Future ― Economic Prosperity or Peril?

Prediction has a venerable tradition among economists. In Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” John Maynard Keynes, the well known classical economist,even as the Great Depression was unfoldingfamously threw aside the contemporary attack of economic pessimism” and predicted that a century later the standard of life” in economically progressive countries would be between four and eight times as high as it is to-day.” History has generally vindicated this optimism. As a wholelike Keynes and other economists who have answered this question about the futureour experts are generally optimistic, although the optimism is carefully guarded in some cases. This optimism accords with the broader opinion held by economists surveyed about a decade ago, although the intervening ten years of disappointing economic performance appears to have tempered it a bit. The reasons for economic optimism are abundant but can be boiled down to the fact that economists expect technology will continue to improve provided that reasonable economic incentives to encourage this discovery and to implement its fruits persist. The predicted changes range from innocent innovations that will make life a bit more comfortable (such as the pillow that learns your sleep rhythms partnered with the coffee maker that knows when you have awakened) to potentially chilling technologies that might strip our human dignity (including the almost complete elimination of privacy and electronic supplementation of the brain embedded in a government controlled educational system). So pull up a chair and listen to our group of experts expound on what they think our economic future is going to look like in fifty years!

Christopher J. Coyne is the F.A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Co-Editor of The Independent Review, North American Editor for the Review of Austrian Economics and Book Review Editor at Public Choice. He received his Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University, and has taught at the University of West Virginia. His books include Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails; After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy; Media, Development, and Institutional Change; Context Matters: Entrepreneurship and Institutions and The Handbook on the Political Economy of War. Professor Coyne's scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Institutional Economics; American Journal of Economics and Sociology; European Journal of Law and Economics; Constitutional Political Economy; Review of Austrian Economics; The Independent Review; Economics of Peace and Security Journal; Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations; Indian Journal of Economics & Business; Journal of Intercultural Communication; Economic Journal; Foreign Policy Analysis; Journal of Law; Economics and Policy; Review of Political Economy; Case Western Reserve Law Review; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization; Institutions and Economic Development; NYU Journal of Law & Liberty; and Kyklos. Michael C. Munger is Co-Editor of The Independent Review and Professor of Political Science, Economics and Public Policy, and Director of the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University. He has been Staff Economist at the Federal Trade Commission, President of the Public Choice Society, and President of the North Carolina Political Science Association, and he has taught at Dartmouth College, University of Texas at Austin, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Munger’s many scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, The Independent Review, Journal of Politics, Journal of Law and Economics, Southern Economic Journal, and Economic Inquiry and his books include Ideology and the Theory of Political Choice; Analytical Politics, Empirical Studies in Comparative Politics; and Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practices. He is past Editor of Public Choice, he has won three University-wide teaching awards (the Howard Johnson Award, an NAACP "Image" Award for teaching about race, and admission to the Bass Society of Teaching Fellows), and he is the recipient of the Duncan Black Prize for Best Paper in Public Choice. His popular articles have appeared in the New York Times, Raleigh News and Observer, Dallas Morning News, Chronicle of Higher Education, Boston Globe, El Mercurio, Ft. Lauderdale Sun, Sentinel, El Segundo, La Tercera, Tallahassee Democrat, Durham Herald, Business and Society Review, Europe, Consumers' Research, Regulation, New Sense, Reason, and Challenge. Robert M. Whaples Co-Editor and Managing Editor, The Independent Review Send Email Robert M. Whaples is Co-Editor and Managing Editor for The Independent Review, Professor of Economics at Wake Forest University, Director and Book Review Editor for EH.NET, and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center on Culture and Civil Society at the Independent Institute. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Whaples is the recipient of both the Allen Nevins Prize and Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History from the Economic History Association. He is the editor of the books, Historical Perspectives on the American Economy (with Dianne Betts, 1995), Public Choice Interpretations of American Economic History (with Jac Heckelman and John Moorhouse, 1999), The Routledge Handbook of Modern Economic History and The Routledge Handbook of Major Events in Economic History (both with Randall Parker, 2012), and The Economic Crisis in