Check This Out: Why does capitalism thrive on failure?

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Podcast: NPR’s Planet Money

Episode: The Failure Tour of New York, recommended by Snohomish County Business Journal editor Kurt Batdorf

The pitch: In this episode of Planet Money, hosts Robert Smith and David Kestenbaum hit the streets of Manhattan with economist Tim Harford. In his new book, Adapt, Harford argues that success always starts with failure.

Harford leads a failure tour of New York. Highlights include a Gutenberg Bible (turns out the Bible business wasn’t so good to Gutenberg) and the Woolworth Building (Woolworth’s had some great innovations in its day, but eventually got beat by big-box stores).

Failure, Harford argues, is essential to economic growth. Old companies fail and are replaced by newer companies with fresh ideas.

Perhaps inevitably, Smith and Kestenbaum take us to Wall Street.