World-System Technologies

  23 June 2026  Britain Is Still Deep in the Shadow of Brexit :  Ten years after a slim majority voted to leave the European Union, the economic and political effects of that decision continue to disrupt the United Kingdom. In a prior posts,  I found that (1) The UK is one of the countries ( here ) likely to become a Steady-State Economy  and (2) The 2025 Technological Prosperity Deal between the US and the UK was likely an attempt to head off the steady state. The graphic above shows the effect of Technical Efficiency ( TECHE ) and Technical Productivity ( TECHP ) on growth of the UK Economy ( UK1 ).  Concentrating only on Technical efficiency ( TECHE ) puts the UK economy in Growth-and-Collapse mode, while concentrating on Technical Productivity ( TECHP ) moves the economy toward a Steady State after 2100. The new UK Labor Government, formed after Prime Minister Starmer's resignation , seems to be concentrating on Efficiency in the Public Sector , the...

  There is a debate going on right now (some of it behind paywalls , see below) about how to compare productivity across countries. The debating question is whether Europe ( EU ) has fallen behind the US because of lagging productivity and whether the comparison can even be made given how Technology and Productivity are measured. The issues involve: Measurement , Economic Theory , Economic Models , Forecasting , Growth Mania , the Steady State Economy , Sustainability , Prosperity , Human Development , etc. etc. In this post, I will deal with Measurement. Notes References Bertuzzi, L. (2026)  EU launches major tech push to break US and China dependence European Commission (2025)  The Draghi report on EU Competitiveness Reserve Bank of Australia (2026)  Productivity Nature Editorial  (2025)  End GDP Mania: how the World should really measure Prosperity . Kalman, R. E. (1980) System-Theoretic Critique of Dynamic Economic Models," International Journal of P...

There is a debate going on right now (some of it behind paywalls, see below) about how to compare productivity across countries. The debating question is whether Europe has fallen behind the US because of lagging productivity and whether the comparison can even be made given how Technology and Productivity are measured. This post discusses a different way of measuring productivity and comparing it across countries based on Systems Theory . First, why us this academic debate important? (1) If the investments in Computers and Artificial Intelligence is to make economic sense, it has to increase productivity. How we measure productivity will determine whether the calculation itself makes sense. (2) The Productivity Debate hides a much deeper and more important debate: Productivity measured  conventionally ( q = Q/L , output divided by Labor force) hides a number of feedback effects (to include system dynamics ) that need to be controlled in order to understand what q means (see...

 

  In a prior post on  Theories of Great Depressions , the major input variable to the Systems Model was a "Shock". The shock could just be non-random "innovations" or it could be the outputs of some other system.   Shocks themselves are   "explained" by the Minsky-Kindleberger Framework, diagramed above. During periods of Economic Stability, lending institutions start to expand credit. Expanded credit leads to more Speculation. When some trigger (shock) comes along (e.g., a bank failure, war, etc.) sellers panic sets in which leads to an Economic Crash, implementation of tighter Regulation and a return to Stability.  The Crash can be prevented if Lenders of Last Resort (Central Banks, Governments, or International Institutions such as the IMF) step in to provide liquidity and soak up non-performing assets. The model seems to fit the  1929 Great Depression , the  1997 Asian Financial Crisis , the  2000 Dot-com Bubble , the  2008 Global Financi...