Two stories dominated popular economics over the past years. Both of them turn out to be useless in the current corona crisis.
Story 1: “Robots will take our jobs!”
Fact check: people lost their jobs due to shutdowns. But no robot is taking those jobs. Partly because of the nature of the crisis. We don’t want to go to crowded restaurants right now, not even if they have robot waiters. But also because robots aren’t ready. We still rely on (badly paid) people to pick fruit and to slaughter animals.
Story 2: “Crypto will replace fiat money and banks!”
Fact check: firms need cash. They don’t want bitcoin, but dollars and euros. Central banks and governments backstop the economy. This would be impossible with a cryptocurrency with a fixed supply, as I already pointed out in Bankers are people, too.
So instead of educating voters and policy makers about money, economic influencers have wasted years of popular discourse on these two sideshows.
Thanks for nothing, economists!