• Week 7: Growth of the surveillance state

    Like many of the other issues discussed over the course of TP1, it is important not to overstate the novelty of our current circumstance.  The ability of the state (and non-state actors) to spy on citizens is hardly a historical … Continued

  • Week 6: Memo to the President

    Every time a new president (or prime minister or CEO) assumes power he or she will receive many unsolicited memos from all quarters in an effort to try to influence them at an early stage.  This is a classic example of … Continued

  • Week 5: Regulation and multinationals

    Concern over the dangers of multinationals is not new.  Read anything on the subject by Ray Vernon (Sovereignty at Bay (1971) Storm over the Multinationals (1977), Beyond Globalism (1989), In the Hurricane’s Eye (1998)) or, more recently, Dani Rodrik (Has Globalization … Continued

  • Week 4: The entrepreneurial society and the entrepreneurial state

    Mariana Mazzucato has deservedly received extensive media coverage and plaudits (e.g., Martin Wolf in the FT or Richard Cooper in Foreign Affairs) for her important 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths.  If you have not read … Continued

  • Week 3: The elusive pursuit of government regulation of technology

    For the past weeks, AT&T had been in advanced merger talks with Time Warner and today (Saturday), AT&T reached a deal for $86 billion. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal broke the story that Apple had been in discussions with … Continued

  • Week 2: Policy windows and links to evidence

    I use the example of the recent agreement to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to raise the question of why policy happens at one time and not another and how action is linked to evidence  The evidence (the underlying science) has not … Continued