ForeCast

Phil Trammell is an economics postdoc at Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab, working on questions related to economic growth and AI. He discusses:

Why Piketty's thesis about runaway inequality was likely wrong about the past but right about the future

How full automation turns capital and labour into gross substitutes

Why catch-up growth between rich and poor countries could end

How the privatisation of returns is already concentrating wealth

Why family dynasties and inheritance become far more important in a post-automation economy

Whether autocratic regimes can outgrow democracies after AGI

How to measure whether capital is becoming truly self-replicating — and what the data currently shows

Watch the video version on YouTube.

Read a full transcript here.

To see all Forethought’s published research, visit forethought.org/research. To subscribe to our newsletter, visit forethought.org/subscribe.

This is an AI narration of "Moral public goods are a big deal for whether we get a good future" by Tom Davidson, William MacAskill, Mia Taylor. The article was first released on 23rd February 2026.

You can read more of our research at forethought.org/research. Thank you to Type III audio for providing these automated narrations.

Sam Hammond is is Chief Economist at the Foundation for American Innovation. He discusses:

How collapsing transaction costs could push towards privatising the nation-state

The “distributed denial of service” problem for courts and regulators

Why perfect enforcement of existing laws would be effectively totalitarian

Estonia's government-as-API as a model for AI-era governance

Whether 20th-century social democracy was a technological aberration

Why post-AGI states might look more like Dubai than Denmark

Mormons, religion, and social scaffolding for a post-scarcity world

Watch the video version on YouTube.

Read a full transcript here.

To see all Forethought’s published research, visit forethought.org/research. To subscribe to our newsletter, visit forethought.org/subscribe.

This is an AI narration of "Design sketches for a more sensible world" by Owen Cotton-Barratt, Lizka Vaintrob, Oly Sourbut, and Rose Hadshar. The article was first released on 5th February 2026.

You can read more of our research at forethought.org/research. Thank you to Type III audio for providing these automated narrations.

This is an AI narration of "Design Sketches: Angels-on-the-Shoulder" by Owen Cotton-Barratt, Lizka Vaintrob, Oly Sourbut, and Rose Hadshar. The article was first released on 29th January 2026.

You can read more of our research at forethought.org/research. Thank you to Type III audio for providing these automated narrations.