Month: June 2026

Innovative New Goods Can Radically Improve Lives

In my Openness book I argue that the kind of economic growth that matters most is not the greater accumulation of old goods like shoes, but the creation of innovative new goods. The story quoted below gives a case-in-point, documenting how driverless cars radically improve the lives of blind passengers.

(p. A20) Mr. Brunt, 28, was born with a rare eye disorder. He can’t drive himself, and had never experienced the feeling of being alone in a car — until Waymo’s self-driving vehicles started navigating San Francisco’s hilly streets two years ago.

Now Mr. Brunt will occasionally make the hourlong journey across the bay from his home in Solano County, Calif., just to ride in one. “It’s that feeling of independence and actually having the control,” he said. “Being able to play whatever music you want, feeling like you’re in your own car.”

. . .

Claire Stanley, who is legally blind and uses a guide dog, said she had also had to “battle” for Uber and Lyft drivers to pick her up at home in Washington, D.C. When she travels to a city with autonomous ride shares, she and her dog, a yellow Labrador named Tulane, jump into them without a struggle.

“When you don’t have a driver, there’s no driver to say no,” she said.

. . .

On a drizzly day last month, Mr. Brunt was heading to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. He had some trouble finding his Waymo’s precise location, so he pressed a button on the app to play a melody from the car and followed the noise.

He hopped into the passenger seat, and his Spotify account immediately connected to the car’s stereo system, blasting his electronic music.

As the steering wheel began to turn, moving the car onto the road, Mr. Brunt, ready to enjoy the ride, leaned his seat back and fiddled with the temperature until it was set to 70 degrees.

“That feeling of independence is amazing,” he said. “It’s something I never thought I would have growing up.”

For the full story see:

Sonia A. Rao and Rachel Bujalski. “Blind Waymo Users Revel in the Joy of Riding Alone.” The New York Times (Mon., May 25, 2026): A20.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date May 24, 2026, and has the title “Blind Waymo Riders Savor the Solitude of Independence.”)

My Openness book, mentioned in my opening comments, is:

Diamond, Arthur M., Jr. Openness to Creative Destruction: Sustaining Innovative Dynamism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Entrepreneurial Apple Finds Uses for “Defective” Chips “That Might Otherwise Be Thrown Out”

I am currently revising my “Innovative Entrepreneurs Replace Despair with Hope” paper in which I argue that if we unbind entrepreneurs from regulations they will be free to find new uses for labor that is currently unemployed or underemployed. In the paper I present as proof-of-concept, examples where entrepreneurs found uses for the previously useless, such as the startup that uses milkweed floss as insulation in parkas. I just ran across another example, in the passages quoted below, in which Apple has found uses for defective processor chips that previously would have been thrown out.

(p. A1) Apple, long revered for its premium-priced products, has managed to develop a booming business selling cheaper devices when most gadget makers are being hammered by rising costs.

One of its secrets: using chips with slight defects that might otherwise be thrown out.

The strategy is apparent in the technical minutiae of the newly released $599 MacBook Neo, which early data suggest is a hit with customers.

The chip powering the Neo is Apple’s A18 Pro, the same chip first used inside the iPhone 16 Pro two years ago, but with one key difference. The Neo version of the chip has a “5-core” graphics processor, one less than the version inside the 2024 iPhones, indicating that Apple was able to save some of the A18 Pro chips with a defective core for future use.

Defective cores can be disabled, leaving a chip that still functions perfectly well to power different, often cheaper devices—in this case an entry-level laptop instead of a top-of-the-line iPhone.

. . .

(p. A5) “If you can take the stuff that doesn’t meet highest level specs and still use it, you can save money, scrap and time,” says Tim Culpan, a supply-chain analyst who has written about Apple’s Neo chip orders. “Also you can reach a lot more customers you might not otherwise be able to sell to.”

Apple has used its flexibility with its own silicon to develop lower-priced iPhones and computers, many of which have sold well. The Neo is so popular that Apple is running low on leftover chips and has been forced to order new ones, according to people familiar with its supply chain.

. . .

Using chips in the Neo that might otherwise be tossed is one way Apple was able to deliver its first entry-level laptop.

For the full story, see:

Rolfe Winkler and Yang Jie. “Imperfect Chips Power Apple Products, Profits.” The Wall Street Journal (Tues., May 19, 2026): A1 & A5.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date May 17, 2026, and has the title “Apple Is Making Hit Products and High Profits From Imperfect Chips.”)

A working draft of the paper I refer to in my opening comments is:

Diamond, Arthur M., “Innovative Entrepreneurs Replace Despair with Hope” (March 13, 2026). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6412238 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6412238

Seven 2023-2025 Books That Suggest Cutting Regulations

In my “Innovative Entrepreneurs Replace Despair with Hope” paper, I claim to have identified seven books (in addition to the Klein and Thompson book) published from 2023-2025 “that either explicitly advocate, or implicitly imply, that regulations should be cut back.” In revising my paper for possible publication, I need to cut about 5,000 words due to the journal’s article word-limit, so I wrote that I would post the list of seven books here on my blog.

Here is that list (including the Klein and Thompson book).

Caplan, Bryan, and Ady Branzei. 2024. Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation. Washington, DC: Cato Institute.

Dunkelman, Marc J. 2025. Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back. New York: PublicAffairs.

Hamel, Gary, and Michele Zanini. 2025. Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them. Revised & Updated ed: Harvard Business School Press.

Howard, Philip K. 2024. Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society. Garden City, NY: Rodin Books.

Howard, Philip K. 2025. Saving Can-Do: How to Revive the Spirit of America. Garden City, NY: Rodin Books.

Klein, Ezra, and Derek Thompson. 2025. Abundance. New York: Avid Reader Press.

Lam, Barry. 2025. Fewer Rules, Better People: The Case for Discretion. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Potter, Brian. 2025. The Origins of Efficiency. South San Francisco, CA: Stripe Press.

An earlier draft of my “Innovative Entrepreneurs Replace Despair with Hope” paper can be found at:

Diamond, Arthur M., Innovative Entrepreneurs Replace Despair with Hope (March 13, 2026). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6412238 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6412238

Entrepreneurial Innovation Celebrated on Good Morning America!

Sunday morning, June 6, I was shocked to be impressed by a replay of a June 3 report on ABC’s Good Morning America, celebrating entrepreneurial perseverance and optimism. It appears that electric planes will receive regulatory approval to start operations in early fall. Maybe Trump’s deregulation push is allowing faster innovation; innovation that is starting to payoff?

The GMA report is:

“On board the 1st electric plane” https://goodmorningamerica.com/video/133545986 via @GMA

Chicago City Council Ends Increases in Restaurant Worker Minimum Wage

The members of the Chicago city council Democrat “machine” might have ended their support for minimum wage increases because they had enrolled en masse in price theory classes at the University of Chicago. But they did not–they likely still are not able to distinguish a supply curve from a demand curve. But apparently a sufficient number of them are able to open their eyes and admit their mistake when their constituents suffer the negative job consequences of an increasing minimum wage.

(p. A15) Chicago’s distressed dining scene—recently described as “on the brink of collapse”—was bolstered by good news last week, as the City Council voted to halt future increases in the minimum wage for servers and bartenders.

. . .

In the first year after the mayor’s minimum wage hike, new restaurant and tavern licenses—a key indicator of industry health—dropped by more than 8%. The Illinois Restaurant Association reported that nearly 500 restaurants closed in the first half of 2025, and 70% of the restaurants that responded to the association’s poll reported cutting staff or reducing employee hours since the wage hike took effect.

. . . Alderwoman Samantha Nugent, who introduced a proposal to stop further increases in the wage, said her constituents were suffering from the mayor’s good intentions: “I’ve had several restaurants close down,” she said. “I’ve heard from servers, when the tip credit changed in Chicago, their hours were cut.”

For the full commentary, see:

Michael Saltsman. “Chicago’s Minimum-Wage Retreat.” The Wall Street Journal (Mon., March 23, 2026): A15.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the commentary has the date March 22, 2026, and has the same title as the print title.)