Tyler Cowen — economist, author of The Great Stagnation — on whether America is finally escaping its innovation slowdown. Klein and Cowen debate AI, fertility decline, geographic sorting, and the political economy of growth.
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Highlights
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The Great Stagnation thesis: innovation slowed down in the 1970s and we're only now catching up
Cowen argues that American innovation stagnated from roughly 1973 to 2020 — we picked the 'low-hanging fruit' of electricity, antibiotics, and automobiles, and progress slowed until AI.
Fertility decline threatens economic growth more than any policy failure
Cowen and Klein discuss how falling birth rates across developed nations threaten the economic growth model that democracy, social security, and pensions all depend on.