Jason Furman: evaluation

Transcript context

…What about YIMBY as a way of raising productivity growth? Let everyone move to Oakland or maybe even San Francisco. Would that help a great deal? That would be on my list, too. If we keep going, probably we’ll discover that a large fraction of the thoughts I have about economic policy would fall under the heading of enhancing productivity. Absolutely, I think there’s a real mismatch of people globally — people that would be more productive if they were in the United States than they were in the country that they were in. Then there’s a mismatch — not nearly as large, but a still sizable one — within the United States itself. The places where people can most productively add to the economy — places like the Bay Area, the Boston area, the Washington area — are ridiculously and unnecessarily expensive to live in because of artificial constraints on building that drive people out and keep people from coming in. The US is losing some of its manufacturing capacity, and certainly a lot of its manufacturing workforce. Are there external benefits to keeping those activities more in the US? Significant benefits?…

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