In 2022, on a bipartisan basis, the U.S. Congress passed the Global Catastrophic Risk Management Act of 2022 requiring the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate an expert assessment of global catastrophic…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | November 13, 2024
The suicide of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III this February is tragic, but should the individuals and business entities behind the generative artificial intelligence product known as Character.AI that allegedly caused…
By Clay Calvert | November 12, 2024
Last week, the Financial Times reported that President-elect Donald Trump is considering appointing an “energy czar,” described as: The new energy tsar role and its powers are not yet finalised, but people familiar with…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | November 12, 2024
This is the fourth presidential election cycle that I’ve worked as a tech policy analyst and it’s easily been my least busy. Normally, a presidential candidate would suggest a crazy…
By Will Rinehart | November 11, 2024
The European Union presents businesses with a complex challenge: They must comply with three major regulatory frameworks that sometimes have conflicting requirements. These frameworks are the General Data Protection Regulation…
By Shane Tews | November 11, 2024
The game of reading political outcomes is more art than science, especially at the national level. Election results turn on hundreds or thousands of policy and campaign margins. There is…
By Jim Harper | November 11, 2024
A minor brouhaha erupted on social media this week when the editor of Scientific American, Laura Helmuth, in a late-night fit of rage, posted profanity-filled and disparaging comments about those who…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | November 8, 2024
While the eyes of much of the country were on Pennsylvania and Georgia last week, the tech community was focused on Cincinnati, where the US Court of Appeals for the…
| November 8, 2024
It’s an all-too-predictable, rinse-and-repeat pattern: (1) A state adopts a statute to protect minors from the social media’s supposedly deleterious effects; (2) the law is challenged on First Amendment grounds; (3) a…
By Clay Calvert | November 7, 2024
Every fall since 2020 I have been teaching energy economics in Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) program. I team teach with my friend Mark Witte, and my…
By Lynne Kiesling | November 7, 2024
What separates the companies that successfully pivot from those that become cautionary tales in business history? How do government regulations either foster or hinder innovation in today’s tech landscape? And…
By Shane Tews | November 7, 2024
Abstract Given the political and public interest in rising industry concentration in developed economies, researchers have been working on uncovering underlying mechanisms and implications. Various causes of concentration have been…
By Mark Jamison | Jakub Tecza | November 6, 2024
The Program on the Economics of Privacy at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School has been looking at empirical evidence around people’s privacy interests. Among their recent presentations was a paper in progress…
By Jim Harper | November 5, 2024
Economist Deirdre McCloskey opens The Narrative of Economic Expertise with an observation that blew me away when I read it as an undergraduate: It is pretty clear that an economist, like a…
By Will Rinehart | November 4, 2024
Much digital ink has been spilled over The Washington Post’s decision to forgo endorsing a presidential candidate this year. The Post frames this as a return to its roots, with owner Jeff Bezos reportedly viewing it…
By Mark Jamison | November 4, 2024