“If Economics is So Important,
Why Are So Few People Listening?”

Hosted by Charles Wheelan

To a shocking degree, much of our public policy discourse neglects the most basic concepts in economics. For example, the public reaction to COVID-19 has been devoid of explicit discussion of the fundamental idea underlying economics: tradeoffs. Our tax code bears little resemblance to what basic public finance would suggest. The world is moving away from the free flow of goods, services, and labor (which, beginning around 1990, delivered the sharpest drop in global poverty in the history of human civilization). A generation of young people is advocating for "socialism" without much sense of what that term means and with little appreciation of the benefit of markets.

Charles Wheelan will argue that the most important task for economists is to teach the fundamental concepts of economics more broadly and in a way that leaves students with a lifelong understanding of the core ideas.

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