Dana Blankenhorn

Solar Beyond Subsidies

Think of this as Volume 18, Number 5 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.

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Solar bears are cheering news that renewable energy subsidies are ending.

In fact, investment in renewable projects is down from its peak. But absolute dollars don’t tell the whole story 

The fact is, lower costs for solar and wind mean you get more bang for your buck. You can add more power to the grid with $1 today than you could yesterday, or the day before.

More important, you don’t need subsidies to make the investment any more. Solar and wind are becoming cost-competitive with coal and natural gas in the developed world, and they’re incredible values elsewhere.

The Economics of Moore’s Law

Think of this as Volume 18, Number 4 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.

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Austrian economics is a product of the early 20^th century. Like Marxism, its theories are designed for an Industrial Age.

But that age has been dead for a half-century now.

In 1964, a chemist-turned engineer named Gordon Moore wrote an article for “Electronics” Magazine stating that the number of circuits etched onto a single slice of silicon might double every year or two, for as far in the future as he could see.

What became known as “Moore’s Law” has profound implications for economic theory. As computing has become central to everything, it has produced enormous deflation throughout the economy. Moore’s Law now touches every part of the computing landscape – from storage to radios to the transmission of data. Better and better gets faster and faster.

The Fall of Faith-Based Economics

Think of this as Volume 18, Number 3 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.

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I recently did a piece for TheStreet.com on Austrian economics and, out of modesty, I didn't offer my full view of the matter, because I'm a tech writer.

My view is that Austrian economics, like Karl Marx' communism, is faith-based economics. It ignores economic evidence, its acolytes spending all their time rejecting contrary facts.

They explicitly reject the notion that government can weigh evidence of economic strength or weakness and do anything about it. Thus Austrian economics can never fail. It can only be failed by those too weak to apply it rigorously enough.

Austrian economics stands alongside climate denialism and religious millenialism as one of three pillars of the modern conservative movement. This is what makes conservatism a clear and present danger to democracy in our time. It's at the heart of our present crisis.

Just Google It

Think of this as Volume 18, Number 2 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.

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Google doesn't like seeing its name used as a verb, but that's just too bad.

Because “Googling it” is just so damned easy, and it's something that more of us need to make a habit of.

I can't tell you how often, while on social networks, someone makes a claim that can be easily sustained or (more often) refuted with a quick Google search. I've been making a habit of this since before Google existed. As soon as Yahoo came along, in 1994, I was checking my facts through it, and linking to those facts, “link rot” be damned.

Maybe we should be careful about this, and cautious, but I find most editors brain dead on that score. They reject links to Wikipedia and to competitors' stories. I'm old enough to remember when papers routinely credited competitors for scoops before adding their two cents. Now they refuse to, even though it's much easier to do than it was. It's stupid and selfish.

Human Capital

Think of this as Volume 18, Number 1 of the newsletter I have written weekly since March, 1997. Enjoy.

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Where does growth come from? The answer is always changing.

During the Industrial Revolution capital was mainly financial. It was invested in manufacturing capacity, and infrastructure consisted of roads, ports, and rail for moving vast quantities of raw materials and manufactured goods to markets.

Capital was money, invested in stuff.

The Internet has changed all that. Yes, the Internet has a physical infrastructure. A lot of our debates about its future, in the past, involved the expansion of this physical plant, and how people would pay for it, what they would pay for how many bits.

But fairly quietly, this debate has moved into the background. In 2014, and beyond, we need to change the way we think about all this. Because the key to growth is no longer something you buy, it's something you make.

It's you. And me. It's our kids and grandkids. Human capital now defines human wealth.