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Council on Foreign Relations (December 27)

2023/ 12/ 28 by jd in Global News

Development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to proceed at an exponential rate. Its rise “could mirror previous technological revolutions, adding billions of dollars worth of productivity to the global economy while introducing a slew of new risks that could upend the global geopolitical order and the nature of society itself. Managing these risks will be essential, and a global debate over AI governance is raging as major powers such as the United States, China, and European Union (EU) take increasingly divergent approaches toward regulating the technology.”

 

Seeking Alpha (February 13)

2023/ 02/ 14 by jd in Global News

“Bank of America argued Monday that international stocks offer a potential opportunity of outperformance compared to U.S. equities. However, the firm added that investors need to remain ‘choosy’ when selecting positions.” For example, Bank of America favors “regions with the greatest structural advantages, such as strong demographics, energy independence, and high productivity.”

 

Fortune (June 13)

2021/ 06/ 15 by jd in Global News

“Before the pandemic, Japan’s workforce faced longstanding problems, like chronic overwork, low productivity, and too few women. Letting employees work from home may have helped ease all three, in addition to preventing the spread of COVID. But Japan’s failure to more fully adapt means it will likely miss out on the carry-on benefits of remote work that some corporations elsewhere are warming to.”

 

The Economist (September 26)

2020/ 09/ 28 by jd in Global News

“The pandemic could lead governments to prolong the life of many undeserving firms. Keeping the growth of the undead in check will be vital to the long-term economic recovery…. Marginally profitable firms were central to Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s…. Zombie-infested industries suffered from inert labour markets and lower productivity growth. Since then, the rich world as a whole has begun to look more zombified.”

 

The Economist (May 11)

2019/ 05/ 12 by jd in Global News

Companies are really bad at hiring. “Only a third of American companies check whether their recruitment process produces good employees” and obvious flaws in hiring practices are rampant. “Everyone should worry that companies are less rigorous about evaluating the performance of their staff than about the quality of the raw materials they put in their products.” This helps to explain why productivity has been so sluggish.

 

Chicago Tribune (November 26)

2018/ 11/ 28 by jd in Global News

“Global warming is a Midwest crisis in the making.” A just released federal climate change report predicts “sopping rains will damage crops, then heat waves will fry them. Humid conditions will spur the growth of pests and pathogens that will degrade the quality of stored corn or soybeans. Before mid-century… Midwest agricultural productivity will slip back to levels of the 1980s.”

 

New York Times (June 20)

2018/ 06/ 22 by jd in Global News

“The United States should stop the scattershot, pointless nonsense on tariffs and go the other way, and hard: It should drop all tariffs, even if the rest of the world doesn’t follow.” Economists have long “understood that free trade is the best policy. Studies show that countries with freer trade have both higher per-capita incomes and faster rates of productivity growth. Economists have also long understood that barriers to trade, while pitched as a way to help domestic workers, always heavily penalize domestic consumers.”

 

Financial Times (June 13)

2018/ 06/ 15 by jd in Global News

“We live in an age judged to be one of exciting technological change, but our national accounts tell us that productivity is almost stagnant. Is the slowdown or the innovation an illusion?” The truth is we don’t yet know and it might be something else. There might be a measurement error or a lag before big gains from AI and other revolutionary technologies kick in.

 

The Atlantic (April Issue)

2018/ 04/ 01 by jd in Global News

In the 1950s, most “Americans had a favorable opinion of large businesses.” These days, they only hold small businesses in esteem. “A majority of Americans now view large businesses as self-serving and self-dealing.” But these perceptions are based on myths. “Disdain for large businesses exaggerates their malfeasance while misapprehending their vital role in continued American success.” And that leads to more problems. “Feeding off the popular esteem for small business, policy makers are handicapping Big Business—in the process lowering productivity, dampening innovation, and hurting U.S. global competitiveness.”

 

The Economist (July 15)

2017/ 07/ 16 by jd in Global News

While it is unlikely to solely account for all of the weakness in productivity plaguing developed countries, “there is a growing belief that the persistence of zombie firms—companies that keep operating despite a poor financial performance—may explain the weak productivity performance of developed economies in recent years.”

 

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