Collecting notes for a post
2015 looks like 1915 in so many ways.
Fortunately not because of a generation-crushing European war.
But in many ways it looks a lot like the late 1800s, when American humorist and commentator Mark Twain coined the phrase “the Gilded Age.” Then rapid technological change divided the economy into those on the right side of the new disruptive technologies and those on the wrong side. If you designed assembly line machinery, it was a boom. If you made carriages by hand, it was a disaster.
Cross reference: This is similar to W. Arthur Lewis’s 2-speed disarticulated economy. Like the inflation story, this is really about tradeable and non-tradeable goods. The internet makes code (and IP) tradeable in a way that houses in Detroit simply are not, in a way that even cars are not. A car can be manufactured in Detroit for markets anywhere in the planet. But a piece of code written in Fremont, California (or a makeup video recorded in San Mateo) can be traded in a way that has no comparisoin to shipping automobiles or any other manufactured good.
The meaning of tradeable and non-tradeable are evolving in real time.
This has major implications for prices, and consequently how we understand and apply the concepts of inflation and inflation.
References
The Vertigo Years
Talks about how rapid technological change, especially communications technology, disrupted society and left many people feeling unnerved and distressed. Yes, pretty familiar.
Elephants and Economics 