Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium
Event date
The Council on Foreign Relations held a two-session symposium on April 18, 2017 that addressed the importance of economic irrationality, crowd behavior, and other elements of behavioral finance in understanding the global economy and making effective economic policy. The symposium was presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and was made possible through the generous support of Robert B. Menschel.
A Conversation with Daniel Kahneman
Transcript
Daniel Kahneman discusses insights from behavioral economics.
MURRAY: Can we get started? Good. Thank you all for coming. Welcome to the Council on Foreign Relations Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium.
My name is Alan Murray. I’m the chief content officer for Time Inc. And I’ve really been looking forward to the conversation today with Daniel Kahneman, who I think most of you know, needs no introduction. He is a psychologist and economist, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, and author of what I would argue is one of the most important and influential books of the—of the last decade—apologies to those in the audience who have written their own books—(laughter)—I’m sure they have been all very important and influential as well, but—“Thinking, Fast and Slow,” which is a fascinating exploration of how the human mind works and how intuitive thinking, which you call “System 1,” interacts with deliberative thinking, “System 2.” And my conclusion after reading it is that System 1 is the 600-pound gorilla here—
KAHNEMAN: Yeah.
MURRAY: —more than we realize.
KAHNEMAN: Absolutely.
MURRAY: Can you talk about that a little bit?
KAHNEMAN: Well, I mean, the claim, you know, in the book is that what we...
Session II: Behavioral Insights into Policymaking
Transcript
Experts discuss behavioral insights into policymaking.
KARABELL: So welcome to the second part of our discussion for the Robert Menschel Economics Symposium. This is more of the let’s flesh out some of what we heard from Daniel Kahneman.
You’ve heard the sort of Council on Foreign Relations dos and don’ts. This is on the record. I know there were many things that might have been said about behavioral economics off the record had it been so, but unfortunately everything we say will in fact be on the record. So that deeply constrains our conversation, but so be it.
We’re also being live streamed to whomever out there in the greater—as said, to whomever out there—(laughter)—in the greater ether, so welcome.
And we will obviously have questions at the end, which will also be on the record.
My name is Zachary Karabell, I’m head of global strategies at Envestnet which is a publicly traded financial services firm. I’ve written a bit about economics and statistics and history. And I’m also a journalist and a commentator. So I am here moderating this, although I don’t have a background in behavioral economics.
And the three panelists’ bios are in your programs as per...
