With all that extra intelligence, there will be a need and a desire to undertake many new projects, ranging from innovative theatrical productions to more efficient and densely packed solar panels. These new projects could also herald a world of much cheaper and greener energy, which would further increase humankind’s ability to manipulate the natural environment. Land will thus become more valuable.
For all of you following the banking crises in the US and Europe, and asking why this is all happening again, I have bad news: Regardless of what laws are passed, or which regulations are issued, banking crises will recur — and not infrequently.
It is possible, contrary to the predictions of most economists, that the US will get through this disinflationary period and make the proverbial “soft landing.”
Artificial intelligence advances in a manner that’s hard for the human mind to grasp.
The collapse of FTX and the charges against Sam Bankman-Fried have brought many renewed calls for crypto regulation, from both commentators and legislators.
The research is clear: Americans are becoming less generous over the holidays. Not to sound too much like a Scrooge, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Will AI save crypto?
The standard Keynesian doctrine is to run a budget surplus in good times, and then use deficit spending to stimulate the economy in bad times.
To learn how an economist really thinks, ask them which mainstream economic idea bugs them most.
This year has brought a lot of innovation in artificial intelligence, which I have tried to keep up with, but too many people still do not appreciate the import of what is to come. I commonly hear comments such as, “Those are cool images, graphic designers will work with that,” or, “GPT-3 is cool, it will be easier to cheat on term papers.” And then they end by saying: “But it won’t change my life.”
Florida’s response to Hurricane Ian illustrates how governments are making it harder to adjust to climate change by subsidizing the insurance market.
Currently, the most underrated theory in economics is the so-called Quantity Theory of Money. It has been out of fashion for a long time, and even Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said that a strong money-price connection has not held for at least 40 years.
This week’s unexpected rise in US inflation is an opportunity to revisit an old debate, which is often a useful exercise. This current bout of inflation has its roots in mistaken assumptions made a decade ago.
If 2021 was the breakthrough year for mRNA vaccines, then 2022 may be the breakthrough year for artificial intelligence.
Debate has swirled over President Joe Biden’s student loan-forgiveness plan, but there has been relatively little consideration of some of its longer-run ramifications.
2022 may be remembered as the year when living standards in the US truly pulled away from those in Western Europe. One concrete piece of evidence is the collapse of the euro to parity with the dollar, or lower yet, but there is also a more general sense that the gap is widening.
The recent Democratic bill on climate and taxes increases the funding for the Internal Revenue Service by an additional $80 billion over 10 years, with the purpose of collecting more revenue by enforcing existing tax laws.
Tyler will answer audience questions about what the future holds for global economies.
Currently, the electric vehicle market is bumping into some constraints on the supply side.
Have we reached peak social media?
One of the most common criticisms of cryptocurrency is that it is just a way to get around financial rules and regulations.
US price inflation is at 9.1% and a there is a fiercely strong dollar, a pair of statistics that was certainly unexpected a year ago and even now seems odd.
Before I begin, please note: I am not a pessimist. I am not short the market, and I think the world is far more likely to muddle through than to fall apart. Nonetheless, I now believe the future will be far more irresponsible and stupid than I once did.
According to a recent survey, a majority of Republicans and a plurality of Democrats believe the US is in a recession. The question is how seriously to take their complaints.
One of the most difficult challenges in finance is how to price crypto assets. Bonds pay interest. Stocks pay dividends. What exactly do crypto assets pay?
Technology stocks have taken a deep dive, blue-chip stocks are ailing, stablecoins aren’t stable, and don’t even ask about traditional crypto. Art markets, however, are alive and well — and it’s worth asking why.
The green energy revolution is making greater progress than expected. Solar and wind power have seen exponential cost declines, and electric vehicles seem to be a market winner. That’s all good news, but improving green energy is not the same as addressing climate change. There is good chance that even optimistic projections for green energy will come true — and carbon emissions will continue to increase.
The pandemic has prompted a rethinking of many practices and routines of professional life, such as working from home, meetings and interviewing online. Now another such pastime is ripe for a reassessment: the face-to-face conference.
Crypto markets still have many puzzles, but they are beginning to reveal their secrets. The last few months of chaos show what Bitcoin and other crypto assets are good for: They are advanced tools of globalization, luxury goods for complex, well-functioning markets — not protections against the depredations of hostile governments.
Wartime reporting typically focuses on troops in combat, civilians in the crossfire or, sometimes, the effect of sanctions. But behind the scenes more decentralized mechanisms are exerting their influence, often based on economic logic. These forces are mostly working against Russia and for Ukraine.
Sometimes yesterday’s crazy idea turns out to be sane or even essential. For instance, Fischer Black, the late finance economist and co-discoverer of modern options pricing theory, argued that the rate of price inflation will be whatever we think it will be.
Crypto prices are tumbling. By one account, crypto assets have lost about $1.35 trillion globally since November, with some falling in price by 80% or more. Many investors feel a real pinch.
TikTok is now the most popular website in the world, by one measure, and as such its influence on how young people see and think about themselves is attracting ever more attention. I am an economist, so I would like to focus on a considerably more narrow subject: what TikTok’s videos say about how young people see and think about economics.
To envision the future of crypto, I keep trying different analytical tools. This time around the concept of relevance is focality, by which I mean the part of the system at which consumers direct their attention.
“The Beatles: Get Back” documentary, which is my pick for best movie of the year, showcases an underappreciated aspect of Paul McCartney: He’s more than just an artistic genius — he’s one of the greatest managerial talents of the last century.
Is there a gender-based promotion gap? Are there too many women who do well on the job, but are not considered seriously for career advancement?
Economists have gotten a lot wrong over the course of this pandemic, and long before that, but there is one whose ideas have never looked better: Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate who died in 2006.
Why, exactly, is higher inflation so bad? That simple question stands as an embarrassment for the economics profession. We all feel that an inflation rate of 6.2% is undesirable, but we are not very good at explaining why.
Most Americans believe that the economy is getting worse, and economic confidence measures are low. At the same time, as analysts have pointed out, a lot of the economic data look pretty rosy.
The “China shock” was one of the most significant economic events of the last two decades in America. Most of the shock is now over — Chinese imports are competitive with much of the output of U.S. manufacturing, and China has already displaced many U.S. jobs — but there is a new and possibly larger shock on the horizon. Call it “the teleshock.”
In my travels, which thankfully are becoming more frequent again, I increasingly find myself returning to a mystifying question: Why has our advanced, modern and wealthy world ceased building beautiful neighborhoods?
A new strain of Covid-19, more contagious than previous strains, is now circulating in dozens of countries. Other new strains, such as one first detected in South Africa, will almost certainly emerge. Aside from the challenges these mutations pose to public health, they will also be a test of our moral and political principles.
As Bitcoin soared to above $28,000 over the weekend, talk resumed about the promising and dramatic future of cryptocurrency. The chief global strategist of Morgan Stanley Investment Management even suggested that Bitcoin could replace the dollar as a global reserve currency.
