“The unfortunate truth is, very few want to hear an optimistic take on the world during a pandemic.”

Human beings evolved to pay closer attention to negative vs positive information. For our ancestors, the cost of seeing danger where there was none was a cortisol spike and an unnecessary sprint, but dismissing a real threat might have led them to be a predator’s next meal.

Our guest this week was Laurence Siegel, Director of Research at the CFA Institute Research Foundation and author of “Fewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance”. We discussed the main themes from his book, including:

• The case for techno-optimism
• Demographics, healthcare and lifespan
• Inflation, deflation and hedonic adjustments
• Pollution, climate modelling and the wide range of possible outcomes
• Why nuclear power is a crucial component of a greener energy matrix
• Differences across geographies
• Economics, capital markets and realistic expectations

We also debated the future of cities, real-estate costs and possible changes to the jobs market if we extrapolate current trends.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.