Post by Joel Niamien, CFA

Every serious conversation about AI right now is, secretly, a conversation about creative destruction. Which is why I have not stopped thinking about my old macroeconomics professor at Brown — Peter Howitt — who, along with Philippe Aghion and Joel Mokyr, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences last October "for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction." The recognition is months old. The gratitude is not. What strikes me now is how prescient that work feels. The Aghion–Howitt model, first published in 1992, is the model Professor Howitt stood in front of our class and taught us at Brown. Patiently. Rigorously. As if it were the most natural thing in the world. It wasn't. It was Nobel-worthy. And every quarter that passes — as AI reshapes entire industries, as old business models are quietly outcompeted, as new ones rise faster than anyone expected — that framework feels less like an academic model and more like a user manual for the moment we are living in. It still shapes how I think today about markets, capital allocation, and where long-term value really comes from. Congratulations, Professor Howitt — and thank you. For the curiosity you sparked, for the rigor you demanded, and for being a quiet reminder that the people who change the world often do it from the front of a classroom. Brown is proud. Your students are even prouder. https://lnkd.in/e8XraFS2 #Nobel2025 #Economics #BrownUniversity #CreativeDestruction #AI