causal

Macroeconomic Instability Comes From Re-tradeable Goods

Non-durable consumer goods (about 75% of private product) cannot be re-traded and behave stably both in the lab and the economy, while all macroeconomic instability comes from the other 25%, mostly durable, re-tradeable assets like housing.

causalpending

Speaker

Vernon Smith

Evidence Quote

If you take GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and subtract government consumption expenditures, you get private product; 75% of that is stuff that basically cannot be re-traded... All of our macroeconomic instability comes from the other 25%. Mostly housing.

Source

Vernon Smith on Adam Smith and the Human EnterpriseEconTalk
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:22:45 AM

My Notes

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