Economist and trend-spotter Jeremy Rifkin predicts that the evolution of energy production and distribution — from fossil fuels to more decentralized renewable energy — will transform the global economy. He joins us to discuss his latest book, "The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World."
Tagged with “economics”
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Jeremy Rifkin: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World.
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Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics
How much do parents really matter? And are we sure winners never quit and quitters never win? Stephen J. Dubner, host of Freakonomics Radio and co-author, with Steven D. Levitt, of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, talks about the unexpected economics behind issues like parenthood and quitting.
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LSE - ‘It’s my body and I’ll do what I Like with it’ Bodies as possessions and objects
We commonly use the language of body ownership as a way of claiming personal rights, though we do not normally mean it literally. Most people feel uneasy about markets in sexual or reproductive services, and though there is a substantial global trade in body tissues, the illicit trade in live human organs is widely condemned. But what, if any, is the problem with treating bodies as resources and/or possessions? Is there something about the body that makes it particularly inappropriate to apply to it the language of property, commodities, and things? Or is thinking the body special a kind of sentimentalism that blocks clear thinking about matters such as prostitution, surrogate motherhood, or the sale of spare kidneys?
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Niall Ferguson: Empires on the Edge of Chaos
The Centre for Independent Studies 2010 John Bonython Lecture with Niall Ferguson. Is the rise and fall of empires cyclical or arrhythmic? How does economic profligacy - whether the result of arrogance or naivety - contribute to the downfall of civilisations? Today Professor Ferguson will argue that great powers or empires are in the strict sense of the word, complex systems. Made up of very large numbers of interacting components that are quite asymmetrically organised. In other words, he continues, their construction more resembles a termite hill than an Egyptian pyramid. They operate somewhere between order and disorder. Moreover imperial falls are nearly always associated with fiscal crises, when there are dramatic imbalances between revenues and expenditures. Thus alarm bells should be ringing in Washington DC but what does that for mean for Australia?
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Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky at the RSA
Since the postwar boom, we’ve had a surfeit of intellect, energy and time.
Join Clay Shirky as he charts the effects that this ‘cognitive surplus’ - aided by new technologies - will have on 21st century society, and reveals that the choices we make are not only economically motivated but are also driven by the desire for autonomy, competence and community.
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Jared Diamond Explains Haiti’s Enduring Poverty
Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs & Steel (and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed), offers some timely thoughts on why Haiti, once a fairly prosperous country, has sunk into enduring poverty — a condition not comparatively shared by its neighbor on the same island, the Dominican Republic. According to Diamond, Haiti’s environmental conditions offer a partial explanation. But you will also find clues in the country’s language, and in the legacy of slavery that has shaped Haiti’s economic relationship with Europe and the US. This interview — quite a good one — aired this morning in San Francisco.
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Happiness around the World: the paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires
The determinants of happiness are remarkably similar around the world, in countries as different as Afghanistan, the U.S, and Chile. Income matters to happiness but only so much; friends, freedom, and employment are good for happiness, while crime, poor health, and divorce are bad. Paradoxically, however, people in places like Afghanistan can be as happy as those in much wealthier and safer ones like Chile. One explanation is the remarkable human capacity to adapt to adversity and hardship. While adaptation may be a good thing for individual wellbeing, it can also result in collective tolerance for bad equilibrium which are difficult for societies to escape from.
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LIVE from the NYPL & The Aspen Institute Present: Capitalism and the Future
The President of the Aspen Institute, Walter Isaacson joined by Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money , Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google, and Nassim Taleb, scholar of randomness and risk and author of The Black Swan together will examine:
What will the American economic system look like in the months and years ahead?
Who are the innovators currently shaping the future?
What will be the role of business in that future?
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What Next? Surviving the 21st Century
The list of challenges facing the world is proliferating rapidly from climate change to nuclear proliferation and nobody seems to have much of a grip on what is going on. In this public dialogue hosted by Global Policy, a new innovative and interdisciplinary journal, Chris Patten and Professor David Held will discuss what we know in each of these areas and how progress can be made.
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Stephen J. Dubner | SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner spent more than two years on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. The book offered surprising insights into hot-button issues like cheating, crime, parenting, and class consciousness, in a compelling and readable style. Now, with SuperFreakonomics, the "rogue economist” and the award-winning journalist delve into the hidden agendas of all kinds of individuals, and the incentives that drive them. Featuring: Stephen J. Dubner is an author and journalist, formerly a writer and editor for The New York Times Magazine. The author’s Freakonomics blog on the New York Times website receives more than 1 million unique hits each month.
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