Category Archives: Economics

2018 Nobel Prize in Economics

William Nordhaus and Paul Romer both won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics. In this very simplified summary of their respective areas of originality, which led to their respective wins, this article describes Romer’s work thus: The mainstream economic analysis … Continue reading

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Rumblings Over Single-Payer

When it comes to healthcare, widely cited as 1/6 of our economy, extraordinary inflationary pressures have become both a public and political crisis. As Milton Friedman correctly noted, the root cause of the exploding costs of healthcare can be traced … Continue reading

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Job Automation & Naïve Libertarianism

The Robot Job Automation Threat will have drastic consequences for all types and levels of jobs. The degree of job displacement is becoming, and will continue to be, quantum and accelerative. This radically new and burgeoning dynamic is a game … Continue reading

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The New Oligarchs

From a MarketWatch piece on Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, and what subsequent moves like this portend for the future: Could Amazon actually kill more American jobs than China did? It’s quite likely. Economists David Autor, David Dorn and Gordon … Continue reading

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Robert Schiller on Job Automation

What does Nobel-Prize winning economist Robert Shiller think about the Coming Robot Job Automation Apocalypse? Robert Shiller, the Nobel-Prize winning economist who is the Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, said that automation and artificial intelligence are the trends … Continue reading

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Robots & Jobs: March 2017 Study

“Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets” is a new study by Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo. Here is the paper’s abstract: As robots and other computer-assisted technologies take over tasks previously performed by labor, there is increasing concern … Continue reading

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Robot Apocalypse – Pt. 3,183

From the WSJ (“Supersmart Robots Will Outnumber Humans Within 30 Years, Says SoftBank CEO”): BARCELONA—Within 30 years, artificial intelligence will be smarter than the human brain. That is according to Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank Group Corp., who says … Continue reading

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NYT Supports Job Automation

It’s quite remarkable how the Left (e.g., the NYT) went from being protectionist for the American working class to being the Champions of Globalism. In “No, Robots Aren’t Killing the American Dream”, the faceless NYT Editorial Board writes: Defenders of … Continue reading

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Cowen on Job Automation

Tyler Cowen, from Marginal Revolution, weighs in on the jobs-automation dilemma (“Industrial Revolution Comparisons Aren’t Comforting”): Consider, for instance, the history of wages during the Industrial Revolution. Estimates vary, but it is common to treat the Industrial Revolution as starting … Continue reading

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The Great Displacement: Robot Tax

Bill Gates throws out a theoretical variation of the inevitable when it comes to accelerating job automation: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and world’s richest man, said in an interview Friday that robots  that steal human jobs should pay their … Continue reading

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