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Global demand by cloud vendors, financial institutions, and telecommunication companies for commercially owned and operated data centers is accelerating in recent years. Given this increase in energy supply required to meet US artificial intelligence (AI) technology consumer demand, the paper addresses state-of-the-art traditional data centers and their capacity transition to process AI technologies. Subsequently, the paper explains the potential for small modular (nuclear) reactors—and specifically a subset, micro modular reactors (MMRs)—to generate the increasing energy demanded for AI processing capabilities, including the potential of quantum computing, through 2035 and beyond. Lastly, the paper identifies a primary regulatory policy challenge—the federal regulatory construction review/permitting process—that hinders an environmentally sustainable source of nuclear energy to power such AI data centers and offers policy recommendations to assist in meeting this federal regulatory policy challenge and encourages the deployment of MMR technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining what "industrial policy" is, and correspondingly defining and differentiating "industrial strategy" from this legacy term, is of analytic consequence to understanding what these concepts mean in the current public and business policy debates taking place in the world's developed and developing economies. Of import to these debates, however, is accurately understanding the role of industrial strategy and its symbiotic relevance to industrial policy. In this paper, the author develops a typology allowing the analyst to utilize five key components—governance approach, public research and development investment, public incentives, public disincentives, and industry/sectoral participation—to evaluate the proposed national approach (vertical or horizontal) to industrial strategy. To illustrate this industrial strategy typology, the author uses examples from the People's Republic of China (vertical) and the USA (horizontal). Recent legislation has moved the USA to a balanced approach of vertical and horizontal industrial strategies (incorporating both central planning and market-based approaches). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations Robert Bryce New York: Hachette Book Group, 2020, 322 pp. 'Electricity has transformed humanity like no other form of energy,' [...]

U.S.-based on-site, retail pharmacy chains, such as CVS and Walgreens, and regional pharmacy chains, including Rite Aid, experience intense competition for their core pharmaceutical business from grocery chain pharmacies, major retailer-owned systems, independent pharmacies, and mail order pharmacies. The article first reviews the components of the pharmaceutical industry supply chain, thus establishing the structure of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry; second, it reviews emerging business factors relevant to present and future competition in the retail drug sector; third, analyzes the business and economic factors composing the proposed business models developed by the CVS and Walgreens corporations; and fourth, discusses existing industry strategic behavior and offers recommendations for future retail drug chain business and operating model development. These latter recommendations include developing health care product and service hubs; strategically integrating with provider networks of pharmacy benefit managers and health care insurers; and adopting the latest digital technologies to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. Keywords: artificial intelligence, business model, pharmacy benefit managers, strategic behavior, U.S retail pharmacy industry, value creation, INTRODUCTION In 2018, U.S. health care spending reached $3.6 trillion, or $11,172 per person, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (2019a), U.S. Department of Health and [...]

Competition Overdose: How Free Market Mythology Transformed Us from Citizen Kings to Market Servants Maurice E. Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi New York: HarperCollins, 2020, 421 pp. Is competition always the [...]

Abstract The 'small-dollar loan', or 'payday lending', industry offers a short-term, unsecured lump-sum loan (usually under $500) to U.S. borrowers who promise to repay the loan. Loan pricing has attracted [...]

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control Stuart Russell New York: Viking Press, 2019, 354 pp. Stuart Russell, professor of computer science and the SmithZadeh Chair in Engineering [...]

Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence By Darrell M. West and John R. Allen 277 pp.; Brookings Institution Press, 2020 Artificial intelligence is here. How can society [...]

The Value of Everything Mariana Mazzucato New York: PublicAffairs, 2018, 358 pp. Mariana Mazzucato's The Value of Everything is premised upon her previous research into debunking myths about lone entrepreneurs [...]

The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties Paul Collier New York: HarperCollins, 2018, 248 pp. Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, [...]

The next technological disruption in the banking and financial services sector involves the introduction of a central bank digital currency - or a CBDC. What is a CBDC? In the U.S., a CDBC is defined as a digital liability of the U.S. Federal Reserve System that is widely available to the general public. In this article, the benefits of instituting a CBDC in the U.S. will be assessed, followed by the public and private sector challenges of such technology adoption identified and discussed along economic, political, privacy, and security parameters. The final section of the article develops the research agenda, i.e., the questions that need to be addressed in the development of a potential policy framework, charged with ensuring that, if a CBDC is adopted by the U.S. Federal Reserve, there will be an effective public regulation regime implemented that effectively addresses the identified economic, political, privacy, and security concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free to Choose Medicine, 3rd ed. By Bartley J. Madden 83 pp.; Heartland Institute, 2018 Over a decade ago, Bart Madden unveiled the genesis of his 'Free to Choose Medicine' [...]

Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2017, 278 pp. In the introduction to Capitalism without Capital, economists [...]

The Limits of the Market: The Pendulum between Government and Market Paul De Grauwe New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 165 pp. In the preface to The Limits of the [...]

Occupational licensing reform became a hot-button issue among U.S. policymakers in 2016, and the first half of 2017 saw reform efforts at the federal and state levels. At the federal [...]

Whenever U.S. policymakers and business executives discuss health care, the issue of ever increasing costs quickly arises. And for good reason. According to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family [...]

The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy Gerald F. Davis Oakland: Berrett-Koehler, 2016, 222 pp. In his Introduction to The Vanishing American Corporation, Gerald F. Davis, [...]

In July 2015, the Obama administration released a first-of-its-kind report from any White House: a study on occupational licensing. The report gained significant attention because of the novelty of its [...]

Many Americans, including older adults, lost their jobs and careers in the last recession. More than a half-decade since that recession ended, the national labor force participation rate remains stubbornly [...]