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Noah Smith

An economist offering optimistic and analytical takes on economics, technology, and geopolitics.

www.noahpinion.blog www.thefp.com
30
articles (90 days)
2
followers

Recent articles

The poverty of anti-tech thought
Some of my colleagues have been led into an intellectual cul-de-sac.
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Banning data centers would blow up the U.S. economy
There's one thing keeping us afloat right now, and people want to get rid of it.
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Are the Democrats going to save us this time?
And if not, what do we do?
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Welcome to the Age of Slopulism
Sometimes bad populist ideas are honest mistakes. Sometimes they are pushed for ideological reasons. The first can be corrected with better information. The second is much harder to stop, writes No...
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The end of the age of heroes
AI will soon be better at math than any human. What does that mean?
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Slopulism is taking over America
Sometimes bad populist ideas are just a mistake; sometimes they're being promoted for ideological reasons.
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Why did South Korean stocks just crash?
The AI boom creates a lot of uncertainty.
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Roundup #85: Most policy is also industrial policy
Trump and science; U.S. national debt; Europe and software; America and trains; China and metal refining; Indian women; Murder
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What will more intelligence actually do for us?
A lot, actually. But it won't look quite like what humans do with our intelligence.
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We asked too much of the American university
Our one remaining functional institution is going downhill.
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Who was the worst monster of the 20th century?
And who is the worst monster of the 21st?
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The UK is a cautionary tale for the U.S.
Learning from Britain's missteps doesn't mean looking down on them.
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America's political economy is pretty bleak right now
We can get some good things done, but major efforts will be difficult with our divided politics.
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Book Review: "Power and Progress"
A timely repost.
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Why I didn't sign the "We Must Act Now" statement (yet)
I'd like to know exactly what the actions are.
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The American suburbs are better than you think
They're not my personal cup of tea, but there are good reasons people like them.
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I have never been working class
Unlike some American elites, I actually understand this fact.
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MAGA's attack on science is even worse than it looks
The engine that powered history's greatest nation is in danger.
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JD Vance's crusade against GDP is wrong and bad
Making Americans poorer won't make our society better.
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No, China did not manage to avoid a crash
But there are still things we can learn from how they manage their macroeconomy.
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The American age was the human age
Reflections on 250 years.
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Stop screeching about immigration, and get smart about it
The culture war is making it impossible for us to deal with declining population.
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Roundup #84: Bears on bikes
Vibecession (or not); AI depolarization; Existential AI risk; Millennials vs. Boomers; Deindustrialization; Russian oil revenue; GLP-1s; AI and jobs
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Will AI make companies outsource more, or less?
Maybe both.
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Europe's resistance to AC is driving it insane
A timely repost, with some updates.
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The Democrats have their own MAGA now
The shape of America's new Left is becoming clearer.
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China is winning the other tech race
They understand the importance of the electric revolution. America, so far, does not.
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Pizza wheels are bad, Japanese toilets are great
So why do Americans use the former and not the latter?
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Does anything I write matter anymore?
Punditry in the age of populism, AI, and monetization.
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Iran is Trump's Katrina
Thoughts on the fallout from the Iran debacle.
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