Tim O’Reilly
Markets are not infallible. Government can play a role here, as it did with the Internet, GPS, and the Human Genome Project. And government’s role is not limited just to projects that require coordinated effort beyond the capability of even the largest commercial actors. Government must deal with market failure. This can be the failure of the commons, outright malfeasance by commercial actors, or problems … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Tim O’Reilly | Source: Medium | Subject: Economics
Tim O’Reilly
Because of the demands of financial markets, companies often find short-term advantage in cutting employment, since driving the stock price gives owners a better return than actually employing people to get work done. Eventually “the market” sorts things out (in theory), and corporations are once again able to offer jobs to willing workers. But there is a lot of unnecessary friction.
One of the challenges … [ Read more ]
Content: Quotation | Author: Tim O’Reilly | Source: Medium | Subjects: Economics, Work
Machine Money and People Money
At the outset of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes penned a remarkable economic prognostication: that despite the ominous storm that was then enfolding the world, mankind was in fact on the brink of solving “the economic problem” — that is, the quest for daily subsistence.
The world of his grandchildren — the world of those of us living today — would, “for the first time…be faced with [mankind’s] real, his permanent … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Tim O’Reilly | Source: Medium | Subject: Economics