Economic Rockstar

076: Greg Ip on Foolproofing the Economy and Why Stability is Destabilizing

03.10.2016 - By Frank Conway - Economics and Finance Lecturer - interviews Dan Ariely, DeirPlay

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Greg Ip is one of the best-known economics journalists in the US.

He is currently chief economics commentator of The Wall Street Journal and writes about U.S. and global economic developments and policy each week in the Capital Account column and on Real Time Economics, the Wall Street Journal’s economics blog.

From 2008 to January 2015, he was U.S. Economics Editor of The Economist magazine. Greg is the author of Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe as well as author of The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World.

In this episode you will learn:

about the theme behind Greg Ip's latest book Foolproof.

when the pursuit of safety lead us into danger?

what forest fires have to do with Wall Street.

the way we publicly and privately try to cope with risk and danger and how those choices can create unintended consequences.

what American Football can teach us about the Fallacy of Composition.

what past economic and financial crises have in common.

how the financial system succeeded too well in making people feel their money was safe.

if savings is actually bad for the economy.

about Keynes’ Paradox of Thrift and how savings forces others to borrow.

whether exchange traded funds (ETFs) will be the next financial catastrophe.

how Paul Volcker's regulation of capital flows caused the growth of shadow banking.

and much much more.

Check out the show notes page at www.economicrockstar.com/gregip

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