Feb 11 2025 82 mins 8
In this mind-expanding episode of The Higher Standard, Chris and Saied take a detour from their usual financial deep dives to expose the sinister underbelly of human decision-making. Turns out, the economy isn’t broken—our brains are. From Robert Shiller’s Narrative Economics to Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, the duo unpacks how financial markets, political ideologies, and your everyday spending habits are more influenced by viral stories and social media hysteria than by any rational thought process. Long story, short: You’re probably not making financial decisions—you’re reacting to the subconscious cues planted in your head by algorithms, dopamine hits, and good old-fashioned tribalism.
➡️ And just when you thought you were in control, they hit you with The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher, a book that details how social media isn’t just ruining dinner-table conversations—it’s actively rewiring your brain for extremism and anxiety. From doomscrolling mortgage rate headlines to being emotionally blackmailed into buying gold, Chris and Saied reveal that the only way to escape the manipulation matrix is to step back, slow down, and—dare we say—think. But hey, no pressure! If you’d rather stay plugged into the fear factory, there’s always another viral headline waiting to tell you the economy is collapsing.
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🔗 Resources:
The Mortgage Rate Reality Sets In (Yahoo! Finance via Instagram)
Bank of England Cuts Interest Rates Amid Economic Slowdown (The Guardian)
US Imposes New Tariffs, Prompting Global Trade Tensions (CNN Politics)
US Job Growth Slows in January (Associated Press )
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