What We’re Reading
A few good pieces the Collaborative team came across this week …
Grand theories
The main lesson from China’s development is how hard it is to draw ideological lessons from it. Dani Rodrik of Harvard University emphasised China’s constant experimentation, whether in its first export zones or its introduction of market pricing. When policies worked well in one place, they were copied. When they did not, they were discarded. That does not make for a grand new economic theory. But it has made for good economics in practice.
Optimism
If you’re investing for the future, you have to believe that things will get better, but if you’re a realist, you have to understand that things can still get a lot worse.
Scale
One of those things that shouldn’t be surprising but still is:
Today, humanity fabricates 1,000 times more transistors annually than the entire world grows grains of wheat and rice combined. Collectively, all those transistors consume more electricity than the state of California.
Imperfection
Economics:
\*whispers\* yeah it would be economics, basically https://t.co/YfRdJar5K8
— Jodi Beggs (@jodiecongirl) December 15, 2018
Taxes
Bill Gates on how to tax wealthy people:
Enjoy the weekend.