The set of questions facing the United States economy is a perpetually changing mixture of recurring concerns (How will geopolitical turmoil affect business domestically?) and new uncertainties (Will fintech destabilize the financial system?). At Chicago Booth’s annual Economic Outlook event in Chicago, held this year on January 10, a panel comprising Booth’s Austan D. Goolsbee, Randall S. Kroszner, and Raghuram G. Rajan met to share and exchange insights on the state of the US economy and the forces shaping it. Oriented toward the theme of “Big Tech, Trade, and the Future of the Economy,” the discussion was moderated by Bloomberg’s Kathleen Hays.
Kathleen Hays: We’re going to start with a look at tech. More and more over time, the developments in tech are having a potential or actual impact on where the economy’s going.
Randy, I want to start with you. Big tech is moving more and more into the banking system. Now in some ways, particularly starting in the 2008–09 financial crisis, it was pretty clear that a lot of these big banks were ripe for disruption. So where are we now? Is this a risk, or is this something that’s inevitably going to happen, and maybe…
