Project Syndicate
Whether the problem is COVID-19 or climate change, the market on its own will not produce a sufficient quantity of goods – like therapeutic drugs or environmentally sustainable growth – that benefit society. Capitalizing on America’s private-sector dynamism will require the state to create incentives to produce such “social goods.”
Project Syndicate
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that delaying prudent policymaking does not merely result in higher marginal costs down the road. Rather, it puts us on an entirely different trajectory – one that all too easily can end in catastrophe.
Project Syndicate
The power of compound growth has long been recognized as essential to economic development. But in both the COVID-19 pandemic and the slower-moving climate crisis, this same mathematical force is cutting the other way, revealing dangerous shortcomings in how we manage externalities.
Project Syndicate
A $40 carbon dioxide price? Try $100, $200, or possibly more.
Project Syndicate
It would be barking mad to take up smoking simply because an experimental cancer treatment showed some promise on a lab rat
Project Syndicate
The green transition comes with costs; but they are well worth it, and they pale in comparison to the costs of inaction. The ever-falling costs of renewables have not eliminated the politics of climate change. But they certainly have made our choices much easier.
Project Syndicate
If $40/t CO₂ were the "right" price, tax carbon and move on. $40/t isn't the right price. The Exxon-backed tax isn't it.
June 12th, 2020
My Covid-climate thoughts organized in one place, in reverse chronological order
Project Syndicate
Whether the problem is COVID-19 or climate change, the market on its own will not produce a sufficient quantity of goods – like therapeutic drugs or environmentally sustainable growth – that benefit society. Capitalizing on America’s private-sector dynamism will require the state to create incentives to produce such “social goods.”
Project Syndicate
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that delaying prudent policymaking does not merely result in higher marginal costs down the road. Rather, it puts us on an entirely different trajectory – one that all too easily can end in catastrophe.
Project Syndicate
The power of compound growth has long been recognized as essential to economic development. But in both the COVID-19 pandemic and the slower-moving climate crisis, this same mathematical force is cutting the other way, revealing dangerous shortcomings in how we manage externalities.
Project Syndicate
A $40 carbon dioxide price? Try $100, $200, or possibly more.
Project Syndicate
It would be barking mad to take up smoking simply because an experimental cancer treatment showed some promise on a lab rat