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Wednesday, February 25, 2004 |
 Perhaps the problem with the American economy is that it is a house divided against itself. We think of ourselves as an innovation driven country, fully in support of Pareto's entrepreneurs. In fact, we are largely supporting Pareto's renters (rentiers) in: IP law, health care, taxes, spectrum allocation, and more. The problem is that we are an open economy in a globally competitive system. By protecting renters at the expense of entrepreneurs we make it almost impossible to compete.
9:39:52 AM 
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Virginia defends her article about the new trend towards part-time work and self-employment. She calls them "good" jobs. What she forgets is that these jobs don't have health care. They are gray economy (which often don't pay taxes). They are mercurial in that they don't always produce income. Pensions are non-existant. The list goes on.
Hey, I love the Austrian economists. The creation and destruction of jobs is a fantastic thing. Schumpeter was on track when he coined the term: "creative destruction." However, dynamism in this case is falling short. It is reallocating jobs in an atmosphere of declining global competitiveness as our ~$500 b (and increasing rapidly) trade deficit and falling income levels attest to. The question for me (and hopefully many of you): why is American dynamism/creative destruction falling short? Is it just the only strength of the dollar that makes us uncompetitive or is it something more? Fanaticism in support of concepts like dynamism isn't useful. Dynamism will not cure all ills. Is there something at work here that we can correct? Think!
8:34:52 AM
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More debate on the future of Saudi Oil production. The Saudis say they can maintain current production through the decade (despite the need that they double output in the next decade to keep up with global demand). Other experts think that their production will fall -- which confirms Hubbert's peak. This is going to be a big, big issue over the next decade. Lots of dislocation as 2.5 b people arrive in the developed world and find that oil is too expensive to buy. Of course, falling production is good at controlling global warming. Which, given this Pentagon report (full PDF of the controlled report) on "climate wars" is a good thing.
7:47:50 AM
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Target is slowly joining Walmart on RFIDs. This is great. Keep going. Unfortunately, misguided privacy activists want stores to destroy the tags as you leave the store. RFIDs could be a very powerful way for people to track the goods that they buy. For example: it would be great for insurance purposes (have you ever tried to catelogue your household items before a move?). In this case, the benefits far outweigh any negative privacy issues.
7:22:31 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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