EP 391: How do human decisions shape the economy? with Stacey Vanek Smith
What even is the economy really? How does economic news impact my daily life? And what would prompt two humanities majors to go all-in on business and the economy?
The economy seems like a monolithic entity we measure, manage, and adapt to. But really, economics (as a field) and the economy (as a system) is really just an agglomeration of human decisions. What’s in? What’s out? What’s up? What’s down? And most importantly: Why? In this episode, I talk with Stacey Vanek Smith, a co-host of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money and this summer’s guide for Planet Money Summer School. We talk about how someone with no economics background can get so obsessed, how the economy is a profoundly human system, and, of course, inflation.
Footnotes:
- Planet Money Summer School
- “GDP & What Counts” (Summer School 2)
- “Why is the Fed so boring?”
- The Indicator from Planet Money
- More about Stacey Vanek Smith
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