Finding Better Economic Ideas to Rebuild America
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
I'm not sure. The Japanese tried very hard (remember 5th generation computing?) and failed. However, the idea of the historical analysis is intriguing enough that I have ordered a copy. If I can read fast enough, I will try to report back before the topic has migrated into oblivion.
We certainly need some concrete and philosophical changes. The rentier class cannot continue to siphon of all productivity increases to stash into their private asset accounts, without bringing the world to its knees.
I'll be interested in hearing it.
If you're a Fed whose job is picking winners and you fail there aren't any negative consequences for it.
I think these guys are being selective with history to make their case. There's a role for government in regulation. Government can even encourage certain industries like the $7,500 tax rebates on electric cars but not in deciding who wins and who loses. There's a role for government in financing basic research that leads to breakthroughs.
More often dying dinosaurs use campaign contributions and lobbying to protect their companies and we can agree that is wrong.
If you're an immigrant who lacks money and political connections your startup shouldn't be held back in favor of inferior technology by a Fed trying to pick winners.
It is demonstrable that during the post-war period when the suggested policies were in place was the period when the middle class was ascendant and wealth inequality was lower than today. Contrast with the post-1970s when such policies were progressively abandoned, and the middle class is shrinking, and wealth inequality is rising, and the structure of the economy has changed, notably a decrease in manufacturing and an increase in the financial sector.
Learn some more history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Administration#...
I think thats true in a textbook theoretical sense - but not in practice. There is very little 'hard failure' which causes a VC to lose everything. Their incentive structure is not that dis-similar to a government official. The gov't official has far less upside, for probably similar downside (short-term embarrassment).
Secondly - there are many cases where governments have picked winners - e.g. EU (or EC at the time) choice of 'GSM' as a mobile standard. Of course, we don't know what the counter-factual here is - what would have happened without GSM having being made a Europe-wide standard...
Unlike VCs, governments have other instruments besides direct investment. And they don't need to make a financial return.
The just-published book “Concrete Sewage dynamics,” by University of California-Berkeley professors Brad DeLong and Stephen S. Cohen, needs an expanded sequel -- 900 pages long, with charts, data, theory and an exhaustive list of historical case studies.
The word "sewage" shows up 17 times on that page.
Now I pull up the same article on another computer, and the word "sewage" is absent. I'd been seeing this word in other articles, and wondered if it was some sort of newfangled slang. Now I may have a bigger problem on my hands. Glad I asked.
Looks like I'll be switching this computer over to Linux sooner than I thought.
Update: I am the victim of a harmless prank, perpetrated by my children. How embarrassing that it had to play out on Hacker News.
Whether or not our government actually tries to achieve those goals is another question.