Forum for Innovation

Reihan Salam, one of the sharpest policy writers out there, notes that we may want to reconsider how think about human capital. He starts by highlighting the work of NCF Scholar Nick Schulz on “Human Capital in a Global Age,” and then turns to describing a decentralized framework for boosting our stock of human capital. Together with others like Clayton Christensen, Reihan sees customers (not just workers) as being part of the human capital equation, and broader skills, such as being able to search on Google, as part of a new set of ways to create value. 

Will we soon see a Spotify for books? 

Quartz named the 5 “most disruptive technologies of 2012.” Here’s what made the short list:

1. Gestured-based interfaces
2. Augmented-reality
3. Compressed air batteries
4. Autonomous vehicles
5. Inexpensive Internet-enabled devices 

Tim Duy believes that consumer spending “has been vulnerable for many months, and will remain vulnerable for many more,” which helps explain why the Fed is becoming “aggressively dovish.” 

Bret Swanson, one of our own NCF scholars, asks in Forbes, “Does it make sense to govern 21st century computer networks with 20th century phone regulations?” 

Thanks to fear over the fiscal cliff, Neil Irwin writes that “there are clear signs of the business sector holding back: Most notably, equipment and software spending by firms declined in the third quarter for the first time in nearly two years.” 

“17 things I learned from reading every last word of The Economist’s ‘The World in 2013’ issue.”