Tyler Cowen, the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and General Director of the Mercatus Center speaks on his new book, The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream. In this book, he argues that Americans are turning away from their willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change, habits that produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation from Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs. Americans today have broken from this tradition, relying on internet algorithims and a variety of personal choiuce opportunities to choose a world where we're rarely challegned. 

About the Speaker

Tyler Cowen is Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. With colleague Alex Tabarrok, Cowen is coauthor of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and cofounder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University.

A dedicated writer and communicator of economic ideas who has written extensively on the economics of culture, Cowen is the author of several books and is widely published in academic journals and the popular media. He writes a column for Bloomberg View; has contributed extensively to national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Money; and serves on the advisory boards of both Wilson Quarterly and American Interest. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, Ethics, and Philosophy and Public Affairs.

Cowen is host of Conversations with Tyler, a podcast series that invites today's deepest thinkers to discuss their work, the world, and everything in between. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek profiled Cowen as “America’s Hottest Economist” after his e-book, The Great Stagnation, appeared twice on the New York Times e-book bestseller list. Cowen's blog was named in the Top Financial Blogs of 2011 by TIME and in the Best Economics Blogs of 2010 by The Wall Street Journal.

Cowen has been recognized as the George Mason University Economic Alumnus of the Year (2011), and the George Mason University College of Humanities and Social Sciences Alumnus of the Year (2012). Cowen graduated from George Mason University with a BS in economics and received his PhD in economics from Harvard University.