Technological progress in the last two centuries, and especially in the recent past, has beennothing short of amazing. So why are we so unhappy? Why aren’t we all rich? Why are we sounequal in material success? Why is social unrest just as wrenching as it was in earlier, poorertimes? When Daron Acemoglu speaks, I listen. Well on his way to …

Edited by Laurence B. SiegelApril 2023Special to AJO Vista On February 25, 2023, I heard Mark Mills, a physicist, venture capitalist, and author of The Cloud Revolution, which I reviewed in this space on April 6, 2022, speak at a meeting of the Global Interdependence Center in La Jolla, California.

Should investors build their own portfolios of bonds, or buy shares of bond funds? Is there an economic difference or just one of appearance? Are directly held bonds safer because they mature, and you get your money back? How should one decide? Let’s ask the experts. Their differing views frame the question. Then, I’ll provide my answer. “You get your …

As a long-standing supporter of the “endowment model,” I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high net worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply …

Technological progress in the last two centuries, and especially in the recent past, has been nothing short of amazing. So why are we so unhappy? Why aren’t we all rich? Why are we so unequal in material success? Why is social unrest just as wrenching as it was in poorer times? When Daron Acemoglu speaks, I listen. Well on his …

Joel Kotkin, an urban geographer, demographer, and prolific futurist, argues in a new book that the United States is headed toward “neo-feudalism.” The original feudalism of the Middle Ages bound most individuals into a fixed position in the social hierarchy. Kotkin sees something similar emerging in our future. But his evidence is unconvincing. Rather than feudalism, we are headed toward …

With commentary and an afterword by Fred Mueller. Will artificial general intelligence (AGI) transform the experience of being human, opening up possibilities of knowledge, achievement, and prosperity that we can now barely conceive? Or is AGI an existential threat to humanity, something to be feared and restrictively confined? Erik J. Larson, in a fascinating book entitled The Myth of Artificial …

As a long-standing supporter of the “endowment model,” I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high net worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply …

Should investors build their own portfolios of bonds, or buy shares of bond funds? Is there an economic difference or just one of appearance? Are directly held bonds safer because they mature, and you get your money back? How should one decide? Let’s ask the experts. Their differing views frame the question. Then, I’ll provide my answer. “You get your …

As a long-standing supporter of the endowment model, I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply troubling. What …

Why do most people stop working for pay somewhere between age 62 and 67? Is this optimal? Would people benefit from arrangements that provide more flexibility, allowing those who want to work longer to do so more easily? We believe they would. Relative to our history as human beings, life has gotten unimaginably long. It is not uncommon to live …

Few would disagree that the period from 1870-2010 saw immense technological advancements that improved our quality of life. But, according to Bradford DeLong, far fewer advances lie ahead, and societies should adapt by “slouching” away from a free-market system. He’s wrong on both counts. There are two kinds of economists: those who labor in the fields trying to understand the …

There are two kinds of economists: those who labor in the fields trying to understand the economy better, and those who propose bold sweeping solutions to universally acknowledged problems. (I oversimplify, but not much.) I usually find the first kind fascinating and the latter kind annoying — except when a lively writer and polemicist like Brad DeLong tries to be …

Joel Kotkin, an urban geographer, demographer, and prolific futurist, argues in a new book that the United States is headed toward “neo-feudalism,” where individuals have a fixed position in the social hierarchy, mostly determined by heredity. But his evidence is unconvincing. Rather than feudalism, we are headed toward hyper-capitalism, where each person is an entrepreneur constantly selling his or her …

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”  –Koheleth My favorite of the many brilliant verses in the Wisdom …

Will artificial general intelligence (AGI) transform the experience of being human, opening up possibilities of knowledge, achievement, and prosperity that we can now barely conceive? Or is AGI an existential threat to humanity, something to be feared and restrictively confined? Erik J. Larson, in a fascinating book entitled The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, says “neither.” I agree. AGI, if it …