‘The Third Pillar’: A conversation with Raghuram Rajan about markets, the state, and communities

“We are surrounded by plenty. Humanity has never been richer as technologies of production have improved steadily over the last two hundred fifty years.” So opens Raghuram Rajan’s new book, “The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave Community Behind.” Yet despite this economic success, he writes, workers in developed countries are literally worried to death. What is causing this wave of anxiety?

Dr. Rajan writes that while economists understand the relationship between markets and the state, all too often they neglect the “third pillar,” the communities we live in. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Rajan about what’s causing the erosion of communities across the developed world, what can be done about it, and much more.

Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Millar Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was the twenty-third governor of the Reserve Bank of India from September 2013 to September 2016. From 2003 to 2006 Dr. Rajan was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

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