Tag: consumer

The false bipartisan narrative on the economy

Today’s bipartisan Cassandra caucus includes Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (“ the rich get richer, while everyone else falls behind ”) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (“ our standard of living has fallen ”) and Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (“ we have been left with an economy and a society no one is happy with ”) and Josh Hawley (“ Over the last several decades, inflation-adjusted wages for the working class have barely budged ”). The caucus says the U.S. economy is primarily producing disappointment, even misery. This narrative is largely false, yet can be self-fulfilling.

Fortunately, Michael R. Strain ’s just-published […]

Sen. Toomey Defends Capitalism

Yesterday afternoon Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) gave an excellent and much-need speech at the Heritage Foundation on capitalism and its right-leaning critics . Toomey maintained a reasonable and respectful manner, but made clear that he thinks that the anti-market measures promoted by self-described nationalists and populists are a mistake and would be a failure if enacted. When it comes to proposals to restrict trade or for government to favor certain industries over others, we need to be clear about what problems such policies would ostensibly be solving. In certain cases, the supposed problems exist mostly in the minds of […]

Four Major Workforce Trends To Watch In 2020

Four Major Workforce Trends To Watch In 2020

According to the Pew Research Center , 35% of the workforce is now made up of millennials, and more and more members of previous generations are retiring. The shrinking of the old guard is being matched by the surge of new blood. Many seasoned professionals are stepping down and taking their mentalities and methodologies with them as ambitious entrepreneurs and leaders are taking center stage, eager to explore exciting ideas and brave new concepts.

From what I’ve seen, many companies are going to have to adjust both their business models and internal practices if they want to not only stay […]

Commercial Objectives in the Age of Automation

Commercial Objectives in the Age of Automation

When I was 17 years old, back in 1971, I sold orange juice near a busy street corner in New York City. My job was to stand out in front of a fruit stand and dispense quarts of OJ from a machine. It was pretty simple: keep the hopper on the top of the machine filled with oranges and keep the supply of quart jars steady. Then, when a customer came by to make a purchase, I filled a quart jar with juice, took the customer’s money and rang up the sale in the cash register.

That was my job, […]

Contra the Skeptics, Trade and Technology Really Do Benefit Most American Workers

Contra the Skeptics, Trade and Technology Really Do Benefit Most American Workers

Figuring out how to help the minority being left behind is policymakers’ most urgent challenge.

As we plunge into another presidential-election year, one key point of contention will be the state of the American worker: Are most Americans getting ahead in today’s increasingly high-tech, globalized economy, or have wages and incomes “stagnated” for middle-class and blue-collar workers?

Progressives on the left and economic nationalists on the right seem to share a common view that most American workers are worse off today than in past decades. Trade and technology, they say, are largely to blame. Their favored policy prescriptions range from […]

The future of global manufacturing

The future of global manufacturing

Today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing technologies including artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and the “internet of things”—often referred to as “Industry 4.0” technologies—are poised to reshape the global manufacturing landscape, with important consequences for the traditional role of manufacturing in economies’ structural transformation, growth, and job creation.

As we explore in our chapter in the just-published book “ Growth in a Time of Change ,” technology is changing the comparative advantages that drive competitiveness. Developing countries’ comparative advantage in low-skill, low-labor-cost production is at risk as routine low-skill tasks are increasingly automated. New technologies are demanding higher-level skills, raising the capital intensity […]

The Autonomous Revolution

The Autonomous Revolution

In the years since I joined Ricochet as an almost charter member, I’ve had close to a dozen books published, including one Business Book of the Year. I’ve never really talked about them on Ricochet, preferring instead to mostly comment on other member’s postings — especially on items relating to the arts. However, last week I published a book that I think might be of interest to my fellow members. Here’s the book .

I’m posting this only because in support of the marketing of the book my co-author (the legendary VC Bill Davidow) and I have been writing a […]

Report: Most business leaders don’t feel prepared for technological change

Report: Most business leaders don't feel prepared for technological change

There is a concerning lack of readiness for technological change within Australian organisations, according to KPMG Digital Delta.

In its 4th Industrial Revolution Benchmark Report , KPMG said most business leaders are unprepared for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and the convergence of the physical, digital and biological worlds.

KPMG Digital Delta surveyed 198 Australian business leaders, gauging their organisations’ uptake and understanding of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA) and the Internet of Things (IoT).Produced in collaboration with global analytics platform, Faethm, it found most Australian business leaders lack a deep understanding or experience with […]

Robotics transforming non-traditional sector

Robotics transforming non-traditional sector

by Darrell Adams, Universal Robots Head of SouthEAst asia and Oceania

Agriculture and fishing industries in Vietnam and Thailand are increasingly turning to technology as cheap and abundant labor, which they long relied on, erodes. Rising wages across other industries have created a labor shortage in these traditional sectors, leading companies to turn to artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and drones.

This development is evident across Southeast Asia, where more sectors, beyond just manufacturing, are transforming through the adoption of new technology.The Philippines has lagged behind its more affluent neighbors in terms of economic and social development for many decades. Those […]

Is Automation Causing Economic Disparity?

Is Automation Causing Economic Disparity?

The utilization of both industrial and service robots has been increasing quickly during the past decade. There is little uncertainty this is leading to changes in income imbalance. Automation replaces tasks recently performed by low-skill labor, however, it likewise makes new tasks, generally more highly talented. Automation clarifies, to some degree, the poor labour market performance of low-talented laborers in cutting edge economies since 2000.

The total level of wages related with jobs that have the technical potential to be automated in the UK is £290 billion every year, which speaks to 33% everything being equal and income from labor […]