The U.S. Labor Department’s jobs report in February 2020 showed the country’s lowest rate of unemployment in 60 years. Two months later, it showed the highest rate of unemployment in 80 years.
Publications
August 14, 2020
When the world’s first carbon capture facility on a coal-fired power plant came online in Texas in 2017, it was touted as a big step toward transforming the dirtiest fossil fuel into a low-carbon power resource. Now, it’s been labeled “a nightmare for unsuspecting investors” and a “warning sign” for the industry. What happened?
August 13, 2020
On August 13, 2020 Joe Kennedy participated on a panel organized by TPRC 48 regarding efforts to apply stronger antitrust policy to the largest Internet platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
August 13, 2020
Thirty-two state attorneys general have called for applying Bayh-Dole march-in rights on the only widely available therapeutic that has been FDA-approved for emergency use in treating coronavirus. They are wrong on both the facts and the law. As worryingly, their move threatens to undermine an effective environment for U.S. life-sciences innovation.
August 11, 2020
Much of our system for delivering legal rights, disability protection, pensions, and health insurance is built on the traditional employer/employee model in which workers give up control over how and when they work and employers provide both pay and benefits. This model ties workers to their employers and leaves little space for those who do not want to fit into the traditional mold. We need a better system.
August 10, 2020
A new study finds that prior to the war, patenting in counties that received large amounts of OSRD funding had been in line with other counties, but then they diverged significantly, increasing patenting by 30 percent in 1970 relative to other counties.
August 10, 2020
Few policymakers and even fewer pundits or economic analysts understand U.S. competitiveness problems in a way that would lead them to the logical conclusion that a national innovation and competitiveness strategy would count as a viable solution.
August 10, 2020
The Australian government released a draft mandatory code of conduct that would force tech companies like Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for displaying their stories, following in the misguided footsteps of multiple European countries that have attempted similar regulations.
August 10, 2020
There’s a lot of doomsday hype around artificial intelligence in general, and the idea of so-called “killer robots” has been especially controversial. But when it comes to the ethics of these technologies, one can argue that robots actually could be more ethical than human operators.
August 7, 2020
The possible prohibition on U.S. companies selling to Tencent, owner of WeChat, or using its services to sell their own products in China does nothing to protect the security or privacy of Americans. It only harms U.S. companies and jobs.