From the Gilded Age to Age of AI: A Conversation with Heather Cox Richardson

It was my absolute pleasure to sit down with one of my favorite public intellectuals, historian , to talk about the American economy—where it’s been and where it’s headed. We covered a lot of ground, but the thread we kept coming back to was inequality. She provided the grand historical arc, and I talked about the economic consequences.

We’ll get to the oomph of it all in just a moment, but first a personal aside. It’s rare that I’m intimidated by folks I talk with. But Heather is so prolific, so well read, and so beloved — a national treasure, no less — that I’ll admit to being more than a little bit nervous. I can share that she’s as lovely in conversation as she is thoughtful in print.

Back to the economics of our conversation…

When you’re talking with an historian, we’re not reviewing last month’s inflation numbers. It’s a longer sweep, viewed through a bigger lens. And for an economist, that means talking about institutions.

They’re central to thinking about the effects of inequality on economic performance. Here’s why: A healthy set of economic institutions gives everyone an incentive to bake a bigger pie; an unhealthy set gives folks an incentive to steal their neighbor’s slice, instead.1 And when wealth gets particularly concentrated, those at the top stop inventing better electric cars (or baking pies) and start lobbying for carve-outs (pie-stealing, with better lawyers). Which is why I believe the biggest threat from inequality runs through our democracy.

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Here are some numbers: Elon Musk spent $250 million to help swing a presidential election, and has enough left over to do it for thousands more. And now the president is on track to earn $8 billion during his second term (largely through a cryptocurrency industry he regulates), far exceeding the roughly $2 billion Republicans spent to elect him. Buying the presidency…