Robin Hanson asked me this question at lunch last week, and due to the general raucousness of the occasion I didn’t get a chance to answer.  So here is my list of recent questions:

1. How much did the British colonial welfare state for Ceylon in the 1930s help that country and its later social indicators?

1b. How much did it matter that Ceylon was a Crown colony and not part of the Raj?

2. Why has Thailand done considerably better than the other major Buddhist economies?

3. Why are there so few liberal or even technocratic voices in Sri Lanka politics?

3b. How is this consistent with Sri Lanka doing so well on so many social indicators?

4. Why does Qatar seem (at least to me) so much more aesthetic than Dubai?

5. What is the correct Straussian reading of all those 2017 Saudi (and other) demands made on Qatar?

6. To what extent will the developments of the next twenty years favor nations with a lot of scale?

7. Ecuador seems to be moving backwards on the political front, including violence, corruption, and electoral problems.  In the smallest number of dimensions possible, why exactly is this happening?

8. What is the equilibrium, given our current trajectory on drug policy and the rising number of drug-related and also opioid deaths?

9. When generative AI models become better and smarter, how many more people will be interested in incorporating them into their workflows?  Or will most of this happen through a complete turnover of companies and institutions, happening much more slowly over time?

10. Music delivery and distribution mechanisms have changed so many times?  But what exactly will or could succeed music streaming?  When it comes to the economics of music, have we reached “the end of history”?

11. What exactly does one learn that is special when traveling to places that are not at all on the cutting edge?

12. Which exactly are the political economy principles governing the allocation of green energy projects in the IRA?

There are more.

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