WTH are deaths of despair? Nobel Prize winner Sir Angus Deaton on the other epidemic

There were 158,000 “deaths of despair” in the US in 2018. Think of it as three fully loaded Boeing 737 MAX jets falling out of the sky every day for a year. In their new book, “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” Anne Case and Angus Deaton talk about the other epidemic decimating American communities, now exacerbated by the coronavirus.

What’s to blame for these increased deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism? Sir Angus joined Dany and Marc to discuss his new book and the coronavirus’ likely impact on communities already suffering from opioid abuse, unemployment, alcoholism and suicide. He also explains why other countries aren’t experiencing the phenomenon and what can be done to reverse the trend.

Sir Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is a senior scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University and Presidential Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California.

Download the transcript here.

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