Dana Blankenhorn

Technology Can Whip Inflation Now

Bankers, reporters, and politicians are all focused on inflation right now.

Markets know better.

It’s true prices are rising. Wages are rising, too. Working conditions are even improving. I fail to see a problem here.

But just as some prices rise, other prices fall. Lumber prices have already rolled over. As electric cars begin to roll off lots next year, gas prices should ease.

A generation ago, it was hard to counteract rising commodity prices. Macro analysts are still locked into that mindset.

But now there’s software. Software scales. Software fights inflation with productivity. Clouds also fight inflation, helping scientists and engineers create substitutes for resources.

Democracy Dies Behind a Paywall

 

I saw a tweet last week that got my blood boiling.

It was from a Washington Post columnist to the effect that people should have to pay for news. Paywalls are necessary for the news to exist.

They’re not.

Before the Web was spun, people did pay for newspapers. But the money only covered the cost of distributing the paper. A generation ago you could also buy a bundle of news daily. Today the Post requires a subscription, a monthly or annual fee. Not everyone can afford it. Even for wealthy people, news they don’t pay for doesn’t exist.

Paywalls can be useful. They allow targeting. A paper focused on the entertainment industry only wants people in that industry reading it. Any circulation outside that is wasted. A paywall maintains circulation quality, thus ad rates.

For a broad based news outlet, it’s the opposite. You write for your readers. If all your readers are upper middle-class, that’s who you write for. You may write about the poor but it’s always from the point of view of the wealthy.

Demand Chain

Every reporter worth his laptop is writing about the supply chain. The supply chain is in trouble. The supply chain is broken. Who is to blame for the failure of the supply chain?

The supply chain is fine.

Our economic problem is the demand chain.

In a normal economy people are doing different things at the same time. Some people are cocooning. Some people are running around with kids. Some are planning vacations, and some are buying luxury goods.

For the last two years, this has not been the case. Everyone has been demanding the same things at the same time. We demand bleach. We demand masks. We demand take-out. Now we demand gas. We demand products. We demand to be entertained.