On Capitalism and the 2008 Crisis
Alex Imas explores how the 2008 bailouts—where firms were rescued but ordinary people weren't—fundamentally changed how people perceive capitalism, leading to a generational shift in economic attitudes.
9 articles rescued
Alex Imas explores how the 2008 bailouts—where firms were rescued but ordinary people weren't—fundamentally changed how people perceive capitalism, leading to a generational shift in economic attitudes.
Adam Butler argues we haven't practiced capitalism for 40 years, but rather a 'horrific experiment called neoliberalism' that treats citizens as feedstock for corporate profits instead of serving customer needs.
Cullen Roche's thread on UBI and automation paints a picture of the 'Keynesian Leisure economy'—where we become temporally and monetarily wealthier but socially poorer, with massive disparities in relative leisure.
Harris Kupperman runs the numbers on AI capital expenditure and finds a terrifying gap: the industry needs $480 billion in revenue just to cover 2025 investments, but there simply aren't enough paying customers to make it work.
Colin Lewis argues that AI overspending isn't a bug but a feature—bubbles are civilization's way of coordinating massive resources around transformative technologies, turning irrational exuberance into innovation breakthroughs.
Three brilliant writers circle the same truth from different angles: Henrik Karlsson on sacrifice, Sherry Ning on values as a filter for spending, and Ian Leslie on buying happiness. Together, they reveal why what we think we want rarely matches what we actually need.
David Deming, Harvard's new Dean, pushes back against AI job apocalypse fears, arguing that CEOs use AI as a convenient scapegoat and that technological disruption historically creates opportunities for the educated elite.
Alex connects David Graeber's bullshit jobs theory with AI disruption, arguing that while meaningless corporate work persists, it's increasingly becoming just a paycheck to fund real entrepreneurial work—and AI is removing the entry-level rungs that once led to corporate careers.
A comprehensive study of over 55,000 smallholder farms across six African countries reveals that crop productivity declined by 3.5% annually from 2008-2019, despite massive international development efforts.