New Cities with New Rules
This talk was the first in a series of public discussions of an idea that Paul Romer has been working on for two years.
His economic theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules.
http://fora.tv/2009/05/18/Paul_Romer_A_Theory_of_History_with_an_Application