Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
Book by Daron Acemoglu and Simon JohnsonWikipedia
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Search complete. 13 mentions across 3 episodes found for "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity".
Sep 3, 2026
John DavisHOST
In
David McWilliamsHOST
2023, Adam Oogloo and a guy called Simon Johnson, two MIT economists, released a book called Power and Progress, Our 1,000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity.
David McWilliamsHOST
And in it, they argue that technological advancement does not automatically lead to shared prosperity or benefiting everybody equally.
David McWilliamsHOST
Now, this came out a year before Adamoglu won the Nobel Prize for his work on comparative studies of prosperities between nations.
David McWilliamsHOST
Tax system, regulations, a very strong rule of law, a very strong democratic centre, good central banks, all those sort of things, good civil servants, non-corruption, all these things.
David McWilliamsHOST
They're kind of a tick list, but it's important to go through them, right? Now, so that was in 2023.
David McWilliamsHOST
In 2024, Noah Smith, whose substack is incredibly popular, produced a scathing review of Adam O'Gloom Johnson's Power and Progress, calling it the worst book of nonfiction he'd ever read.
David McWilliamsHOST
Wow, don't mince your words, Noah.
Sinead BovellHOST
Because you mentioned self-government.
Sinead BovellHOST
Is there a potential idea of what that could look like? Because I think, and so my first question is, does change happen inside the house or outside of the house? Because if you look at the history and I read your book quite closely, it looks as though change happens.
Sinead BovellHOST
That's
Daron AcemogluGUEST
great to hear.
Daron AcemogluGUEST
And when people compare it to the British Industrial Revolution, they are incidentally or purposefully forgetting the first 80 years.
Daron AcemogluGUEST
And they're actually referring to all the good things that the Industrial Revolution delivered.
Daron AcemogluGUEST
So I have written another book, The Power and Progress with Simon Johnson, to emphasize precisely that point.
Daron AcemogluGUEST
But, you know, that still gets ignored.
Peter Thal LarsenHOST
Daron is one of the world's leading thinkers and researchers on the interaction between economic and political development.
Peter Thal LarsenHOST
He's laid out his ideas in numerous influential academic papers and several books, including the best-selling Why Nations Fail, which he co-wrote with James Robinson, and Power and Progress, which he co-wrote with Simon Johnson.
Peter Thal LarsenHOST
2024, Daron was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, along with Robinson and Johnson, for their work on how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.
Peter Thal LarsenHOST
Daron's new book is called What Happened to Liberal Democracy? Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity, and he joins me today from Ottawa.