person1939–

George Gilder

Disciplines:

Summary

American writer and economist — author of Wealth and Poverty (the Reaganomics bible), Microcosm, Telecosm, and Life After Google — whose work on supply-side economics and technology forecasting has been both prescient and wildly wrong at various points.

Core Contribution

Creates the information theory of economics — Gilder's Knowledge and Power argument (that capitalism is essentially an information system where entrepreneurs create new knowledge that the market tests) provides the most coherent philosophical foundation for supply-side economics.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Wealth and Poverty sold 1 million copies and became the intellectual justification for Reaganomics — Reagan gave more copies to his cabinet than any other book; Gilder was the most consequential intellectual of the supply-side revolution
His Telecosm (2000) predicted the fiber optic revolution at the exact peak of the dot-com bubble — subscribers who acted on his specific investment advice lost enormous amounts of money even as his general technological vision proved accurate; the gap between correct macro-prediction and wrong micro-timing was the defining failure of his career

Notable Works & Achievements

Wealth and Poverty

Microcosm

Telecosm

Knowledge and Power

Life After Google

Historical Influences

Ludwig von Mises Shannon information theory

Intellectual Lineage

New York Harvard Discovery Institute Gilder Technology Report

Contemporaries & Peers

Jack Kemp Arthur Laffer William F. Buckley Jr.

Minds Influenced

Supply-side economics

Intellectual Posterity

Wealth and Poverty Gilder Technology Report Telecosm

Discussing

George Gilder

Ask anything about George Gilder — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1939–

George Gilder

Disciplines:

technology

economics

mathematics/information theory

supply side

Summary

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Wealth and Poverty sold 1 million copies and became the intellectual justification for Reaganomics — Reagan gave more copies to his cabinet than any other book; Gilder was the most consequential intellectual of the supply-side revolution
His Telecosm (2000) predicted the fiber optic revolution at the exact peak of the dot-com bubble — subscribers who acted on his specific investment advice lost enormous amounts of money even as his general technological vision proved accurate; the gap between correct macro-prediction and wrong micro-timing was the defining failure of his career

Notable Works & Achievements

Wealth and Poverty

Microcosm

Telecosm

Knowledge and Power

Life After Google

Historical Influences

Ludwig von Mises Shannon information theory

Intellectual Lineage

New York Harvard Discovery Institute Gilder Technology Report

Contemporaries & Peers

Jack Kemp Arthur Laffer William F. Buckley Jr.

Minds Influenced

Supply-side economics

Intellectual Posterity

Wealth and Poverty Gilder Technology Report Telecosm

Discussing

George Gilder

Ask anything about George Gilder — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.