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31 votes
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How money and banking work (and why they're broken today)
3 votes -
AI, automation, and inequality — how do we reach utopia?
Ok, not utopia per se but a post-scarcity-ish economy where people have their basic needs—food, shelter, healthcare—met virtually automatically. A world where, sure, maybe you have to earn money...
Ok, not utopia per se but a post-scarcity-ish economy where people have their basic needs—food, shelter, healthcare—met virtually automatically. A world where, sure, maybe you have to earn money for certain very scarce luxuries like a tropical island trip, jewelry, nightly wagyu steak dinners, or a penthouse overlooking Central Park, but you get enough basic income to eat healthily and decently every day, have a modest but comfortable home, and not stress out about going to the hospital — and then you can choose if you want to work to earn money to buy additional luxuries or just spend your time to do sports, make art or music, pursue an academic interest, counsel or mentor others in your community, or devote yourself to nature conservation.
I want to get this conversation rolling regularly because it's evident that we're on a cusp of a new economic era — one where AI and automation could free us from a lot of menial physical and intellectual labor and the pretense that everyone has to work to earn their continued existence. It's evident that not everyone has to work. If anything, our economy could be more efficient if incompetent or unmotivated folks just stayed at home and got out of other people's way. I think we all know someone who stays in a job because they need it but are actually a net negative on the organization.
It's an open-ended topic, and there's a lot to talk about in this series—like, how would we distribute the fruits of automation? How would we politically achieve those mechanisms of distribution? What does partially automated healthcare look like?—but I think it'd be good to first talk about current economic inefficiencies that should and could be automated away.
25 votes -
Opinion: Japan is haunted by a return to emerging-economy status
14 votes -
The state as blunt force - impressions of the Columbia campus clearance
11 votes -
GDP per capita vs. the federal poverty rate over the years (observation and discussion)
Fair warning, I'm a dummy trying to talk about stuff I don't fully understand, but I wanted to see others' thoughts on this. In the 1960s, America's GDP (per capita) was $3,000. Also, in 1960, the...
Fair warning, I'm a dummy trying to talk about stuff I don't fully understand, but I wanted to see others' thoughts on this.
In the 1960s, America's GDP (per capita) was $3,000.
Also, in 1960, the federal poverty limit was $3,000 for a family of four.In 2023, the GDP (per capita) was $82,034.
The federal poverty limit for a family of four in 2023 was $30,000.This can't be good for the American people. Unless I'm drawing comparisons between two completely unrelated things?
People who are barely in poverty today would have to earn ~2.7x the amount they earn to stay consistent with those who were barely in poverty in the 1960s if GDP and FPL were still equal to each other. So what about the families caught in the middle? Too high earnings to get help and too low to thrive? They just suffer, I guess.
Out of curiosity, I calculated what the thresholds would be if the percentages of GDP to FPL were swapped between 2023 and 1960.
1960s numbers adjusted if FPL matched 2023's percentage:
GDP=$3,000
FPL=$1,1111960s numbers adjusted if GDP matched the percentage comparison of 2023:
GDP=$8,100
FPL=$3,000Please let me know if it actually matters that the GDP per capita is 2.7x the federal poverty limit for a family of four. Also, let me know your thoughts.
8 votes -
New American military aid for Ukraine - What's in the package and what impact will it have?
12 votes -
The Homo Economicus as a prototype of a psychopath? A conceptual analysis and implications for business research and teaching.
6 votes -
Inflation in times of overlapping emergencies: Systemically significant prices from an input–output perspective
7 votes -
A primer on Bitcoin cross-border flows: Measurement and drivers
2 votes -
How the entire country of Denmark became a company town – economists warn of "Nokia-style" overdependence on a single sector with Ozempic boom
4 votes -
"Debunking Davos and the global elite": The World Economic Forum and its annual meeting
18 votes -
Bank of Canada says the country faces a productivity 'emergency'
17 votes -
Finland's proposed labour reforms risk doing more harm than good
8 votes -
It’s no longer the economy, stupid. America’s hyper-partisan voters express economic sentiments that mirror their politics — this is not true in Europe.
25 votes -
An influential economics forum has a troubling surplus of trolls
18 votes -
Millennium trader scored $40 million windfall in Egypt FX plunge
4 votes -
Europe faces 'competitiveness crisis' as US widens [economic] productivity gap
9 votes -
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem. I’m 33.
27 votes -
Russia is burning up its future
21 votes -
Egyptians are buying and selling gold just to stay afloat
9 votes -
Trumpist US policy document Project 2025 cowritten by anti social security economist Stephen Moore
35 votes -
Abolishing inheritance tax sent Stockholm's startup ecosystem soaring – tax cut could revive Britain's flagging economy
9 votes -
Egypt announces $35bn deal with UAE to buy premium Mediterranean area
11 votes -
Leasing like a state, or: public housing is development policy
7 votes -
Guyana is trying to keep its oil blessing from becoming a curse
16 votes -
(Former Morgan Stanley chair) Stephen Roach: It pains me to say Hong Kong is over
17 votes -
Why do Americans think the economy is bad?
29 votes -
Seismic City by Joanna Dyl: an economic class and political history of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
5 votes -
US jobs growth of 353,000 far outstrips estimates
29 votes -
A shift towards a more sustainable global food system could create up to $10 trillion of benefits a year, improve human health, and ease the climate crisis
17 votes -
Half of recent US inflation due to high corporate profits, report finds
35 votes -
A theory of grift
8 votes -
Why Germany is rich but Germans are poor and angry
35 votes -
The poverty of anti-wokeness
39 votes -
Economist Gabriel Zucman investigates the wealth stored in tax havens (2019)
22 votes -
The economic secret hidden in a tiny, discontinued pasta
46 votes -
In Slovakia, electric vehicles are jeopardizing a successful car industry
10 votes -
Notes on the Ivory Coast
6 votes -
Why we need degrowth
7 votes -
Why does Germany continue to self-destruct?
7 votes -
The McDonald's theory of why everyone thinks the economy sucks
48 votes -
How Olympic curling stones are made
6 votes -
The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas
10 votes -
The region at the heart of Germany’s economic stagnation
6 votes -
Europe's single currency, used daily by about 350 million people, has become a hot topic in an unlikely place – Sweden
12 votes -
Something is golden in the state of Denmark – can Novo Nordisk's success really be a problem for the Danish economy?
8 votes -
It’s official: The era of China’s global dominance is over
22 votes -
Costco capitalism
23 votes -
Is cinema dying? And if so, who is responsible? – A murder mystery
23 votes