Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20141108

I have never seen anything quite like it but incredibly incandescent we serious. They also felt guilty. They also felt complicit in all. I think they realized that. You have to admit the irish have a real talent for suffering. When presented with the opportunity to suffer the eight rarely turn away from it. Its true and my mother is the captain of a number of penitential program site and it explains everything about performance of their sports team. [laughter] another question from the audience. Assuming the foundation of the economy is the trust of the Playing Field spared spare do you feel there has been a betrayal of that trust that endangers our economy . I think theres an issue about trust to put it mildly. I think you know the big dark difficult thing about inequali inequality, i mean you know in some versions of political thought there is as it were a fair version of inequality where the more talented people do better. Its a rightwing philosophy but i think the problem with where we are now is that there is a preview in the sense that its clearly in the evidence of correlation between inequality and in heritability that the more unequal lay society the life chances are inherited. So a baby is born and whacked on the backside and it first lung full of air draws and its future income prospects come its future education level and even its life expectancy. From that one moment everything is set on course. I think thats the really dark prospect and i think we are traveling down a society thats more and more like that. Thats what the numbers suggest. I think thats a fundamental breach of trust in the way the social contract is supposed to work. What is the political response is not . Where do you see a . I dont really. That dog crate wouldnt you think a democracy. Its a bit like Winston Churchill and what he said about america. He said you can always trust america to do the right thing but only after they have tried Everything Else first. [laughter] i think something of that similar is true of democracy so the fact that a lot of people are preoccupied by this will eventually translate into politicians actually addressing it. It just hasnt quite happened yet. I think they are fighting with the word inequality. Apropos nothing i want to read your passage to give you if to give people a flavor of the book. The laffer curve the most, and John Lanchesters definition of the laffer curve. The most influential audience arrived in the world on a cocktail napkin. Arthur laffers and cons that explained this idea to the Ford Administration in 1974. The idea was in essence the government could raise more money in tax by cutting tax rates. Laffer drew a curve that true income rates from tax. He made a point at it 0 the government raises no money better 100 tax again the government raises no money because nobody will do any work in the government confiscates all the proceeds of a tax rates that raises the most money isnt automatically at the top end of the scale. Governments will often raise tax revenue by cutting rates of tax. As you can probably imagine this idea is very popular with rich people. Reagans administration was the first of a despair into practice. The two officials to whom laffer pitched the idea were Donald Rumsfeld and dick cheney so does literally that case the same people who cooked up the second iraq war also brought his tax cuts for the rich. To quote the napkin itself consequences are obvious. [laughter] you can actually look up the photo on line. You can actually see a picture of the napkin. Did you have fun writing this book . I had fun thinking about it and i had fun with some of the terms but someone with describing thinking that actually theres a Tipping Point for your worldview in narrowing with this stuff and that thing about the explanation. Minus r. D. So far narrowed that i will never come back. I understand what you mean. A dozen showing your work. You have continued to be interested in the world and sometimes people that term of the world is only interesting insofar as to give you the numbers. Thats the thing you notice with a lot of people. My nature is subdued by the hand. That does happen. Do have an explanation to yourself that you tell yourself about why your are good at explaining this stuff . No but i like new things. I like being interested in new things and i like the process of finding out about stuff and the explanations to me first. Im the first person to whom its being explained and i like that sensation of finding stuff out and working through how it works. I dont think about more than that but i have noticed i have an neelesh iliac spirit. At the very funny thing. You have a gift and its a very unusual gift. I think you are not afraid of seeming ignorant. You are not afraid of your own ignorance and thats related to liking new things. But its a fearlessness that i think is very apropos. Is there anything else you want to say before it closes up your . Did we miss anything you want to get to . Theres only one point in the book that really interest me that we havent covered which is that it comes out in the data because theres also an optimistic thing about the state of the world about mortality, it carved a number of People Living in absolute poverty within 20 years which is an astonishing material achievement. We have is very odd thing which i think is never happen in the history of the world. Inequality between countries is narrowing. Countries are getting closer together at the same time as inside countries it sure increasing but i think that you cant march behind that banner but i think thats the state of the world today and i think its really strange way the world has become sharply more equal and sharply more unequal at the same time. Theres a hopeful aspect to it. There is. On that hopeful note we will and is otherwise depressing program and thanks to John Lanchester new york contributed author of the new book how to speak money with the money people say what it really means. We thank our audiences hear on Radio Television and internet bidder on to remind everyone in the books will be on sale in the library immediately following the program. We appreciate your letting john make his way to the book signing table as quickly as possible. I am Michael Lewis and now this meeting of the Commonwealth Club of california the place where you are in the know is adjourned. [applause]