technological unemployment narrative, 174, 175f, 183–86; automation with broader scope than, 200;
concentration of business and, 190; during depressions, 176; economic effects of narrative itself,
211; epidemic models for, 294, 295; in Great Depression, 252; mutating after World War II, 196,
199; not strong in 1920s, 186–87; in run-up to World War II, 194–95; saturating the population in
1930s, 194; underconsumption and, 189. See also automation narrative; labor-saving machinery
narrative
“technology taking over our lives” narrative, 8–9
Temin, Peter, 133, 172
Terkel, Studs, 234
The Terminator (film), 203
textual analysis, 279, 287. See also databases for studying narratives; searching digitized data
Thaler, Richard, 277–78
Thatcher, Margaret, 42, 51
Theobald, Robert, 210
theory of mind, 63–64
The Theory of the Leisure Class (Veblen), 310n1
“They say that …,” 92
Think and Grow Rich (Hill), 122
Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life (Trump with Zanker), 150
Thompson, Anne Kinsella, 226, 285
ticker projector, 228–29
time and motion studies, 184
Tmall Genie (Alibaba), 8, 207
Tobias, Ronald B., 16
Tracy, Spencer, 201
traffic light, replacing policemen, 182–83
Trans-Lux Movie Ticker, 228–29
“trending now,” x
trickle-down economics, 44
Triumph of the Will (film), 122
Trohan, Walter, 51
Trulia, 218
Trump, Donald J.: bigly and yuge coined by, 244; downplaying modesty and compassion, 150; gold
standard and, 156, 173; modeling ostentatious living, 272; narrative of, xii, 225–26
Trump administration, less generosity toward the poor during, 272
Trump supporters, resembling Silverites, 162–63
Trump University, 226
trust, in business dealings, 101
trusts, public anger about, 181
tulip mania in 1630s, 4, 5
Tversky, Amos, 66
Twain, Mark, 124
Twitter: meme quickly going viral on, 88; retweeting of mostly false stories on, 96–97
Typhoid Mary, 20
tyranny of metrics, 75, 306n5
Uchitelle, Louis, 150
Uncharted: Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture (Aiden and Michel), 24
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 33
underconsumption theory, 187–92

Understanding the Process of Economic Change (North), 14
unemployment: artificial intelligence narrative and, 273; automation and, 199–200, 204; constant
reminders of possibility of, 89; crime and, 141, 142; in depression during 1890s, 111; employee
morale and, 147; gold standard and, 172; in Great Depression of 1930s, xiv, 111, 132, 141, 142,
143, 146–47, 172, 187, 189–91, 193; Kiplinger’s 1930 list of causes of, 130, 132; labor-saving
machinery narrative and, xiv, 9, 130, 177–81, 187–88, 191–92; narratives focused on massive
occurrence of, 129–31; Nazi Party’s rise in Germany and, 195; robotics and, 209; technology
raising specter of, 8–9, 130; underconsumption theory and, 187–91. See also labor-saving
machinery narrative; technological unemployment narrative
unemployment rate, first measurements by US government, 131, 184, 185
unfair behavior, human eagerness to punish, 36
universal basic income, 209–10
universals: anthropologists’ study of, 33–35; social comparison as, 218
Valenti, Jack, 41
Van Evera, Stephen, 95
Vartanian, Oshin, 17
Veblen, Thorstein, 154, 193, 310n1
Versailles treaty, Keynes on consequences of, xvii–xviii, 26
viral diseases. See Ebola epidemics; influenza; Kermack-McKendrick SIR model
viral narratives: affecting economic activities without regard to truth, 95–96; American Dream as,
151–54, 152f; appearance of term “going viral,” x; about bimetallism, 170, 172; about boycotts,
241; causal elements of, 72; choice of celebrities and, 100; confluence of, 29; creators of, 60;
experimental evidence relevant to, 39–40; of “fire in a crowded theater,” 127; about gold standard,
168, 172; about hypnosis, 122; about labor-saving machines, 195; mathematical model of epidemic
and, 293; needing personality and story, xii; news publishers’ financial success and, 61; about
office automation, 204; randomness of which stories become, 31, 40, 64–65, 286; Roosevelt’s
quote about fear, 128; sit-ins and, 32–33; about stock market boom and crash, 229; about
technological unemployment, 185; about wage-price spiral, 259–60
visual images: changed in mutated narrative, 108; memory aided by, 45, 46–47; power of Laffer
curve narrative and, 45, 48
vivid mental images, jury members’ response to, 78
volatility, and epidemic quality of economic narratives, 5
Vosoughi, Soroush, 96–97
wage cuts: anger at business over, 239; criticized during Great Depression, 251–52; National
Industrial Recovery Act and, 252
wage lag hypothesis, 264
wage-price spiral narrative, 258–62, 259f, 263, 264, 266
wages: interviews of managers on decisions about, 281; of limited value in understanding economic
events, 74–75; National Recovery Administration and, 189; purchasing power theory of, 188. See
also labor unions
Wagner, Robert, 184
Walker, Edmond, 250
Wall Street Journal “Mansion” section, 224–25
Wanniski, Jude, 44–45
war metaphors, 17
Warner/Chappell Music, 98
wars: inflation during, 265–66. See also Civil War, US; World War I; World War II
war to end all wars, 242