Scot Wick Blog

  From The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – and Our Response – Will Change the World. Ian Bremmer. 2022. Kindle online sample. Section 1. From introduction: Renowned political scientist Ian Bremmer draws lessons from global challenges of the past 100 years—including the pandemic—to show how we can respond to three great crises unfolding over the next decade. In this revelatory, unnerving, and ultimately hopeful book, Bremmer details how domestic and international conflicts leave us unprepared for A TRIO OF LOOMING CRISES—GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCIES, TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE AI REVOLUTION. … Today, Americans cannot reach consensus on any significant political issue, and US and Chinese leaders behave as if they’re locked in a new Cold War. We are squandering opportunities to meet the challenges that will soon confront us all. In coming years, humanity will face viruses deadlier and more infectious than Covid. INTENSIFYING CLIMATE CHANGE WILL PUT TENS OF MILLIONS OF REFUGE

  New free trade agreement = new production technology First, watch this short video: “Make Progress, Not Work” https://www.youtube.com/watch... … Looking at Table 1 A new free trade agreement allowing more imports causes 10,000 people in the U.S. to lose their jobs, wages lost $500 million, each worker loses $4167 per month. But the new free trade agreement allows 10,000,000 consumers in the U.S. to save money, dollars saved $10 billion, each consumer gains $83 per month. Which group would loudly complain about the situation? Workers. Which group would smile and consider it a nice situation? Consumers. Which group would politicians and the media would focus on? Workers. … Now, substitute “new production technology” for “new free trade agreement.” The effect and results are the same if trade has been increased or a new production technology is implemented. Studies show, of manufacturing jobs lost: 88% are lost due to productivity increases from new technologies 12% are lost due to incr

  From article: Old Fallacies Die Hard: Economic Growth Does Not Cause Inflation. Norbert Michael, Cato. June 9, 2022. In the wonky world of economic policy analysis old fallacies seldom die. Consider the following passage in this week’s Morning Money, discussing the failure of the Fed’s flexible average inflation targeting (FAIT) framework: “The FAIT policy was designed for an economy that doesn’t resemble the pandemic era world—one in which inflation increased based on healthy economic factors, including PLENTIFUL JOBS, BOLSTERED BY ECONOMIC GROWTH, THAT PUSHES UP WAGES AS WELL AS PRICES.” … Whatever the merits of FAIT, the idea healthy economic growth causes inflation is as barmy [crazy] as it is enduring. My colleague George Selgin has been trying to put this delusion to rest for decades. In his 1997 book Less Than Zero he explains the more output an economy generates, the cheaper things tend to get, other things equal. In other words, IF INFLATION IS MORE MONEY CHASING FEWER GOODS

  From The Gardens of Democracy. Eric Liu. 2011. Kindle online sample. Section 2. Our goal in these pages is to push past the one-dimensional, left-right choices of contemporary politics—between more government or less, selfishness and altruism, suffocating collectivism and market fundamentalism—and find orthogonal [right angle] approaches to our challenges. The focus of this book is THE GREAT CHALLENGES OF THIS AGE, TO RETHINK HOW WE AS CITIZENS CREATE CHANGE, HOW THE ECONOMY TRULY WORKS, AND WHAT GOVERNMENT FUNDAMENTALLY IS FOR. … The great challenge of this age is to change how we see, and by so doing, improve our ability to adapt. AT EVERY STAGE IN HISTORY, PEOPLE OPERATE WITHIN A CONSTRUCTED FRAME OF IDEAS, METAPHORS, AND NARRATIVES—and this story frame defines how people think of themselves, what they think is possible in life, and how they think the world works. To put it more pointedly, there is not now and has never been some abstracted social reality “out there.” At every mom

  Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 7 Topics for Further Study Chapter 21 of 36 The Theory of Consumer Choice Section 22 of 25 … Is the idea of a backward-sloping labor-supply curve, supply of labor decreasing as wage goes up, just a theoretical curiosity? Evidence shows the labor-supply curve over long periods does in fact slope backward. A hundred years ago, many people worked six days a week, today five day workweeks are the norm. As the length of the workweek has been falling the hourly wage of the typical worker has been rising. … Economists’ explanation for this historical pattern is: Over time, advances in technology raise workers' productivity and the demand for labor. The increase in labor demand raises equilibrium wages. As wages rise, so does the reward for working. Yet, rather than responding to this increased incentive by working more, most workers instead choose to take part or all of their greater prosperity as more leis

  “The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” -William James “All experience has shown mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” - Thomas Jefferson

  From article Can America Afford to Lead the World? Doug Bandow. Cato Institute. August 2022. How long can the bankrupt American republic attempt to run the world? President Joe Biden is the foreign policy equivalent of an alcoholic. He can’t get enough of U.S. meddling around the world. Although he withdrew American forces from the endless Afghan imbroglio, BIDEN HAS TAKEN THE U.S. INTO A DANGEROUS PROXY WAR AGAINST RUSSIA, announced he is prepared to fight China over Taiwan, and threatened Iran with attack. … Where would he get the money necessary to fight so many conflicts? The U.S. is heading toward national bankruptcy. THIS COURSE WAS FIRMLY SET BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, WHO WENT ON A SPENDING SPREE WITH A GOP CONGRESS. President Barack Obama supported massive expenditures amid the financial crisis. President Donald Trump encouraged Republicans to spend wildly and did little to restrain Democrats after they took control of Congress, especially after the spread of Covid … And s