Prominent Australian economist Dr Nicholas Gruen gives his thoughts on both David Graeber's BS jobs thesis and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
David Graeber's BS jobs thesis (previously covered in EP95) lacks microeconomic foundations, according to Dr Nicholas Gruen. In EP97, Economics Explored host Gene Tunny speaks with Nicholas about BS jobs and also about Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Nicholas is a big believer in the potential of CBDC, which he has written about in the Financial Times.
About Dr Nicholas Gruen
Dr Nicholas Gruen is a policy economist, entrepreneur and commentator on our economy, society and innovation. He is CEO of Lateral Economics, Visiting Professor at Kings College London Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor at UTS Business School.
He was a Chairman of the Open Knowledge Foundation (Australia) (ending 2020), Chairman of international aged care management software provider Health Metrics (ending 2019), Council Member of the National Library of Australia (ending 2016), chaired the Federal Government’s Innovation Australia (ending 2014) and chaired the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) (ending 2016).
He was the founding chair of Kaggle which was sold to Google and is an investor in numerous other Australian and international start-ups. He was also founding chair of HealthKit (now Halaxy).
He has advised Cabinet Ministers, sat on Australia’s Productivity Commission and founded Lateral Economics and Peach Financial in 2000.
Links relevant to the conversation
Re. BS jobs:
https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/trust-competition-delusion-gruen/
Re: CBDCs:
https://clubtroppo.com.au/2021/05/19/central-banks-get-serious-on-digital-currencies-2/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc.asp
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy
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