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Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to explain the US deficit and its impact on the economy. Gruber says “there are four options to lowering the deficit. The first is to get inflation under control. Second is to ensure a stable and responsible government. Third, is to decrease spending. And the fourth option is to raise taxes.”
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics “for exploring the impact of technology on economic growth, work that spawned a wider understanding of what drives the expansion of industrial economics,” has died age 99, reports Edward Cowan for The Washington Post. “The strong role of technological progress identified by Dr. Solow contributed to a greater emphasis by governments on higher education and technological research,” writes Cowan.
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, a recipient of the 1987 Nobel Economics Prize who created a theoretical framework for growth theory – the branch of economics “which studies those factors that allow for increased production and improvements in economic welfare” – has died at age 99, reports Mike Feeney for The Boston Globe. “Dr. Solow was as celebrated among economists for who he was as for what he did,” writes Feeney. “His public-spiritedness, lucid writing, and sparkling, often self-deprecating wit made him a much-loved figure.”
Prof. Emeritus Robert M. Solow, a Nobel laureate whose work on economic growth became the model by which economists “came to practice their craft,” has died at age 99, reports Robert D. Hershey Jr., for The New York Times. Solow’s “work demonstrated the power of bringing mathematics to bear on important economic debates and simplifying the analysis by focusing on a small number of variables at a time,” writes Hershey.
Prof. Iván Werning speaks with NPR Planet Money hosts Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Beras about the dollarization of Argentina – an effort being made to address issues within their economy. “One of the big problems of dollarizing is you basically lose the capacity to influence the economy,” says Werning. “So we all hear about the fed in the U.S. lowering rates or raising rates to try and control to minimize recessions. When you dollarize, you give that capacity up.”
Writing for The Hill, Prof. Caitlin Talmadge and Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institute make the case that America’s aims for the war in Ukraine should not be “strategic defeat” of Russia. “The goals, rather, should be stability in Europe and the sustainability of a strong Ukraine, both of which are best served by ending the war sooner rather than later,” they write.
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH reporter Hannah Loss about whether buying or renting a home is a better financial move. “I’m not saying people shouldn’t buy homes,” says Gruber. “I’m just saying that they should do it as a rational economic calculation. They should account for their propensity to save and whether they can handle the uncertainty of homeownership. They shouldn’t do it because their parents said it was a good idea.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with CNBC about the potential impact of AI in the workplace. “I think the incentive in the industry… especially with the idea that you have to dominate the market by becoming the largest players, I think those are not helping because those are making us rush down the easiest road, the lowest resistance path, which is often automation,” says Acemoglu. “I don’t think that is going to get us the kind of aspirations that are articulated where we can make blue collar workers, electricians, nurses, teachers much more capable because we have given them tools to be better workers and to make much higher quality services.”
New research by Prof. Tavneet Suri and Prof. Abhijit Banerjee explores how to most effectively direct cash to low-income households, reports Dylan Matthews for Vox. Suri and Banerjee compare “three groups: short-term basic income recipients (who got the $20 payments for two years), long-term basic income recipients (who get the money for the full 12 years), and lump sum recipients, who got $500 all at once, or roughly the same amount as the short-term basic income group,” writes Matthews. “Suri and Banerjee found that the lump sum group earned more, started more businesses, and spent more on education than the monthly group.”
Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Professors Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson examine what the recent issues at OpenAI mean for the future of artificial intelligence. “Sam Altman’s dismissal and rapid reinstatement as CEO of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, confirms that the future of AI is firmly in the hands of people focused on speed and profits, at the expense of all else,” they write. “This elite will now impose their vision for technology on the rest of humanity. Most of us will not enjoy the consequences.”
Four faculty members from across MIT - Professors Song Han, Simon Johnson, Yoon Kim and Rosalind Picard - speak with Curiosity Stream about the opportunities and risks posed by the rapid advancements in the field of AI. “We do want to think about which human capabilities we treasure,” says Picard. She adds that during the Covid-19 pandemic, “we saw a lot of loss of people's ability to communicate with one another face-to-face when their world moved online. I think we need to be thoughtful and intentional about what we're building with the technology and whether it's diminishing who we are or enhancing it.”
Prof. Adam Berinsky speaks with MSNBC’s Morning Joe about the impact of misinformation on democracy and the upcoming 2024 election. “The larger issue is that there is this climate of distrust,” says Berinsky.
Forbes reporter Nancy Wang spotlights Tara Bishop '97 and Eileen Tanghal '97, co-founders of Black Opal Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on health tech. “Tara and Eileen’s story at Black Opal Ventures is a testament to how diversity and innovation can disrupt traditional landscapes,” writes Wang. “Their pioneering strategies and investments herald a new era for healthcare venture capitalism, where diversity and technology converge to create a more inclusive and impactful future.”
Prof. Emeritus Olivier Blanchard speaks with Robert Armstrong of the Financial Times about inflation, the rise in long yields and the fiscal endgame in the U.S. Blanchard urges regulators to, “have plans for a steady reduction of primary deficits to close to zero. Slow, steady, convincing, credible.”
Prof. Héctor Beltrán speaks with Lily Jamali of Marketplace about his new book, “Code Work: Hacking across the US/México Techno-Borderlands,” which explores the culture of hackathons and entrepreneurship in Mexico. "Ultimately, it’s about difference, thinking about Silicon Valley from Mexico,” says Beltrán. "Also, from a Chicano/Latino perspective, because as I show throughout the book, there’s these connections, tensions, intersections between the Latino community in the U.S., the Latin American community, the Mexican community.”