Economist on the 'Cosine Singularity': When AI Agents Negotiate for Us, Transaction Costs Collapse
danielrock · x · 2026-11-05
Episode 26 (48 min) of Revelio Labs' The Economics of Work podcast features economist Andrey Fradkin on what markets look like when AI agents represent us in negotiations, handle hiring, shop on our behalf and coordinate across firms without friction — arguing many so-called market failures start to look solvable.
Key points: the entire economy is essentially a bet on large AI-driven productivity gains; the "cosine singularity" — markets where agents negotiate and transaction costs collapse; AI could make the labor market more like professional sports, with performance always observed; the best workers often deliberately don't do what their job description says, which a panopticon would miss; intelligence has diminishing returns, highest where it is currently scarcest; and why the paper circuit is a waste of time right now and what economists should do instead.
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