Policy & Economics Archives

Why AI is not as bad as you think

January 9, 2023 by Jason Stearns

With the public release of ChatGPT, AI has caused a lot of excitement as well as a lot of fear. The concern is that AI will take over the world and supplant humans in a variety of jobs. These worries are generally baseless and they ignore the numerous ways that AI might genuinely help humans. … Read more

Normalizing climate change

November 1, 2022 by Jason Stearns

As we approach the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in mid November, there is a lot of coverage about climate change. Most of the reporting has basically come to accept that we will live in a hotter world and that is… okay? This normalization … Read more

What the future looks like

October 3, 2022 by Jason Stearns

A couple years ago I wrote that the future looked positive. Turns out, it did, but not for very long. There were significant improvements in many areas. Unfortunately, inflation has tempered the benefits and now looks to be the reason (excuse?) to slam doors closed. I took the stance that inflation was transitory. I thought … Read more

Lest we forget the horrors

July 4, 2022July 29, 2020 by Jason Stearns

I love data visualizations. I was playing around in R and wanted to create a streamgraph but didn’t really have any data that would lend itself to that type of visualization. Then I came across an article at McSweeney’s and decided to use that. Typically I try to stay away from political topics here, but … Read more

Envisioning a COVID-19 Recovery

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 by Jason Stearns

Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic might seem far off, but be we have to start thinking about it now. The pandemic has upended every facet of life for people around the world and in the US. The US government passed a $2.2 trillion CARES Act to help individuals and businesses weather the immediate impacts of the coronavirus. The Federal Reserve has slashed the federal funds target interest rate and pumped more than $4.5 trillion into the economy through various measures to ensure liquidity, price stability, and all out economic collapse. To say all of this is extraordinary is an understatement.