The Internet has revolutionised the production and dissemination of information. It is a prime example of Hegel’s (and Marx’s) Dialectic at work. Of how quantitative changes lead to qualitative shifts and how technological innovations subvert prevailing social relations of production and distribution, engendering newfangled systems via ‘creative disruption’. Of course, in the midst of any such tumultuous transformation (today just as during the first or the second industrial revolutions), a great deal of inane hype rides on the coattails of real progress. This page is dedicated to articles that, at once, illuminate the progressive potential of the new digital age and expose the hype.
TALKS ON DIGITAL ECONOMIES, THE FUTURE OF MARKETS, MONEY, CORPORATIONS AND DEMOCRATIC POLICIES
- DIGITAL ECONOMIES: Markets, Money and Democratic Politics Revisited – Keynote Speech at the CFA Institute’s 2014 Conference, in Seatttle, entitled THE FUTURE OF MONEY
- On Valve, Spontaneous Order, and the European Crisis: Long interview with Rus Roberts on EconTalk
ON INTERNET’s POLITICAL POTENTIAL
ON BITCOIN
- 2 OCT 2012 – Digital currency: Brave new world or criminal haven? BBC News article quoting me extensively (Or click here for a pdf)
- 22 APR 2013 – Bitcoin and the dangerous fantasy of apolitical money
- 15 FEB 2014 – Bitcoin: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone
- 13 MAR 2014 – On Bitcoin’s potential: Q&A on what Bitcoin can and cannot offer a troubled world
- 13 MAR 2014 – Debating Bitcoin on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live, with Phillip Adans and Andreas Antonopoulos
DIGITAL ECONOMIES (as experienced through the prism of Valve Corporation)
Having spent some time working with a video game company, Valve Corporation, I have distilled some of that experience in the following posts:
- 14 JUN 2012 – It all began with a strange email: The story of how I got involved with Valve Corp.
- 22 JUN 2012 – Arbitrage and Equilibrium in the Team Fortress 2 Economy
- 1 JUL 2012 – To truck, barter and exchange? On the nature of our digital economies
- 3 AUG 2012 – What do we need corporations for and how does Valve’s management structure fit into today’s corporate world?
IN THE PRESS
- Forbes: 15 JUN 2012 – A whole article devoted to my appointment as Chief Economist at Valve Corporation, entitled: The Value of Fun: Valve Software Appoints In-House Economist
- The Washington Post: 28 SEPT 2012 – Interviewed on “The Economics of Video Games”
- The Financial Times: 14 FEB 2013 – “Real lessons from virtual worlds”, interview/article by Amie Tsang
- ABC Radio National, Late Night Live: 13 MAR 2014 – Debating Bitcoin on ABC Late Night Live, with Phillip Adams and Andreas Antonopoulos
- REASON Magazine: 7 MAY 2014 – Interviewed by REASON magazine on virtual worlds and the future of economics
- Le Monde: 15 JUN 2014 – Economic lessons from video game communities – Le Monde
- The Verge: 5 FEB 2013 – Why Amazon wants its own currency
- Forbes: 6 FEB 2013 – Quoted in relation to an article entitled: Jeff Bezos: Currency Manipulator
- Forbes: 17 DEC 2012 – Quoted on labour markets and hierarchies in an entitled: The Play Ethic – A labor movement for millennialsl
- Forbes: 6 JUL 2012 – My views on pure vs impure exchanges, as they manifest themselves in digital economies, were discussed in an article entitled: Virtual World Needs Laissez-faire Economists
- CityLab: 5 SEP 2014 – What Can We Learn From the Wealth of Virtual Nations?