The Economic Lessons Of A Free Solo Climb
The El Capitan monolith in Yosemite National Park. Climber Alex Honnold scaled the rock formation in under four hours with nearly no equipment, as seen in the 2018 documentary Free Solo. MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The El Capitan monolith in Yosemite National Park. Climber Alex Honnold scaled the rock formation in under four hours with nearly no equipment, as seen in the 2018 documentary Free Solo.
MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty ImagesIn 2017, American rock climber Alex Honnold ascended Yosemite National Park's vertical rock formation, El Capitan, in under four hours. Honnold's extraordinary journey to the top was captured in the documentary Free Solo, named after the method of climbing without ropes or equipment which Honnold used.
While audiences largely reacted to the movie with nail-biting, dizzying fascination, economist John Cochrane thought to himself, "Why wasn't this done 150 years ago?" On today's show, the three economic lessons that prompted his question, and the surprising links between rock climbing and economics.
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