I had the pleasure of chatting with John Simon of LinkedIn and RBA fame about institutions, trust, and the rules of the economic game.
We had a far ranging conversation on the nature of institutions and incentives, the role of bureaucracy, the collection and storage of individual data by governments, the impact of COVID on trust, regulation, and much more.
Note: I’ve been told that these podcasts can be hard to listen to through Substack, so here are a couple of other links that might help:
Chat structure and takeaway
The structure is 1/3rd introduction to institutions, 1/3rd examples, and 1/3rd on lessons from Australia about the size of state and community institutions - to follow Larry Summers rule of forecasting.
For those who have read Why Nations Fail and Narrow Corridor you will hear a lot of similar concepts, but John was sure to give an important Australian spin on issues - especially given the relative success of Australia when it comes to social trust and stability.
My key takeaway - Australia is a strong example of a country with high trust and strong institutions. But an increasing focus on winners and losers vs a shared experience based on principles of friendship would erode this.
Every one of us is responsible for this - our decisions determine the “air we breath” as John terms it, and our willingness to consider and vote on the basis of giving people a fair go (rather than our pocket book) is necessary for a stable and prosperous society.
And this is why economics is so important - although that final statement is probably just us ;)
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