Justin Wolfers

Sometimes we're doing quantitative analysis.

Sometimes we're telling histories.

The answer appears to be that what matters is what we call institutions.

Institutions are the rules of the game.

So the rules of the game in the United States are we respect contracts.

We respect the rule of law.

If you happen to own something, I'm not allowed to steal it, and the state will help enforce those property rights.

They're the incentives for research and development, which are part of our intellectual property laws.

And on and on it goes.

It's an independent central bank.

It's a functional democracy that means that when the leadership pursues their own self-interest rather than those of the rest of us, we kick the bums out.

And my greatest fear is that what has been undermined more than any news story we've talked about is those foundations in the United States.

In fact, by this telling of the story, perhaps the greatest economic flaw of the current president is an attempt to overturn an election.

Because nothing does more to undermine the quality of our governance than not being accountable to the people.

And there are deep questions whether he has undermined democracy.

I'm just going to put it out there that we shouldn't even be at a point where that's a question.

And so we've been talking more recently about the independence of the central bank.

If we think about the public service, to cite, lots of people think of public servants as bums.

I happen to think of them as noble people.

These are many of my students.