By Ross Marchand Surprise—solar panels don’t make great roads. The French government recently learned this the hard way after debuting a $6 million solar road in Normandy in 2016. The road generated about half as much power as expected, and costs exceeded any reasonable expectation for a road…or even a solar panel. An American experiment in solar roads fared similarly. In … [Read more...] about Solar Roads: Another Government-Funded Energy Failure
Technology
A Tale of Two Bubbles: How the Fed Crashed the Tech and the Housing Markets
By Luka Nikolic Since its founding, the Federal Reserve has had a hand in creating some of the largest bubbles in history. When the bank lowers interest rates, there is excess cash in the economy, making it relatively cheap for anyone to borrow. This creates malinvestment in the economy because while not everyone has profitable ideas, many more people can borrow, causing a … [Read more...] about A Tale of Two Bubbles: How the Fed Crashed the Tech and the Housing Markets
Tech Innovators in Tanzania Connect 5,000 Tutors with Students in New Online Platform
By Goodhope Amani The Tanzanian government has announced free education for primary through secondary school, but a quality education remains an intense debate in Tanzanian society. Tech innovators in Tanzania are hoping to improve the quality of education through technology, seizing on the fact that about 45 percent of Tanzanians are now online, and that number is … [Read more...] about Tech Innovators in Tanzania Connect 5,000 Tutors with Students in New Online Platform
What The 15-Hour Work Week Prophets Failed To Account For
By Saul Zimet There is a utopian vision shared by hard workers everywhere: One day we will look back on all our accomplishments and say “at last, the age of respite and luxury has finally arrived!” But as the forecasted luxury manifests all around us, the respite is nowhere in sight. John Maynard Keynes, one of history’s most influential economists, predicted in 1930 that … [Read more...] about What The 15-Hour Work Week Prophets Failed To Account For
Aristophanes, Central Planning, and the Enduring Appeal of Utopian Fantasies
By Sarah Skwire Ludwig von Mises’s essay “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth,” references Aristophanes’ play The Birds and the medieval fantasy of the idyllic and work-free Land of Cockaigne when Mises notes of socialist planners that, Economics as such figures all too sparsely in the glamorous pictures painted by the Utopians. They invariably explain how, … [Read more...] about Aristophanes, Central Planning, and the Enduring Appeal of Utopian Fantasies