Cliff Asness on Factor Investing and the History of Financial Economics | Hoover Institution

Jon Hartley and Cliff Asness discuss his time as a graduate student under Eugene Fama at the University of Chicago, his career at Goldman Sachs, and founding AQR, factor-based investing (value and momentum), the efficient markets hypothesis, the elastic markets hypothesis, the inelastic markets hypothesis, comparisons between private equity and public equity returns, and more. Recorded on August 27, 2025. ABOUT THE SERIES Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics. For more information about the podcast, or subscribe for the next episode, click here.