We seem culturally opposed to long-term solutions. Our healthcare system is dramatically underperforming, as is our education system. Perhaps an infusion of targeted incentives would fix things. It hasn’t and won’t. The consequences of climate change and global warming include fires, storms and flooding that are massively destructive. We provide billions of dollars in disaster […]
I am in the middle of reading Rebellion, Rascals and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom Through the Ages (Princeton University Press, 2021) by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod. This delightful volume provides an entertaining history of taxation, which they define as “the extraction of resources by coercive rulers.” This got me thinking about taxation in […]
Just watched this movie this week, after having read many of the books published on the Great Recession, as well as having served on a National Academy study committee of what happened. During this study, I had a chance to chat with the second most senior executive at one of the major banks involved, one […]
Does location matter? It depends on what you are seeking. If economic opportunity is your yardstick, here are some interesting statistics. Greater New York City generated $1.5 trillion in GDP for 2014. Greater Los Angeles provided $0.8 trillion; greater Chicago $0.6 trillion; greater Houston and greater Washington, DC $0.5 trillion each; and greater Dallas, San […]
I am on the homestretch of being in New York City for three years, actually in the bleachers of Hoboken watching the game played by this remarkable city. For over 400 years, it has been an innovation ecosystem embracing change, creativity, and diversity. The only colony without a religious or political agenda, New York City […]
Recently, I went to Kara Schlichting’s lecture, “From Dumps to Glory: City Planning, Coastal Reclamation, and the Rebirth of Flushing Meadow for the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair.” The next morning, I read Russ Buettner’s article in the New York Times, “They Kept a Lower East Side Lot Vacant for Decades.” That afternoon, I went […]
