Chris Anderson on 3D Printing
He talks with Russ Roberts. He views it as a general-purpose technology, like the personal computer. I have some doubts about the analogy. It might be more analogous to digital technology in music...
View ArticleMobility
Timothy Taylor writes, geographic mobility in 2011…all-time low since the start of the data in 1948 Read Taylor’s whole post, and you may also wish to click through to some of the links he provides. My...
View ArticleHow Much Does Culture Matter?
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson write, Were the economic prospects of North Korea, which shares the same Korean culture of course, not just as bright until the economy became enmeshed in collective...
View ArticleYear-end Stories
In 2005, I listed five stories that I thought would have long-term significance: productivity; cognitive neuroscience, solar power, cancer therapy, and mainstream media meltdown. All five were areas...
View ArticleThe Un-Malling of America
Jeff Jordan writes, Hundreds of malls will soon need to be repurposed or demolished. Strong malls will stay strong for a while, as retailers are willing to pay for traffic and customers from failed...
View ArticleVickies and Thetes
Cory Doctorow writes, We’ve been talking about an increase in productivity producing an increase in leisure for a long time, but instead, the “winner take all” world of Brynjolfsson and McAfee often...
View ArticleOld Predictions
A commenter reminded me of Red Sox Technologies, an essay that I wrote nine years ago about technologies that always seem promising but fail to deliver (at the time, the Red Sox were still without a...
View ArticleVickies and Thetes
Ross Douthat writes, Yet the decline of work isn’t actually some wild Marxist scenario. It’s a basic reality of 21st-century American life, one that predates the financial crash and promises to...
View ArticleSchumpeterian Growth
The paper is by Aghion, Akcigit, and Howitt. They see creative destruction as less important in economies that are catching up to the state of the art in technology. It is more important for what they...
View ArticleFlynn on the Flynn Effect
Interviewed for the Smithsonian Magazine. Self-recommending, as Tyler would say. When he reads the article, Tyler will no doubt note Flynn’s prediction for Brazil, Turkey, and Kenya. The ultimate cause...
View ArticleFrom Permanent Press to Permanent Clean
Walter Russell Mead writes, A Kickstarter success story making the rounds of the Internet this week caused us to perk up our ears here at Via Meadia. A Brooklyn-based company called Wool & Prince...
View ArticleProductivity Measurement Pessimism
Timothy Taylor reports on a symposium on productivity trends. He quotes Robert Gordon, I have often posed the following set of choices. Option A is to keep everything invented up until ten years ago,...
View ArticleVacation in Croatia and Slovenia
That is where I was for most of the latter part of May. A few notes: 1. Travel in the Internet age is amazing. An interesting question is which countries/regions/towns will benefit most as travel...
View ArticleLabor’s Share of Income
Timothy Taylor quotes a report by the International Labor Organization showing that labor’s share of income has declined between 1990 and 2009 in 26 out of the 30 countries surveyed. Taylor comments,...
View ArticleRobert Fogel
Tyler Cowen notes his passing. One of his difficult books, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, had an enormous influence on my thinking. In fact, it was just one table, showing the long-term...
View ArticleJames C. Bennett vs. Deirdre McCloskey
Bennett writes, Very briefly, and simplistically, the Industrial Revolution happened when it did because the English (and their available capital) were occupied gathering the plentiful low-hanging...
View ArticleTo Ponder
From Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wocziarg one may erroneously infer a major role for specific national institutions in Africa, even though, as shown by Michalopoulos and Papaioannou (2010), national...
View ArticleJoel Mokyr vs. Technopessimism
He writes, But if the bulk of unpleasant, boring, unhealthy and dangerous work can be done by machines, most people will only work if they want to. In the past, that kind of leisurely life was confined...
View ArticleThe Great Demographic Stagnation
Rob Arnott and Denis Chaves write, the developed world is entering a new phase in which the low fertility rates of past decades lead to slow growth (in many countries, no growth) in the young adult...
View ArticleIra Stoll on Phelps
Stoll writes, Professor Phelps tries to trace what he sees as a decline in modern capitalism beginning as early as the mid-1960s and continuing through the present day. One suspect is what the author...
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