Optimist Economy
Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
Optimist Q&A: The AI Bubble, the Rapture, and Free Lunch
52 minutes Posted Jun 23, 2026 at 8:30 am.
— AI & birth rates
— AI & birth rates (cont.)
— AI bubble burst
— The experience of inflation
— Minimum wage & poverty
— Job loss after 50
— Productivity squeeze
— CEO pay ratio cap
— Could the dollar collapse?
— Bonds & the Fed
— Debt ceiling fix
— Trump Accounts vs 401k
— Tax dollar waste myth
— Universal school meals
— Part-time for new parents
— Fighting monopolies
— Policy ideas for Texas
— Mamdani goes federal?
— Top 1% wealth myth
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52:18
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Show notes
We can’t give financial advice. Or feedback on your 20-page tax proposal. But economist Kathryn Edwards did take a run at nearly 20 listener questions in under 60 minutes. Among them: Why care about birth rates if robots are taking all the jobs? What happens if the AI bubble bursts? Will the dollar collapse? Can the bond market sway the White House? Plus: Why the minimum wage matters even if it doesn’t alleviate most poverty and how to argue for universal free school lunch. 
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