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 […]

The proposed $420 billion merger between Dominion Energy, mostly of Virginia and NextEra Energy, based primarily in Florida, places a very high value on a sector, utilities, that investors have all but ignored. Yet the two companies are primary energy providers for the AI boom, notably “Data Center Alley” in Loudoun County, Va. If those […]

The Trump administration like its predecessors has tended to favor large corporations in its distribution of government favors. Such an economic system is not capitalism; it is socialism with cronyism attached, less bad than ideologically fanatical socialism, but not by much. Large corporations are not capitalist institutions unless controlled by their founder; the incentives therein […]

C.S. Lewis’s 1938 “Out of the Silent Planet” is a beautiful philosophical science fiction novel in which a traveler voyages from the theologically “silent” planet of Earth to first Mars (Malacandra) and then in a sequel Venus (Perelandra). Our technology has advanced gigantically since 1938, so that colonies on Mars although probably not Venus are […]

The capitalist system works best when willing buyers meet willing sellers and a free-market price is negotiated. In the real world of today, this market mechanism is imperfect. It falls down when governments get involved, with their unlimited funding from taxpayers. It also falls down if huge funds appear with their management’s incentives tied to […]

Fed Chairman-designate Kevin Warsh suffered through his congressional hearings this week and is due to take up his post on May 16, after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s term ends. With his objective of “keeping the Fed in its lane” there is much structural reform he can undertake to remove the Fed from meddling in non-monetary […]