Upcoming Event: The Darwin Economy

This Thursday October 27, 2011, the Asset Building Program and Economic Growth Program are co-hosting an event featuring the work of Robert Frank, professor of economics at Cornell University and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. Frank’s book The Darwin Economy seeks to complicate our views on a few of the basic tenets of economic thought: the role of competition in the free market and the theory of the invisible hand. Frank suggests that within the next century Darwin will unseat Adam Smith as the intellectual founder of economics – despite the fact that Darwin was not an economist. Frank argues that Darwin's understanding of competition in nature describes our economic reality far more accurately than Smith's. Instead of spurring innovation and creativity in the market, a free hand and “unbridled competition” results in an “arms race” that serves neither the individual nor the group particularly well in the long run.

RSVP here if you want to join us on Thursday to hear from Frank about how to best address the Darwinian nature of our economic reality, and remember that you can view all of our events via live webcast on the event page.