What we’re reading (10/14)
“The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024” (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences). “This year’s laureates in the economic sciences – Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson – have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity. Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why.”
“Acemoglu, Johnson And Robinson Win Nobel Prize For Institutions And Prosperity” (Marginal Revolution). “One interesting aspect of this year’s Nobel is that almost all of AJRs Nobel work is accessible to the public because it has come primarily through popular books rather than papers. The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Why Nations Fail, and the The Narrow Corridor all by Acemoglu and Robinson and Power and Progress by Acemoglu and Johnson are all very readable books aimed squarely at the general public. The books are in many ways deeper and more subtle than the academic work which might have triggered the broader ideas (such as the famous Settler Mortality paper). Many of the key papers such as Reversal of Fortune are also very readable.”
“The Economist Whose Contrarian Streak Has Gotten Attention In Biden And Trump Camps” (Wall Street Journal). “Michael Pettis, a professor of finance at Peking University, has spent two decades in China observing its breakneck economic ascent and its impact around the world. Among his conclusions: He thinks former President Trump’s plan for across-the-board import tariffs isn’t a bad idea. He also says the U.S. should use capital controls to discourage China and other high-saving nations from snapping up treasuries, stocks and other American assets.”
“Anthropic CEO Goes Full Techno-Optimist In 15,000-Word Paean To AI” (TechCrunch). “In broad strokes, Amodei paints a picture of a world in which all AI risks are mitigated, and the tech delivers heretofore unrealized prosperity, social uplift, and abundance. He asserts this isn’t to minimize AI’s downsides — at the start, Amodei takes aim, without naming names, at AI companies overselling and generally propagandizing their tech’s capabilities. But one might argue that the essay leans too far in the techno-utopianist direction, making claims simply unsupported by fact.”
“Prince Harry Says The Smartphone Is ‘Stealing Young People’s Childhood’” (Vanity Fair). “For World Mental Health Day, Prince Harry interviewed a researcher who helped inspire Harry and Meghan Markle’s work on online safety.”
