Self-Driving Cars: Will the Dogs Eat the Dog Food?
Ethical problems inherent in programming self-driving cars could make them hard to market.
Read more...Category Archives: Infrastructure
Japan Isn’t Playing Neoliberalism’s Word Games
Has the progressive left in western democracies forgotten how to embrace the mainstream? When I compare the approach which anti-neoliberal causes take in the U.S. and Europe with the approach taken by the same causes in Asian countries, especially Japan, I can only say yes, it has. One explanation for how pro-labor movements have been […]
Read more...A New Low: The New York Times’ Children’s Bedtime Story of Private Equity
The New York Times wraps up a feeble yet costly series on private equity with a cringe-maknig slide show.
Read more...Bill Black and Stephanie Kelton: Is it Time for a New Deal Federal Jobs Program?
On the need for New Deal levels of spending on national priorities and the myths and political grifting that prevent it.
Read more...IMF Warns That Inequality, Poverty, Low Productivity Growth, Falling Workforce Participation Will Drag on US Growth
The IMF has become an unlikely reporter of unpleasant realities about the US economy, particularly the costs of inequality and distress. If only its prescriptions were better….
Read more...North Carolina Threatens to Cancel Toll Road Project, Showing Political Risk of Infrastructure Deals
North Carolina’s House has voted to exit a toll road deal despite high expected cancellation costs.
Read more...Cyber Risk as Systemic Risk
The threat to the financial system posed by cyber risk is often claimed to be systemic. This column argues against this, pointing out that almost all cyber risk is microprudential. For a cyber attack to lead to a systemic crisis, it would need to be timed impeccably to coincide with other non-cyber events that undermine confidence in the financial system and the authorities. The only actors with enough resources to affect such an event are large sovereign states, and they could likely create the required uncertainty through simpler, financial means.
Read more...Artificial Intelligence and Employment
The substitution of human labour by artificial intelligence and robots is a keenly debated topic. Some claim that a substantial share of jobs is at risk, while others argue that computers and robots will lead to product innovations and hence to unimaginable new occupations. This column uses a survey of Japanese firms to examine the impact of AI-related technologies on business and employment. Overall, firms expect a positive impact on business but a negative impact on employment. Firms with a highly skilled workforce, however, have a more optimistic view than firms with lower skilled employees.
Read more...The Abandonment of Countercyclical Fiscal Policy
Economists bemoan the lack of aggressive fiscal spending after the crisis. Funny how few of them were willing to advocate it when it mattered.
Read more...CalPERS Invests in Toll Road Even Though Those Deals Consistently Lose Money
CalPERS ventures into the looting of local populations via investing into a famous toll road-gone-bad deal that has been restructured.
Read more...Michael Hudson: The Wall Street Economy is Draining the Real Economy
How Wall Street is interjecting itself into the economy so that more and more is diverted to pay interest, insurance and rent.
Read more...Martin Wolf Defends Central Banks’ Negative Interest Rate Policies
The Financial Times’ lead economics writer, Martin Wolf, makes an intellectually bogus case for negative interest policies.
Read more...Gaius Publius: Will Sanders Play His Ace?
Sanders lists demands for Clinton if he fails to get the nomination…and it includes demands like single payer that are so far from her current position that it is inconceivable that she will give them lip service.
Read more...A Wake-Up Call on Climate Change and Clean Energy
Why 2017 could be an event horizon as far as climate change is concerned.
Read more...Criminal Matter for the Attorney General of NY? NYC’s $764M Medical Records System Will Lead to ‘Patient Death’: Insiders
Another IT debacle, this one with medical records, and so with potentially lethal consequences
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