What did I learn in October? Let’s start with the bad and then go to the good.

Negative stories (-15):

• Events leading to the current war and refugee disaster in Syria may have been set in motion by the U.S. invasion of Iraq. (-2)
• Drone strikes are not as surgical as we have been led to believe. Also, post-2001 CIA torture was a thing. (-2)
• Herman Daly suggests that zero interest rates cause us to misprice (basically, ignore the costs of) environmental degradation. The only thing worse than zero interest rates is negative interest rates. I continue to puzzle over the links between the money supply, interest rates, natural capital and environmental degradation. I don’t have the puzzle figured out yet. I will let you know as soon as I do. (-1)
• When trees die it makes people sad. (-1)
• The Bank of England warns that ” once climate change becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too late.” (-3)
• The IMF is warning of more slow growth ahead, especially in developing countries. The reasons? “low productivity growth since the crisis, crisis legacies in some advanced economies (high public and private debt, financial sector weakness, low investment), demographic transitions, ongoing adjustment in many emerging markets following the post crisis credit and investment boom, a growth realignment in China—with important cross-border repercussions—and a downturn in commodity prices triggered by weaker demand as well as higher production capacity.” (-2)
• Stephen Hawking is worried about inequality and technological unemployment. Work sharing is one possible way to deal with it. (-1)
• Corrupt Russian officials appear to be selling nuclear materials in Moldova. (-3)

Positive stories (+9):

• Thanks to Pope Francis, Philadelphians got to experience a weekend with no cars, and it was awesome! Norway is a bit ahead of us on this. (+3)
• There is some evidence that Uber is modestly reducing rates of car ownership. (+1)
• Japan might have self-driving taxis as soon as next year. Self-driving shuttle buses are operating right now in a California office park (+1)
• I learned that Norbert Wiener was one of the fathers of modern automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics. He was concerned that his ideas could be misuses, and refused to take corporate or military money to advance them. (+1)
• Viktor Glushkov was a Soviet computer science who developed an idea for a cash-free, computer-controlled economic system. Seriously, it was an interesting idea even though in retrospect things didn’t work out so well for the USSR. There could be some elements we could consider today now that we actually have the computer technology he lacked back then. (+1)
• Elephants seem to have very low rates of cancer. Maybe we could learn their secrets. (+1)
• There may be some hope for a global carbon pricing agreement. (+1)