Policy and Government
George Gilder on the Whisky Politics podcast advocating capitalism, attacking floating currencies and the absence of Internet security architecture, talking about his influential latest book, his 19th, Life After Google.
DCInno, the key node for high tech startups, reports that WalletHub ranks DC and Maryland respectively the third and fourth most business friendly environments for innovation in America.
John Tamny at Forbes.com inveighs against the (often wrong, never in doubt) groupthink of the economics profession.
Bloomberg reports that even as our material circumstances improve the developed world is progressively feeling greater anxiety and alienation. “The people of the world’s richest economies are anxious about everything from money and taxes, to healthcare to pensions — and they’ve little faith in their governments to do anything about it. According to a survey of 22,000 people in 21 OECD countries, there’s a “clear sense of dissatisfaction and injustice” in advanced economies. A majority believe they wouldn’t easily access benefits if needed, less than 20 percent say they get a fair share given the taxes they pay, and in many countries most people feel governments ignore their views.”
Monetary
At National Review, John Fund says Stephen Moore’s nomination to the Fed challenges beltway groupthink.
The Washington Examiner reports Stephen Moore vowed to be an independent voice on the Fed.
Nouriel Roubini, at Project Syndicate, explains why the Fed has taken a dovish turn, with special emphasis on how newly appointed Vice Chair “Clarida is spearheading an internal strategy review to determine whether the Fed should start making up for below-target inflation during recessions and slow recoveries by allowing for above-target inflation during expansionary periods. And though the review is still in its early stages, the Fed already seems to have embraced the idea that inflation should be allowed to exceed 2% without immediately triggering a tightening.”
Spending
Stephen Moore: Here’s why the first ‘Green New Deal’ was a bust.
Regulatory
Supply-side saves the world (again)! Bill McKibbin, at the New York Review of Books, reviewing 2020 Vision: Why You Should See the Fossil Fuel Peak Coming and A New World: The Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation observes that “sun and wind produced just 6 percent of the world’s electric supply, but they made up 45 percent of the growth in supply, and the cost of sun and wind power continues to fall by about 20 percent with each doubling of capacity,” suggesting that “in the next few years, they will represent all the growth. We will then reach peak use of fossil fuels, not because we’re running out of them but because renewables will have become so cheap that anyone needing a new energy supply will likely turn to solar or wind power.”
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore