Are workers being left behind when the economy grows? Is technology making the human workforce obsolete? James Bessen, author of Learning by Doing, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of learning on the job in the past and in the present.

Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Cobbs and James Shelley discuss their new PBS documentary, CyberWork and The American Dream.

This week on Uncommon Knowledge, author and former Senator James Buckley discusses the transformation of the federal government and the challenges we face after the 2012 election. (28:30)
“It is going to be an extraordinary challenge for [future generations] but there are certain realities that are going to be faced. If the debt goes off on the trajectory it is currently on, in terms of devastating, destroying the economic basis of the country my grandchildren are going to face problems that I never dreamed of and you never dreamed of. Nevertheless insofar as they pay any attention of any advice I might give them it would be you have responsibilities not only to yourself and your family but to the public.”

After the financial crisis, new regulations sought to address systemic risk within the U.S. financial system, including rules addressing capital requirements, liquidity ratios and leverage levels. 

James Surowiecki is surprised that CEO's keep laying off workers even though such moves no longer seem to boost profits...

Discussing whether the economy should brace itself for a relapse, with Mort Zuckerman, U.S. News & World Report; Niall Ferguson, Harvard University and James Paulsen, Wells Capital Management...

Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his new paper co-authored with James Robinson, "The Rise and Fall of General Laws of Capitalism," a critique of Thomas Piketty, Karl Marx, and other thinkers who have tried to explain patterns of data as inevitable "laws" without regard to institutions. Acemoglu and Roberts also discuss labor unions, labor markets, and inequality.

As Spider-Man so wisely put it, "With great power comes great responsibility."

Wal-Mart announced Thursday that it will boost wages for about half a million workers to at least $9 an hour, or $1.75 above the federal minimum wage. This is a good thing.

As regular readers of my posts on Econlog know, although I am often critical of Paul Krugman, I defend him when he's doing good economics (here, for example). His New York Times column yesterday, though, "Walmart's Visible Hand," essentially throws out basic price theory. Thus the title of this post.