Certainly a growing and contentious policy debate on the role and purpose of autonomous robots in the "workplace". The potential of existential challenges to what we understand the "middle-class" to be [ in the context of a 20th Century definition of a "labour-force], coupled with genuine and profound advances in autonomous and now artificial intelligence, gives one a moment [at…
Category Archives Economics
Innovation The term "innovation" has been embedded in Australian public policy discussions for many decades, in many domains of activity, from Education, to Science, Health, Manufacturing, Agriculture and yes, even Mining. We hear this term a lot... Unfortunately, we seem to conflate genuine innovation, [which in my view requires the interdisciplinary approach of many groups, supplemented by visionary legislative and…
This 3D Map Visualizes the U.S. Economy in a New Way The team at howmuch.net built a map to provide a 3D visualization of the GDP growth by US metropolitan areas. The higher the cone rising out of the map, the greater the GDP growth in that area. GDP growth increased 2.3% in 2014 as compared with 1.9% growth in 2013. The industry with…
Yes, think about this for a moment. N. E. G. A. T. I. V. E. spot-price for electricity. Policy, expenditure, loan-term investment; all predicated on an underlying assumption of markets. Beware the paradigm shift...The impossible just happened in Texas http://t.co/lBxA5q4cyK #strandedassets— Bill (@billcoppinger) September 20, 2015LinksUtility Dive - ERCOT prices in to negativeERCOTOriginal Article - Slate.comBusiness Insider
In a small but significant manner, the City of Melbourne, in its City of Melbourne Clean Energy Proposal, has formally affirmed, in a unanimous vote of all eleven councillors; to not directly investing in any fossil fuel or fossil fuel aligned companies into the future. As I have said many times, #strandedassets is and will increasingly become, the primary policy issue confronting…
In Australia inequality increased – but poor people's incomes grew strongly. Our blog: http://t.co/Hwo0712NlPpic.twitter.com/SGfUc08jTU — Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) August 23, 2015 Links Article - Inequality or living standards? Which matters more? Institute for New Economics
Profound economic, social and civil changes have provoked a remarkable series of temporally cogent observations from vastly different actors this week. This highlights the diverse yet converging, social, academic and political recognition at the heart of public-policy challenges in the 21st century. At the CORE of future policy and an inclusive, functioning civil society, is the recognition of the centrality of good governance.…
Two variations-on-a-theme: The first comes from our own Clarke & Dawe. Corey Doctorow reminded me of this earlier in the week. The debt crisis in 2010 https://youtu.be/I5QwKEwo4Bc The second comes from US Senator Elizabeth Warren [ @SenWarren ] speaking at the Re/code conference this past Tuesday. During a question and answer session, a voter asked why politicians aren't building infrastructure or implementing other policy that…
Variations on a theme: Some great work from Amanda Cox at the New York Times looking at US Labour Markets: At every age, the chances of not working have changed in the last 15 years. Teenagers are far more likely not to work. Older people are retiring later and working more. In the ages in between — the periods of…