- The Federal Reserve could have a strong voice in bank competition policy, if it wanted to take it. But as long as it never meets a merger it doesn't like …
- Speaking of central banks, they may be at least semi-competent and semi-functional. But they're also semi-disinterested. The more responsibilities they get loaded with, the less likely their competence and functionality are to be aligned with the public good.
- As far as the interests of business are concerned, you have to remember that these interests are intermediated ones. Trade organizations tend not to represent the median member of the group, but rather the most extreme member of the group. (Consider the police unions--most cops are not nearly so bad as to need the protections the unions lobby for.)
Re: “I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Go Back”: Return-to-Office Agita Is Sweeping Silicon Valley:"
Seems like businesses do better with remote WFH. University staff seem to really prefer it too. But once remote working is acceptable, then the institution can draw on staff from anywhere, although at the same time staff can also leave to work anywhere. Should staff in low-cost areas of the US look for higher paid employment in more expensive areas, transferring that income to the low-cost places of work? Would this remote working solve the problem of impoverished areas of the US - as workers need not leave their communities or be forced to pay for more expensive living in growth areas - or will employers exploit that to reduce pay?
Alvin Toffler predicted that electronics would facilitate this mode of work from home back in the 1970s. Maybe after nearly 50 years it is finally going to start happening.
Of course, the other side of the coin becomes: why should tech companies pay a large salary premium (required to live in the Bay Area, for example) when employees are living in much cheaper locations - particularly if someone else living in a cheaper location is more than willing to work for half the inflated Silicon Valley salary?
Hence the offshoring that became common in the 2000s, especially as a fuss was being made of the H1B visas being issued. India became a key provider of those services. Having managed remote (but US) software engineers during that time, I can see that better communications technology would have helped, although Zoom is insufficient, but getting there. We are getting back to Coase's arguments over coordination costs (increased) by independent workers and suppliers. Supposedly there has been some flight of people from California to Texas (gloating by Republicans) but a more recent analysis has suggested this was an illusion). I do recall the offshoring of x-ray analysis to firms in Eastern Europe was a thing, as was/is medical services to India. If doctors in the UK and US can do Zoom meetings with patients, why not shift some of that load to doctors living in cheaper areas, even internationally?
There is a good movie call "Sleep dealer" (IIRC) about remote workers outside the US using telechiric robots to do construction work in the US. Why not remote taxi drivers, and a host of other jobs that require some sort of physical presence (but not high touch)? Of course cyber security will have to be much better than it is now...
". Lagarde shepherded the ECB’s General Council into unanimous agreement on a terse statement about the bank’s policy regime…. It is 18 years since the bank last conducted a strategic review…. All over the world central bankers have been forced to become crisis-fighters."
This seems like life imitating art - in this case, KSR's The Ministry of the Future. Is a blockchain carbon currency next? ;)
A few responses to Brad:
- The Federal Reserve could have a strong voice in bank competition policy, if it wanted to take it. But as long as it never meets a merger it doesn't like …
- Speaking of central banks, they may be at least semi-competent and semi-functional. But they're also semi-disinterested. The more responsibilities they get loaded with, the less likely their competence and functionality are to be aligned with the public good.
- As far as the interests of business are concerned, you have to remember that these interests are intermediated ones. Trade organizations tend not to represent the median member of the group, but rather the most extreme member of the group. (Consider the police unions--most cops are not nearly so bad as to need the protections the unions lobby for.)
Re: “I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Go Back”: Return-to-Office Agita Is Sweeping Silicon Valley:"
Seems like businesses do better with remote WFH. University staff seem to really prefer it too. But once remote working is acceptable, then the institution can draw on staff from anywhere, although at the same time staff can also leave to work anywhere. Should staff in low-cost areas of the US look for higher paid employment in more expensive areas, transferring that income to the low-cost places of work? Would this remote working solve the problem of impoverished areas of the US - as workers need not leave their communities or be forced to pay for more expensive living in growth areas - or will employers exploit that to reduce pay?
Alvin Toffler predicted that electronics would facilitate this mode of work from home back in the 1970s. Maybe after nearly 50 years it is finally going to start happening.
Of course, the other side of the coin becomes: why should tech companies pay a large salary premium (required to live in the Bay Area, for example) when employees are living in much cheaper locations - particularly if someone else living in a cheaper location is more than willing to work for half the inflated Silicon Valley salary?
Hence the offshoring that became common in the 2000s, especially as a fuss was being made of the H1B visas being issued. India became a key provider of those services. Having managed remote (but US) software engineers during that time, I can see that better communications technology would have helped, although Zoom is insufficient, but getting there. We are getting back to Coase's arguments over coordination costs (increased) by independent workers and suppliers. Supposedly there has been some flight of people from California to Texas (gloating by Republicans) but a more recent analysis has suggested this was an illusion). I do recall the offshoring of x-ray analysis to firms in Eastern Europe was a thing, as was/is medical services to India. If doctors in the UK and US can do Zoom meetings with patients, why not shift some of that load to doctors living in cheaper areas, even internationally?
There is a good movie call "Sleep dealer" (IIRC) about remote workers outside the US using telechiric robots to do construction work in the US. Why not remote taxi drivers, and a host of other jobs that require some sort of physical presence (but not high touch)? Of course cyber security will have to be much better than it is now...
". Lagarde shepherded the ECB’s General Council into unanimous agreement on a terse statement about the bank’s policy regime…. It is 18 years since the bank last conducted a strategic review…. All over the world central bankers have been forced to become crisis-fighters."
This seems like life imitating art - in this case, KSR's The Ministry of the Future. Is a blockchain carbon currency next? ;)