Ben Harris on AI, Fiscal Sustainability, and the Resilience of the U.S. Economy

Ben Harris is vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution and previously served in senior economic policy roles at the Treasury Department and Council of Economic Advisers. Ben returns to the program to discuss why recent economic shocks have been less damaging than expected, the outlook for inflation and energy markets, whether AI can improve the U.S. fiscal outlook, why we should temper our AI optimism, how longer lifespans and higher interest rates could complicate the fiscal picture, and much more.

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Recorded on July 20th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:55 - Reasons We Were Wrong
00:11:58 - Stubborn Inflation
00:14:57 - Crude Is Not Really the Problem
00:20:12 - A Novel Sanctions Regime
00:30:35 - Temper Your AI Optimism
00:39:34 - Longer Lives, But Larger Debt
00:45:00 - AI and the Future of Interest Rates
00:49:24 - Policy Implications
00:56:26 - Outro