tape and reducing taxes? This week your hosts Scott Hargreaves and Dr Chris Berg are joined by the IPA’s Director of Research, Daniel Wild, and special guest Dr Patrick McLaughlin, Director of Policy Analytics at the Washington DC based Mercatus Center. They’ll be tackling everything from a new tool being adopted by US and Canadian Governments to tackle Red Tape (RegData), the impact Trump has made on restraining the US bureaucracy, and whether artificial intelligence means robots will displace humans (1:54-43:16) as well as diving into culture picks including the new Steven Soderbergh film The Laundromat, Ian Mclean’s Why Australia Prospered, Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi classic The Diamond Age and Tyler Cowen’s Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero.

RegData: Australia; Mercatus Center

https://www.mercatus.org/publications/regulation/regdata-australia

How much law do we have to obey? Chris Berg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wV5kUDVcT0

How British Columbia Defeated Red Tape – And How We Can Too; Gideon Rozner

https://ipa.org.au/ipa-tv/how-british-columbia-defeated-red-tape-and-how-we-can-too

IPA’s Red Tape Research Program

https://ipa.org.au/research-areas/red-tape

Culture Picks:

Chris: The laundromat (Netflix)

https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80994011

Dan: Why Australia Prospered; Ian Mclean

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691154671/why-australia-prospered

Patrick: The Diamond Age; Neal Stephenson

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/827.The_Diamond_Age

Scott: Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero; Tyler Cowen

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Business-Letter-American-Anti-Hero/dp/1250110548