Greed and Capitalism

What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.
- Milton Friedman

Friday, March 14, 2014

The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World



 Published on Feb 27, 2014
February 26, 2014
4:30 pm-6:00 pm
Santa Monica


The Leading Indicators: 
A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World

Speaker: Author and investor Zachary Karabell


GDP,unemployment, inflation. Trade, housing and stock market data. 


These are among the "leading indicators" that purport to define what matters
in our economic lives. 

But these broad, clear-cut markers were developed decades ago, and gray areas have come to permeate the U.S. economy since those days. 

Nevertheless, these outmoded factoids still drive trillions of dollars in spending decisions and steer judgments about our success as a nation and as individuals.



Milken Institute Forum,

 Zachary Karabell, a well-known money manager and author of 
"The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World,"  will discuss the origins of these pervasive statistics, their outsize
influence and how they fail to capture the most essential information.

As he'll explain, part of the problem is the absorption of the specific
into the mass. The unemployment rate, for instance, means something
different, or perhaps nothing at all, to working people of varied ages,
regions, and educational levels.

Karabell is particularly knowledgeable about the complex ties between the Chinese and American economies, and he'll construct a truer picture of that relationship beyond what he considers misleading trade numbers. Having sounded the alarm about indicators, Karabell believes the solution lies in the
explosion of information in the digital era, which enables each of us to
gather all the data we want and customize it to our needs.


About the Author

Zachary Karabell, a Milken Institute senior fellow, is an author, money
manager, commentator, and president of River Twice Research, where he
analyzes economic and political trends. Educated at Columbia, Oxford,
and Harvard, Karabell has written 11 previous books. He is a regular
commentator on CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN. 

He writes the weekly "Edgy Optimist" column for Reuters and the Atlantic, and is a contributor to the Daily Beast, Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs.


Link: http://youtu.be/2imc05prkUA




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