Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok), economist and author, joins Erik on this episode for a wide-ranging discussion.

They talk about:

- The contributions of economics to society over the past several decades and the biggest challenges ahead for the field

- What “the great forgetting” means in economics and why bad ideas from the past keep coming back

- The arguments for open borders

- Why Alex thinks we should focus on increasing the number of police as opposed to increasing punishment for offenders

- Whether the US or China will pull ahead in the next decades

- Whether capitalism and democracy are compatible

- Why “democracy is not the secret sauce to riches”

- The merits of inductive versus deductive thinking

- Why he thinks too few robots, not too many, is the cause of low wages

- His thoughts on cost disease

- How he would change academia, the FDA, healthcare, the tax code, and other areas if he could wave a magic wand

- The ways in which he thinks differently from other economists

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.