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The Automation Myth April 12, 2022
IN 1963, the Black working-class revolutionist James Boggs wrote of a coming cataclysm in American industrial production. As an autoworker at Chrysler in Detroit, Boggs had an intimate knowledge of the changes introduced on the shop floor and the imp...
The Underside of the ‘Great Resignation’ January 24, 2022
It’s been months now, but hiring managers everywhere are still waiting by their phones. They’ve been told not to worry—the job applicants are coming. Absent workers are just taking some time, right? You know, checking out their options . . ....
The Battle Over the Free Market October 16, 2021
Macroeconomics has come a long way in the last century. We’ve learned a lot about the forces behind growth, productivity, and what makes for effective fiscal and monetary policy. Of course, our understanding has never been complete, and because the e...
'Man Out: Men on the Sidelines of American Life' by Andrew L. Yarrow September 10, 2018
On the renowned HBO TV series “The Sopranos,” James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano often reacted to a perceived softening of American culture and particularly of American men by asking “whatever happened to Gary Cooper, the strong, silent type?” Throughou...
The Myth of a 'Tight Labor Market' August 31, 2018
America’s “tight labor market” is a sham.Yes, the headlines scream, “near record low unemployment.” But many economists of all political persuasions scratch their heads when they see little of the wage growth associated with a genuinely tight labor m...
Mark Mills on 'Work in the Age of Robots' June 20, 2018
RealClearBooks: Let’s start with your book title. I always thought the advent of robots would mean we wouldn’t have to work anymore.Mark P. Mills: Well, a robot is, essentially, just a very complicated and — so far — expensive labor-saving machine. W...
On Technology: This Time It's Not Different June 15, 2018
One of humanity’s oldest pursuits is inventing machines that reduce the labor-hours needed to perform tasks. History offers hundreds of examples, each of which seemed amazing at the time. In the modern age, we have seen the arrival of the automatic w...
