News & Politics
On this week's Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews economist Steven Landsburg, professor of economics at The University of Rochester, about how economics can help us understand many realms--including today's "religion of environmentalism." They discuss: - How Landsburg's popular book The Armchair Economist came about. - Why Landsburg regards "people respond to incentives" as the foundation of economics. - How understanding incentives makes sense of seemingly counterintuitive outcomes, such as recycling programs leading to fewer trees. - How understanding economics could have vastly improved vaccine distribution in the US. - The science of ecology vs. the religion of ecology. - How human beings ability to adapt to climate changes is largely ignored in today's discussions--and why economists don't speak up about it. - How "environmentalists" treat their personal preferences as morally superior to others' preferences. - Landsburg's economics-based approach to species extinction.