Allan Meltzer: “Governments have no intrinsic advantage over the private sector in hiring teachers, doctors, nurses, or other professionals, nor any advantage in building schools or hospitals. Rather, they tend to be at a disadvantage, out of lack of expertise, failure to refine their operations, or because they regulate themselves more heavily than the private sector, for example, by requiring regulated firms to hire only unionized workers…. When government runs any system, its employees often find it easy to capture. State officials also tend not to guard taxpayers’ wallets as jealously as if they were their own.” [via CafeHayek]
FT: “Birth rates in the world’s rich economies have more than halved since 1960 to hit a record low, according to a study that urged countries to prepare for a “lower fertility future”. The average number of children per woman across the 38 most industrialised countries has fallen from 3.3 in 1960 to 1.5 in 2022, according to a study by the OECD published [recently]. The fertility rate is now well below the “replacement level” of 2.1 children per woman — at which a country’s population is considered to be stable without immigration — in all the group’s member countries except for Israel. “This decline will change the face of societies, communities and families and potentially have large effects on economic growth and prosperity,” warned the Paris-based organisation.”
Bloomberg: “It’s clear that application makers are laser-focused on building AI tools. What’s less clear is whether anyone is willing to pay for them. New generative features let you craft pitches using Salesforce, summarize your employees’ skills in Workday, create images from prompts in Adobe Inc.’s Photoshop, and automatically draft responses to IT requests in ServiceNow. But a year and a half into AI mania, there isn’t much revenue to show for this work. For most big application software companies, AI-related sales won’t appear on the profit-and-loss statements till next year — or the year after that. In many cases, software companies can’t even decide on how to charge for them. Some are using AI as a pitch for higher-priced subscription tiers, others are selling “generative credits,” and a few others — like Zoom Video Communications Inc. — are just bundling AI features for free.”
WSJ on 50 years of the bar-code revolution: “On June 26, 1974, Sharon Buchanan, a supermarket cashier in Troy, Ohio, made retailing history when she became the first person to ring up a sale by scanning Universal Product Codes, rather than punching keys on a cash register. Fifty years later, we take bar-code scanning for granted. It is the normal way to check out in most stores. The cashier position is one of the most important—and trickiest—in retailing. Cashiers must balance speed, accuracy and security while leaving customers with a positive impression. Innovations at the cashier stand do more than increase productivity or profit. They reflect and shape culture. Before the 19th century, retail cashiers were uncommon if not unknown.”
Ravi Venkatesan: “India’s 65 million MSMEs employ around 25% of the country’s workforce. This sector is a vital job creator and crucial to the health of the economy. However, for micro-enterprises to grow to small enterprises and then medium enterprises and beyond, the cost is almost prohibitive. One of the key factors that is crushing the growth prospects of MSMEs is access to finance…Realising receivables at the right time can enable MSMEs to thrive, expand their operations and in fact, have a better quality of output, leading to the betterment of the sector as a whole. The ripple effect of prompt payments can lead to a movement of mass entrepreneurship, which in turn will lead to further job-creation and the strengthening of our country’s economy.”
