economics
Daily Alchemy: Can we make this controversy good?
3d ago“Should Cloudflare charge AI companies for training models on publishers' content?”
Can the economy grow forever on a finite planet?: Cornucopians
The check In 1980, Ehrlich chose five metals and bet they would get scarcer. In 1990, every single one was cheaper. He mailed Simon a check for $576.07 and spent the next three decades explaining why he was still right despite being completely wrong.... Can the economy grow forever on a finite planet?: Degrowth
Underground The Ogallala Aquifer stretches beneath eight American states. It irrigates $20 billion in crops annually. It took the last ice age to fill. In parts of western Kansas, the water table has dropped over 150 feet since 1950. Some wells have gone dry.... The Open Question April 8: How do you determine what something's worth? Hey y'all!
This week's open question: How do you determine what something's worth?
SpaceX is targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion. Bhutan measures success by happiness instead of GDP. Close friends of mine are weighing career ambitions against time with their kids... all of this has me want to think more deeply about how we determine value, and how we as individual people relate to the increasingly diverse and surprising answers to these questions.
- Is it purely subjective? cultural? objective? Something else?
- How much of your psychological need to feel worthwhile do you project out onto the world in the form of desire or judgement of valuations?
- How do you choose how to spend your free time? (and what does this reveal about what you determine is worthy?)
- Are markets intelligent? There's that famous line "In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."
- What's the most important thing in your life that you'd have a hard time putting a price on? (Are you offended if others put a price on it?)
- What does a great society look like that can hold different definitions to this together, while still being coherent?
Love to hear y'all's thoughts
#openquestion
It all depends how one views the world. Since we live in a capitalist society putting a price or a monetary value is how the system thrives and survives. You cannot put a price on love and friendship.... The Open Question April 8: How do you determine what something's worth?
Hey y'all! This week's open question: How do you determine what something's worth? SpaceX is targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion. Bhutan measures success by happiness instead of GDP. Close friends of mine are weighing career ambitions against time with their kids...... Why is family structure weakening?: Economic structuralists
The arithmetic Combined student debt: $87,000. Median rent for a two-bedroom: $1,850. Childcare: $12,000 to $22,000 a year. One earns $48,000, the other $55,000. After taxes, debt service, rent, and insurance, they have roughly $1,400 a month for everything else.... Why is family structure weakening?: The Story
Imagine two couples In Searcy, Arkansas — population 24,000, anchored by a Church of Christ university — the marriage rate is roughly double the national average. Median household income is below the state median.... Analysis says that AI added zero to the economy in 2025. Is this alchemy (turning silicon into gold) or the quest for unobtanium?
Photo below - when completed, this $2 billion data center near Columbus Ohio will be the world's largest. Google is contemplating a total of 3 data centers at this site alone. Suppose you invested $2 trillion, and made zero profit.... Is climate change a science problem, an economics problem, a moral problem, or something else?: Moral emergency
One-third of Pakistan In 2022, flooding submerged one-third of Pakistan. Thirty-three million displaced. Over 1,700 dead. Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent of global emissions. The nations most responsible sent aid packages. The aid was a fraction of the damage.... How do you avoid violent redistribution of wealth?: The Story
The shaking off of burdens In 594 BCE, Athens was tearing itself apart. Debt had turned free farmers into serfs. The city elected Solon as archon with extraordinary powers and he did something no ruling class has voluntarily repeated at scale since: he canceled the debts.... Is material abundance actually possible?: Distribution critics
The richest country in history The United States. 37 million in food insecurity. 580,000 sleeping outside on a given night. Infrastructure grade of C-minus from its own engineers. If abundance were a function of productive capacity, the US would have achieved it decades ago.... Is material abundance actually possible?: Post-scarcity theorists
Keynes was half right In 1930, Keynes predicted his grandchildren would work fifteen-hour weeks. He was right about productive capacity. Output per worker-hour in the US has tripled since 1950. The work week has not shortened. The surplus went somewhere. We can tell you where.... Is material abundance actually possible?: The Story
Enough for ten billion In 2023, global agriculture produced enough calories to feed approximately 10.1 billion people. The planet held 8.1 billion. That same year, 735 million people experienced chronic hunger — a number that had risen since 2019.... Does universal basic income actually work?: Conditional pragmatists
The number One thousand dollars a month. 258 million American adults. $3.1 trillion a year. The entire federal discretionary budget in 2024 was $1.7 trillion. Total mandatory spending — Social Security, Medicare, everything — was $3.9 trillion.... Does universal basic income actually work?: UBI advocates
Twenty-seven years of data In 1997, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened a casino and began distributing profits to every enrolled member. $4,000 to $6,000 a year. No strings. No means test. Twenty-seven years later: labor force participation did not decline.... Does universal basic income actually work?: The Story
The experiments that keep succeeding Finland tried it. 2,000 people, two years. Participants were happier, less stressed, slightly more likely to find work. Parliament did not extend the program. Stockton tried it. 125 residents, $500 a month.... Is energy the true currency?: The Story
The forgetting A barrel of oil contains 5.8 million BTUs. A human laborer produces about 0.5 kilowatt-hours per day. One barrel replaces roughly four years of human muscle. A gallon of gasoline costs three dollars. Four years of human labor costs a quarter-million.... What are borders actually for?: Open borders
The trillion-dollar sidewalk In 2013, economist Michael Clemens published a calculation so large it sounded like satire. If borders were open — if people could move to where their labor was most productive — global GDP would increase by 50 to 150 percent.... Why do racial disparities persist?: Institutional path dependency
The compound interest problem Take $24,000 and $188,000. Go back to 1960. Apply the S&P 500’s historical average return to both figures. Compound for sixty-five years. You land within striking distance of the current gap. We are economists.... Why is family structure weakening?: Economic structuralists
The arithmetic Combined student debt: $87,000. Median rent for a two-bedroom: $1,850. Childcare: $12,000 to $22,000 a year. One earns $48,000, the other $55,000. After taxes, debt service, rent, and insurance, they have roughly $1,400 a month for everything else.... Why does wealth keep concentrating?: Austrian school
The Sunday heist On March 15, 2020, the Federal Reserve cut rates to zero and announced unlimited quantitative easing. Within two years, the balance sheet swelled from $4.2 trillion to $9 trillion. The S&P rose 40 percent. Home prices rose 34 percent....