Clark Center Forum

Over the last couple of weeks, your columnist’s inbox has been filling up each morning with emails about the imminent listing of SpaceX. About two-thirds of those emails have been newsletters from various financial media outlets – Bloomberg, the FT, the WSJ, etc – worrying about changes to the listing and index inclusion rules and […] 

 

This US survey examines (a) Requiring most green card applicants to apply for permanent residency from overseas would lead to a substantial reduction in the numbers of skilled immigrants in the US; (b) Requiring most green card applicants to apply for permanent residency from overseas would have a measurably adverse impact on a substantial number of US businesses 

By many conventional measures, the economy of the United States has been outperforming that of Europe for well over a decade. A simple look at the IMF’s data on GDP growth shows that the US growth has outpaced that of the European Union (EU) in 11 of the last 16 years. Cumulatively, the US economy […] 

This European survey examines (a) Over the past 25 years, the income of the median European citizen has declined substantially relative to the income of the median American citizen; (b) The living standards of the median European are not substantially lower than those of the median American 

Draft legislation, currently before Congress, proposes to award people prepared to give up a kidney – for a stranger – a $50,000 tax credit. As one recent summary explains: About 10,000 people die each year in the United States because they did not receive a kidney transplant in time… The issue isn’t a shortage of […] 

This US survey examines:  There is draft legislation in Congress to increase the supply of human kidneys by encouraging donations to strangers: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2687 ; It is summarized here: https://www.hawaiibusiness.com/bipartisan-bill-aims-to-prevent-kidney-deaths-by-compensating-donors/; (a) Existing matching markets for kidney exchange have extended the lives of thousands of Americans with kidney disease; (b) A one-time $50,000 tax credit for kidney donation to strangers (with the transplants allocated at zero cost to recipients on the basis of waiting times) would save thousands of lives and pay for itself through a reduction in the cost of providing medical care to people suffering from renal failure; (c) Allowing hospitals to pay people for kidney donation to strangers would be at least as effective at saving lives and more cost effective than a tax credit 

Back in 1978, when British television only had three channels, the impact and audience of any individual TV show was much larger than today. One episode of Horizon, a high-profile BBC science show, was large enough that, almost fifty years later, it has its own Wikipedia page. The episode was on a then still new(ish) […] 

This US survey examines (a) Use of artificial intelligence over the next ten years will lead to a substantial increase in the unemployment rates in advanced countries; (b) Use of artificial intelligence over the next ten years will have a negative impact on the earnings potential of substantial numbers of high-skilled workers in advanced countries; (c) Use of artificial intelligence over the next ten years will lead to substantially greater uncertainty about the likely returns to investment in education 

The European Union (EU) is currently conducting a review of its rules around mergers and acquisitions. As ever, this is the sort of thing which is closely watched by corporate law firms (and one cannot walk very far in central Brussels without coming across a legal office). Latham & Watkins, one such firm, has provided […]