Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Rajesh has a mock-up of a digital dashboard available.  You can see where this is going.  A portal of one.  All data on the desktop.  Simple, easy to customize, and powerful. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 10:56:02 AM    comment []

David Brin on "Attack of the Clones" [Slashdot] 10:54:25 AM    comment []

The Economist is worried about global deflation.  Basically, the ongoing threat of war and high oil prices are acting as a damper on US economic growth.  At the same time, new technologies are enabling rapid growth in productivity and capacity.  This gap, between actual economic activity and potential, could cause pressures that push the US economy into the "Japanese deflationary trap."  The solution of course is to turn away from war and to focus on economic growth and recovery.  It's amazing to me that people aren't more aware of the potentially major damage to the economy this ongoing talk of war is doing.  If we fall into a deflationary trap, the impact on the wealth of the average American in 20 years would be huge (a 40%-70% reduction in potential GDP growth).  To me, and perhaps I am alone on this, a deflationary trap is much scarier than Iraq. ....the future path of inflation depends largely on the size of the output gap. If the level of GDP is below potential (meaning there is spare capacity), inflation can fall and keep falling, even if the economy is growing briskly, until GDP rises back to potential and the negative output gap is eliminated. But if America's growth remains below potential (3-3.5%, according to most economists), the output gap will actually widen, putting even more downward pressure on prices. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 9:24:34 AM    comment []