Paul Romer on culture and technology: lessons for acquisition

December 17, 2018 Eric Lofgren 0

Do you think that the distinction between growth at the frontier and catch up growth is always so well defined? So if you think about China, they seem to have innovations: how quickly they can build things; they have an autocratic government, but they’ve managed to keep reasonable stability and the public on board. Isn’t that kind of innovation like a technological innovation and their growth in a way is at some other frontier rather than being just catch up?

Has $21 trillion gone missing?

December 11, 2018 Eric Lofgren 0

One tip-off is the amount of Ocasio-Cortez’s “accounting errors” is far bigger than the actual Pentagon spending from 1998 to 2015, which was $8.5 trillion. In fact, it’s also far bigger than the amount the government has spent on national security since 1940 and, in all likelihood, in the nation’s history.

A bureaucrat to be crushed: the story of Gordon Rule

December 10, 2018 Eric Lofgren 1

When the company officials had been asked to leave the room, the admiral in charge of shipbuilding told Warner the contractor’s demand for an extra $10‐million on the spot and $4‐million soon afterward was reasonable and ought to be paid. But then a ruddy, expensively but conservatively dressed civilian interrupted. “Admiral,” he said, “over my dead body will you reform that contract and give them $10‐million. This is the goddamnedest thing I ever heard of, a contractor coming in and throwing a piece of paper on the table and saying that to the Navy.”