David Autor on the Scars That Money Can’t Heal

David Autor on the Scars That Money Can’t Heal

From The Good Fight by Yascha Mounk

March 31, 2026 · 59 min

About this episode

Yascha Mounk and David Autor discuss the impact of policy failures on trade disruption and the lessons learned from the China trade shock.

Yascha Mounk and David Autor discuss how policy failures made trade disruption worse—and why we're still making the same mistakes. David Autor is the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, codirector of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and David Autor discuss whether the economic pessimism of the 2010s was justified, what lessons we failed to learn from the China trade shock, and how artificial intelligence will reshape the American job market. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠⁠this link on your phone⁠⁠. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Google⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠Yascha Mounk⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Persuasion⁠⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Yascha Mounk

Guest: David Autor

Topics covered

  • trade disruption
  • economic policy
  • artificial intelligence
  • job market
  • China trade shock
  • economic pessimism

Keywords

  • trade disruption
  • economic policy
  • artificial intelligence
  • job market
  • China trade shock
  • economic pessimism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MIT, NBER, Persuasion

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