Social Economics

The Brexit result, the ascendance of anti-establishment figures like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the rise of minor parties … across the Western world we’re seeing signs of growing frustration with the status quo. How, exactly,  did we get here? What can we learn from past mistakes? What can we learn from past successes?

In a sweeping discussion, presented in partnership with Melbourne Writers Festival, we’ll hear from two writers who favour the long, broad view in their writing about economics: New Yorker staff writer George Packer and veteran Australian journalist George Megalogenis. In their recent books, The Unwinding (Packer) and Australia’s Second Chance (Megalogenis), both Georges have considered the slow, tectonic shifts in society driven by economics, politics and history. Packer’s book describes how economic upheavals in the past three decades have impacted on the lives of individual Americans, while Megalogenis’s looks all the way back to 1788 to trace Australia’s economic and demographic history.

In conversation with Sally Warhaft, join two outstanding Georges for a conversation about the bigger economic picture.

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