A Critique of Government That Progressives — Myself Included — Need to Hear
About this episode
George Mason economist Alex Tabarrok, author of a viral essay on the limits of expertise, offers a libertarian-inflected critique of government that Klein argues progressives should take seriously. They discuss why American government struggles to execute: veto points, NEPA-style permitting, and a culture that confuses process with outcomes. Housing is a central case study — how zoning and local control choke off supply — and they debate the promise and hype of crypto and decentralized finance as coordination tools. Tabarrok defends prediction markets, charter cities, and a more experimental state. Klein pushes back from the left, and the conversation becomes a genuine attempt to find where pro-market and progressive critiques of the status quo converge.