A new paper by Robert J. Gordon and Kenneth Ryu “The Mysterious Disappearance of Productivity Growth in US Manufacturing: Was It the China Shock?” shows that annual U.S. manufacturing productivity growth collapsed on a price-adjusted basis from an average of 5.1% in 1987-2005 to 1.6% in 2005-23, due to the outsourcing mania, mostly to China, […]

The Iran peace deal is still a matter of “fingers crossed” that it lasts and is observed, but should it do so, the implications for U.S. politics are profound. The “neocon” faction that has been pushing the United States into Middle East wars for several decades may finally lose influence, and if so, it is […]

The debate over the inclusion of the $1.8 trillion SpaceX IPO in the basis for index funds has drawn a split result – the Nasdaq 100 Index will include it after 15 days, whereas the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index has said it must wait for a year, like other new companies. The two indices […]

AI is the first truly energy-intensive technological advance in over 50 years, because of the huge number of data centers it requires to succeed (though data centers are not especially water-intensive). However, rejecting AI for this reason, or blocking its expansion through innumerable delays and regulations, would be as foolish as rejecting the steel industry […]

It is now over 20 years since I made two recommendations to Noel Coward’s legendary Mrs. Worthington about her daughter’s career options: that she avoid finance (October 2002) and avoid engineering also (July 2005). Those predictions had mixed results, but nevertheless I would venture today to repeat the 2002 one, that she avoid finance, although […]