FET #15: Can a "f**k up levy" stop our experts failing us?

The Economist magazine recently wrote about the “worrying amount of fraud in medical research” and the former editor of The BMJ medical journal, Richard Smith, asked if it is “Time to assume that health research is fraudulent until proven otherwise?”Too many designated experts in our society are anything but. They get things wrong, and when they do, they impose enormous costs on others.Is a “f**k up levy” a solution?Experts would pay a levy so that when they inevitably screw up we can use the money collected to compensate those who bear the costs. This is the idea that kicks off the conversation this week.Follow Cameron and Jonathan on Twitter.Theme music: Happy Swing by Serge Quadrado Music under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 4.0Please leave a comment with your ideas for future podcast conversations and Substack posts.Thanks for reading Fresh Economic Thinking! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.fresheconomicthinking.com/subscribe