Econ 101 is often dismissed as too simplistic. Yet recent events suggest that Econ 101 is underrated. Take the tariff debate: understanding that a tariff is a tax, that prices represent opportunity costs, that a bilateral trade deficit is largely meaningless, that a so-called trade “deficit” is equally a goods …

Here is one extra bit from my chat with Jack Clark of Anthropic: COWEN: For the ongoing AI revolution, what’s the worst age to be? CLARK: Ooh. COWEN: Say the best age is just to have been born if you’re going to live to maybe 130. If you’re very old …

…in recent years…Mississippi has become the fastest-improving school system in the country. You read that right. Mississippi is taking names. In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi. By 2024, only four states had …

In fact, it was the Obama administration that paused funding for high-risk GoF studies in 2014. The ban was lifted by none other than Donald Trump in 2017. At the time, outlets like Scientific American and Science covered the decision, in articles that quoted scientists talking about what could go …

The subtitle of the piece is Investigating Determinants of Preferences for Impartiality in 40 Countries, and the authors are Camila Mont’Alverne, Amy Ross A. Arguedas, Sumitra Badrinathan, Benjamin Toff, Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen.  Here is part of the abstract: This article draws on survey data across 40 markets …

1. The tyranny of last year’s budget. 2. Should Britain have an Exceptional Talent Office? 3. The Pope is AI-pilled.  And what is the tax status of the Pope? 4. China facts of the day: which are the most widespread global restaurant chains? 5. What would an ambitious Australia look …

Numerous empirical studies show a relationship between a drug’s expected market size and the magnitude of research and development investments. Early studies focused on changes to market size resulting from the demographics of disease burden (Acemoglu and Linn 2004) and policy changes influencing market demand (Finkelstein 2004). These findings have …

Now that the dust has settled at least temporarily, a few readers have asked me for comment on the recent clash.  The events are difficult to understand, in part because of rampant misinformation and also because of genuine continuing uncertainty as to what happened. Nonetheless we do know two things: …