The economy is changing faster than our ability to track it. And the data sources we rely on most, like surveys, official statistics, and government indices, were designed for a world that no longer exists.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Roberto Rigobon, MIT economist and founder of the Billion Prices Project, to explore what gets lost when measurement fails.

Topics covered:

• Why survey response rates have collapsed
• Designed data vs. organic data
• Why statistical agencies aren't slow out of ignorance but because the cost of a measurement error is catastrophic
• Why CO2 emissions are almost certainly being underestimated by a huge margin
• Why globalization turned workers into widgets
• The monopoly problem: why the US has quietly stopped having real markets in sector after sector, and what that has to do with political polarization
• Why authentic human collective action is what Roberto believes AI will never fully replicate

About Roberto Rigobon: Roberto Rigobon is a professor of applied economics at MIT's Sloan School of Management and co-founder of the Billion Prices Project, which pioneered the use of online prices to construct real-time inflation indices. His research spans international finance, economic measurement, labor market ethics, and the economics of human trafficking, CO2 emissions, and workplace behavior.

Check out the Billion Prices Project

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