Brexit’s brilliant political strategist, Dominic Cummings, is now pondering how England shall change, after leaving the EU. My (not particularly original) guess is that the Conservative government will either end up in some kind of perpetual crisis management mode, if Brexit resembleS the worst predictions, or happily use the opportunity of such a momentous change to shape up some of the country’s institutions.
Cummings is certainly one of the men to look at, in the second case. His website is a rather impressive collection of comments and ideas. His mission with his blog is:
This is an interesting way of picturing his own role, though I personally fear that by doing things differently governments always end up doing… more. Limited government is dull, and I miss dullness in politics.
One of Cummings ideas is to set up a British equivalent of Darpa, the agency Mariana Mazzucato credits for being the engine of the US’s “entrepreneurial state”.
Terence Kealy explains here why that is not a great idea. The article is well worth reading and should spark debate, in England and elsewhere.
Terence’s key point: “The indifference of technological growth to different market and to different funding regimes reflects the fact that new technology, even in industry, emerges—unexpectedly perhaps—by competitors contributing to a common pool of knowledge. And the only force that might damage that is, as the USSR showed, the state: if the state pulls researchers out of the market, Moore’s Law will be stymied and we’ll be impoverished.”
READER COMMENTS
Phil H
Feb 17 2020 at 11:59am
Yeesss… slightly weird article to highlight, though, because in the very next paragraph, the author appears to argue that what would really revitalise Britain is closed borders and much more job protection.
I’m also pretty dubious about this claim: “private funding of research and development—which, as the OECD has confirmed, is the only sort of funding that translates into economic growth” Britain’s higher education system has contributed nothing, really? Cambridge, that other university, Kings… nothing? I think something got lost in the analysis there.
Fazal Majid
Feb 17 2020 at 4:00pm
Something like ARPA (before it became DARPA and fossilized) could only happen because it was small and under the radar, like early RAND, early IETF or the Lockheed skunkworks. Once an organization succeeds and becomes visible, it starts attracting bureaucrats and other parasites, and is doomed.
Steve
Feb 17 2020 at 4:11pm
“how England, Scotland, Wales, and N.Ireland shall change, after leaving the EU” surely.
One of Cumming’s first brain hires has just resigned after people read his (publicly expressed) eugenicist opinions about the IQs of black people and forced contraception for the poor. No surprises as these chime pretty well with Cummings and Boris Johnson’s previously published views. Not such an impressive person, just good at winning elections.
Mark Brady
Feb 18 2020 at 2:41am
Unaccustomed as I am to defending Boris Johnson, I must say that I am not aware that Johnson has ever written that the IQs of black people are lower than whites or has ever advocated compulsory contraception for the poor.
Thaomas
Feb 18 2020 at 11:07am
Why was it necessary to leave a free trade zone in order to invest a few billions more in a Darpa?
Mark Brady
Feb 18 2020 at 1:27pm
If by free trade zone you mean the European Union, the brief answer is that the EU is not a free trade zone. It is a highly regulated customs union. One particularly noxious aspect of this customs union is the Common Agricultural Policy, which is the very antithesis of free trade.
Thaomas
Feb 18 2020 at 1:57pm
An imperfect Customs Union. Time will tell if the (U for how much longer?)K will do better (lower import duties/duties levied on its exports of goods and services, less “industrial (including agriculture) policy” freer flows if immigrants) out than in. I strongly doubt it although I hope I’m wrong.
Mark Brady
Feb 19 2020 at 1:59am
And what, pray, would constitute a “perfect” customs union?
IronSig
Feb 19 2020 at 8:06pm
I remember I listened to Russ Roberts interview Mariana Mazzucato while I had a afternoon of winter outdoor chores ahead of me. It lightened my spirits to hear Russ politely ask the questions I was muttering irritably as I chipped ice.
https://www.econtalk.org/mariana-mazzucato-on-the-value-of-everything/
All talks of brain trusts remind me of the failures of intense financial research to beat random walks.
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