Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “…a must-read for serious students of economic policy.” - Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School, and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • “Unintended Consequences offers deep and well-argued analyses on almost every issue.” - The New York Times
  • “…a fresh argument for the productive value of inequality.” - David Autor, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • “…a must-read for serious students of economic policy.” - Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School, and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • “Unintended Consequences represents the most cogent and persuasive analysis of the Financial Crisis to date.” - Andrei Shleifer, 1999 John Bates Clark Medal Winner
  • “There are an amazing number of good ideas and interesting points made in Unintended Consequences. The thinking underlying it, and the obvious depth of understanding of the author, are very impressive.” - Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics; 2004 John Bates Clark Medal
  • “…a comprehensive explanation of the modern economy.” - Julian Robertson, Founder, Tiger Management
  • “A full-throated defense of economic dynamism.” - The Wall Street Journal
  • “…serious thinking for serious thinkers. …a thought-provoking blueprint for growing middle- and working-class incomes.” - Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “Unintended Consequences should be read by anyone who takes for granted the superiority of progressive taxation and has not thought carefully about the trade-offs involved.” - The New Republic
  • “…challenges misconceptions that distort our economic debates.” - Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute
Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

Macro Roundup


Wednesday, March 8, 2023

AI Summary. With expected inflation near 2.5%, a real interest rate of 1.5% to 2%, and some risk and term premium, short-term interest rates would average around 4%, one argument in a debate on the future of interest rates holds. If traditional spreads reassert themselves, longer-term rates would run about 1 percentage point higher, near 5%.

Olivier Blanchard and Larry Summers Peterson Institute for International Economics
Date Posted:

Larry Summers argues over the next decade “short rates will run in the four range on average and longer-term rates if traditional spreads reassert themselves running 100 basis points above that. So, four and five.” @LHSummers @ojblanchard1

Larry Summers argues over the next decade “short rates will run in the four range on average and longer-term rates if...

Will short- and long-term interest rates settle near 4% and 5%?

Core argument: Larry Summers puts his expected value of inflation at 2.5% or a bit higher, citing tail risk of 4% or 5%, and assigns a very low likelihood to inflation running well below 2%.

Larry Summers, "I think today my expected value of inflation would be 2.5 or a bit larger given the tail risk of 4 or 5. And given that, I'd assign a very low likelihood to it being well below two. So, if you take a 1.5% to 2% real rate, a 2.5% inflation rate and some risk and term premium, you're sort of looking at short rates running in the four range on average and longer-term rates if traditional spreads reassert themselves running 100 basis points above that. So, four and five."

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Larry Summers puts his expected value of inflation at 2.5% or a bit higher, citing tail risk of 4% or 5%, and assigns a very low likelihood to inflation running well below 2%.
  2. Combining a 1.5–2% real rate, a 2.5% inflation rate, and some risk and term premium, Summers sees short rates averaging around 4%.
  3. Summers expects longer-term rates to run 100 basis points above short rates if traditional spreads reassert themselves, putting them near 5%.

AI Summary. Women have gained more jobs than men for four straight months and hold more than 49.8% of all nonfarm jobs, with the labor-force recovery most pronounced among mothers of school-age children, whose participation has surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Participation among fathers of school-age children and among women without young children remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Sarah Chaney Cambon and Lauren Weber Wall Street Journal
Date Posted:

The share of mothers with school aged children who are in the labor force is above January 2020 levels, whereas their male counterparts are under the 2020 level. @WSJ

Are women driving the labor force recovery?

Core argument: Women hold more than 49.8% of all U.S. nonfarm jobs after gaining more jobs than men for four straight months, including during January's hiring surge.

Women have gained more jobs than men for four straight months, including in January’s hiring surge, pushing them to hold more than 49.8% of all nonfarm jobs. The recent labor-force recovery has been particularly pronounced among mothers. The share of mothers with school-age children employed or seeking work surpassed January 2020 levels in November. The participation rate among fathers of school-age children retreated at the end of last year and is down from January 2020. Participation among women who don’t have children or who have children age 18 or above also remains depressed, in part reflecting early retirements during the pandemic.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Women hold more than 49.8% of all U.S. nonfarm jobs after gaining more jobs than men for four straight months, including during January's hiring surge.
  2. The share of mothers with school-age children employed or seeking work surpassed its January 2020 level in November, while participation among fathers of school-age children retreated late last year and remains below January 2020.
  3. Labor-force participation among women without children or with children age 18 or above remains depressed, in part reflecting early retirements during the pandemic.

AI Summary. Oil output from the top 10% of wells in the Delaware portion of the Permian basin averaged 15% lower than the best wells drilled several years earlier, and the average well produced 6% less than the prior year, patterns that resemble the production plateaus seen in more mature U.S. shale fields.

Collin Eaton and Benoît Morenne Wall Street Journal
Date Posted:

The rate of increase of shale production is slowing. Domestic oil output last year grew at one-third of the annual average pace seen in shale’s heyday from 2017-2019. @WSJ

The rate of increase of shale production is slowing. Domestic oil output last year grew at one-third of the annual average...

Is declining well productivity signaling a plateau in U.S. shale output?

Core argument: Oil production from the best 10% of wells drilled in the Delaware portion of the Permian averaged 15% lower last year than top 2017 wells, according to data from FLOW Partners LLC.

Recent results out of the Permian, are mimicking the onset of a production plateau that has taken place at other, more mature U.S. shale plays. Oil production from the best 10% of wells drilled in the Delaware portion of the Permian was 15% lower last year, on average, than top 2017 wells, according to data from analytics firm FLOW Partners LLC. Meanwhile, the average well put out 6% less oil than the prior year, according to an analysis of data from analytics firm Novi Labs. Oil production in the U.S. rose from about 7.2 million barrels a day a decade ago to a high of about 13 million barrels a day before the pandemic. But domestic output last year grew at one-third of the annual average pace seen in shale’s heyday from 2017 to 2019, and hasn’t yet caught up with prepandemic levels. The slowdown was mostly because of investor pressure on companies to curtail spending and limit growth in favor of generating higher returns. At the same time, weaker well results in the Delaware basin contributed to flattening output.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Oil production from the best 10% of wells drilled in the Delaware portion of the Permian averaged 15% lower last year than top 2017 wells, according to data from FLOW Partners LLC.
  2. The average Delaware basin well produced 6% less oil than the prior year, according to an analysis of data from Novi Labs, with weaker well results contributing to flattening output.
  3. U.S. oil output rose from about 7.2 million barrels a day a decade ago to a high of about 13 million before the pandemic, but grew last year at one-third the 2017-2019 pace, mostly because of investor pressure to curtail spending.

AI Summary. Private indebtedness fell by roughly 70 percentage points of nominal GDP between 1940 and 1945, driven mainly by a 122% increase in incomes rather than debt reduction. More recently private indebtedness has been flat, as the nominal income surge was large enough to be inflationary but too small to reset private borrowing capacity.

Matt Klein The Overshoot
Date Posted:

.@M_C_Klein speculates that one reason we didn’t see a post pandemic boom was that the current reflation isn’t associated with private sector deleveraging.

Did the recent nominal income surge reduce private indebtedness like wartime reflation?

Core argument: Private indebtedness fell by roughly 70 percentage points of nominal GDP between 1940 and 1945, driven less by debt paydown than by a 122% increase in incomes, which the author argues gave the private sector a clean slate to lever back up for six decades until the global financial crisis.

The wartime reflation worked better because it was so much larger. Recall that private indebtedness fell by roughly 70 percentage points of NGDP between 1940 and 1945. The private debt stock fell somewhat during the war, but the real magic was the 122% increase in incomes. That gave the private sector a clean slate to spend the next six decades levering back up—until the global financial crisis. This time around, private indebtedness has been flat. The nominal income surge that we actually experienced was large enough to be inflationary, but too small to reset private borrowing capacity. Would we have enjoyed more investment and more productivity gains if the private sector had shed its legacy debt constraints? Or would that simply have made inflation even worse by allowing nominal spending to rise even faster relative to real output?

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Private indebtedness fell by roughly 70 percentage points of nominal GDP between 1940 and 1945, driven less by debt paydown than by a 122% increase in incomes, which the author argues gave the private sector a clean slate to lever back up for six decades until the global financial crisis.
  2. Private indebtedness has been flat this time around, and the author argues the nominal income surge was large enough to be inflationary but too small to reset private borrowing capacity.
  3. The author leaves open whether shedding legacy private debt constraints would have delivered more investment and productivity gains or instead worsened inflation by letting nominal spending rise faster relative to real output.

AI Summary. Follow-up probing in household surveys reveals that about one in 10 workers who initially report working for an employer is actually an independent contractor on at least one job, which nearly doubles the estimated independent contractor share of the main-job workforce to roughly 15%. Young, less educated, and lower-hours workers are more likely to be miscoded.

Katharine Abraham, Brad Hershbein, et ak National Bureau of Economic Research
Date Posted:

15% of American workers are independent contractors, according to a Gallup survey that was carefully constructed to avoid data problems that had previously plagued the space. @kgahome @BHershbein @bethtruesdale

Do household surveys undercount the independent contractor workforce?

Core argument: Roughly 1 in 10 workers who initially report working for an employer on one or more jobs is, upon probing, an independent contractor on at least one of those jobs.

We find that, upon probing, roughly one in 10 workers who initially reports working for an employer on one or more jobs (and thus is coded as an employee) is in fact an independent contractor on at least one of those jobs. Incorporating these miscoded workers into estimates of work arrangement on the main job nearly doubles the share who are independent contractors, to about 15 percent of all workers. Young workers, less educated workers, workers of color, multiple-job holders, and those with low hours are more likely to be miscoded. Taking these workers into account substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce. Our research indicates that probing in household surveys to clarify a worker’s employment arrangement and identify all low-hours work is critical for accurately measuring independent contractor work.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Roughly 1 in 10 workers who initially report working for an employer on one or more jobs is, upon probing, an independent contractor on at least one of those jobs.
  2. Incorporating these miscoded workers nearly doubles the share classified as independent contractors on their main job, to about 15 percent of all workers.
  3. Young workers, less educated workers, workers of color, multiple-job holders, and those with low hours are more likely to be miscoded, and accounting for them substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce.

AI Summary. The open world markets that Germany in particular depended on are becoming less open in a more nationalist and fragmented world economy, which is bound to be costly. As the US moves toward interventionist and protectionist industrial policy, similar efforts in Europe would be more national than European, threatening the single market and favoring the best-resourced member states.

Martin Wolf Financial Times
Date Posted:

Over the past decade the EU’s economy has grown more inward facing: exports outside the EU as a share of all exports have declined from 43% in 2014 to 38% in 2022. @martinwolf_

Does a more fragmented world economy threaten Europe's single market?

Core argument: A more nationalist and fragmented world economy is closing the open markets on which Germany in particular depended, a shift that is bound to be costly.

Difficulties are only likely to grow in this more nationalist and more fragmented world economy. The open world markets on which Germany, in particular, depended are becoming less so. That is bound to be costly. Moreover, the US is moving towards an interventionist and protectionist industrial policy. For the EU, such a shift creates existential problems. Similar efforts there are bound to be more national than European. This would threaten the single market and give the whip hand to the member countries with the most resources. Germany will be the best positioned. At the same time, the higher costs of energy in Europe than in the US are a threat to its own heavy industry. (

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. A more nationalist and fragmented world economy is closing the open markets on which Germany in particular depended, a shift that is bound to be costly.
  2. The US move toward interventionist, protectionist industrial policy creates existential problems for the EU, since European responses are bound to be more national than European, threatening the single market.
  3. National industrial policies would give the whip hand to the member states with the most resources, leaving Germany best positioned, while energy costs higher in Europe than in the US threaten European heavy industry.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

AI Summary. American firms retain substantial pricing power, which one analysis argues means profit margins are unlikely to compress soon.

Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal Odd Lots Blog
Date Posted:

Using the example of Coke and Pepsi, Samuel Rines argues that American firms still have a large degree of pricing power suggesting profit margins aren’t going to compress anytime soon. @tracyalloway @TheStalwart

AI Summary. The wage return to cognitive skills has declined, from about 10% higher hourly wages per standard deviation of test score in the 1980s and early 1990s to 4.5% in the 2000s and early 2010s, while returns to a bachelor's degree rose. Social skill-intensive occupations grew as a share of US jobs, with faster real wage growth.

David Deming National Bureau of Economic Research
Date Posted:

The return to cognitive skills has declined since 2000 and there has been rising demand for “social skills.” “Jobs with the most employment and earnings growth are those where both types of skill are required.” @ProfDavidDeming

The return to cognitive skills has declined since 2000 and there has been rising demand for “social skills.” “Jobs with the...

Have returns to cognitive skills fallen while social skills pay more?

Core argument: A one standard deviation increase in Armed Forces Qualifying Test score was associated with roughly 10 percent higher hourly wages in the 1980s and early 1990s but only 4.5 percent in the 2000s and early 2010s.

The return to cognitive skills has declined since 2000. A one standard deviation increase in the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) score – a widely-used measure of cognitive skill – was associated with about 10 percent higher hourly wages in the 1980s and early 1990s but only 4.5 percent in the 2000s and early 2010s. In contrast, the economic return to a bachelor’s degree increased by 6 percentage points unconditionally and by nearly 15 percentage points after controlling directly for cognitive skills in both waves. What are the implications of the growing importance of social skills for the wage structure? Social skill-intensive occupations grew by nearly 12 percentage points as a share of all jobs in the U.S. economy between 1980 and 2012, and real hourly wages for these jobs grew around 25 percent compared to less than 10 percent for other occupations. This suggests growing relative demand for social skill, and flat or declining demand for cognitive skill. However, because these skills are complements, the jobs with the most employment and earnings growth are those where both types of skill are required. Evidence suggests that cognitive skills and social skills are conceptually distinct and that they work together in non-obvious ways to explain an important recent trend in the wage structure – rising returns to education and social skills, but declining returns to cognitive skills.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. A one standard deviation increase in Armed Forces Qualifying Test score was associated with roughly 10 percent higher hourly wages in the 1980s and early 1990s but only 4.5 percent in the 2000s and early 2010s.
  2. The economic return to a bachelor's degree rose by 6 percentage points unconditionally and by nearly 15 percentage points after controlling for cognitive skills in both waves.
  3. Social skill-intensive occupations grew by nearly 12 percentage points as a share of U.S. jobs between 1980 and 2012, and their real hourly wages grew around 25 percent, compared with less than 10 percent for other occupations.

AI Summary. The US working-age population aged 15 to 64 shrank in 2018 for the first time since at least 1960 and contracted in the two following years, edging up since only on a rebound in international immigration. Experts say the resulting worker deficit could tax growth and trigger a new wave of offshoring.

Shawn Donnan Bloomberg
Date Posted:

Between 2017-2022 the American working age population grew by just 1.7mm people, an 86% decline from growth of 11.9mm between 2000-05. @markets

Does a shrinking working-age population threaten growth and spur offshoring?

Core argument: The US working-age population, those aged 15–64, shrank in 2018 for the first time since at least 1960 and contracted in the two following years as baby boomer retirements picked up and fewer young people entered the labor force.

The ultratight labor market is often treated as a pandemic-driven aberration. But there’s a strong case to be made that it’s really the product of demographic trends that predated, and accelerated with, Covid-19. Experts say that without meaningful government intervention, America’s worker deficit could become a tax on growth and trigger a new wave of offshoring, like the one the Chips and Science Act of 2022 is trying to reverse. The US working-age population shrank in 2018 for the first time since at least 1960, as baby boomer retirements picked up and fewer young people entered the labor force. The cohort, which covers those aged 15 to 64, also contracted in the two years that followed and has edged up since only because of a bounce back in international immigration.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. The US working-age population, those aged 15–64, shrank in 2018 for the first time since at least 1960 and contracted in the two following years as baby boomer retirements picked up and fewer young people entered the labor force.
  2. The US working-age cohort has edged up since its contraction only because of a bounce back in international immigration.
  3. Experts say that absent meaningful government intervention, America's worker deficit could become a tax on growth and trigger a new wave of offshoring of the kind the Chips and Science Act of 2022 aims to reverse.

AI Summary. An analysis of US companies grouped by whether they repurchased shares finds that firms doing buybacks carry lower debt loads on both debt-to-capital and debt-to-earnings measures than firms that do not. The author argues this cross-sectional evidence offers little support for the claim that buybacks are debt-funded.

Aswath Damodaran Musings on Markets
Date Posted:

.@AswathDamodaran notes that firms that buy back stock have lower debt levels than firms that don’t, as measured by both the debt to capital ratio and the debt to EBITDA multiple.

Do companies that buy back stock carry more debt?

Core argument: US companies that repurchased stock in 2022 carried lower debt loads than companies that did not, measured by both debt-to-capital ratios and debt-to-EBITDA multiples, at odds with the claim that debt funds buybacks.

I looked at companies in the US (because this critique seems to be directed primarily at them), broken down by whether they did buybacks in 2022, and then examined debt loads within each group. You can be the judge, using both the debt to capital ratio and the debt to EBITDA multiple, that companies that buy back stock have lower debt loads than companies that don't buy back stock, at odds with the "debts fund buybacks" story. Are there firms that are using debt to buy back stock and putting their survival at risk? Of course, just as there are companies that choose other dysfunctional corporate finance choices. In the cross section, though, there is little evidence that you can point to that buybacks have precipitated a borrowing binge at US companies.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. US companies that repurchased stock in 2022 carried lower debt loads than companies that did not, measured by both debt-to-capital ratios and debt-to-EBITDA multiples, at odds with the claim that debt funds buybacks.
  2. Little cross-sectional evidence indicates that buybacks precipitated a borrowing binge at US companies, though individual firms do use debt to repurchase stock and put their survival at risk.

AI Summary. US share buyback announcements are running at a record pace, but JPMorgan Chase strategists report that more than two-thirds of the $261bn in commitments come from just five companies. Chevron leads with $75bn, followed by Meta Platforms at $40bn, Goldman Sachs at $30bn, and Booking Holdings and Salesforce at $20bn each.

Michael Msika Bloomberg
Date Posted:

Announced buybacks are running at a record pace this year with 2/3 of them driven by five firms. @markets

Are record US buyback announcements concentrated in just a few companies?

Core argument: US buyback announcements are running at a record pace, with more than two-thirds of the $261 billion in commitments concentrated in five companies, according to JPMorgan Chase strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas.

US buyback announcements are running at a record pace this year, though more than two-thirds of the $261 billion in commitments are spread across only five companies, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists. Chevron Corp.’s $75 billion leads the way, followed by Meta Platforms Inc. with $40 billion, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with $30 billion, and Booking Holdings Inc. and Salesforce Inc. with $20 billion each, a team led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas wrote in a note.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. US buyback announcements are running at a record pace, with more than two-thirds of the $261 billion in commitments concentrated in five companies, according to JPMorgan Chase strategists led by Dubravko Lakos-Bujas.
  2. Chevron leads US buyback announcements with $75 billion, followed by Meta Platforms at $40 billion and Goldman Sachs at $30 billion, according to the JPMorgan note.
  3. Booking Holdings and Salesforce each announced $20 billion in buybacks, completing the five firms that account for more than two-thirds of the $261 billion in US repurchase commitments.

AI Summary. Researchers at the University of Rochester report creating a superconductor that operates at 69 degrees Fahrenheit and 145,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, roughly 1/360th of the pressure at Earth's core. The authors say this is about 10 degrees warmer and about 1/1000th the pressure of their earlier material.

Aylin Woodward Wall Street Journal
Date Posted:

Researchers at the University of Rochester report in @Nature that they have created a superconductor that can operate at room temperature, which would have significant implications for batteries and electrical transportation. @WSJ

Researchers at the University of Rochester report in @Nature that they have created a superconductor that can operate at...

Can a superconductor work at room temperature and much lower pressure?

Core argument: University of Rochester researchers report in Nature that their superconductor, dubbed "reddmatter," operates at 69°F and 145,000 psi, roughly 1/360th of the pressure at Earth's core.

A group of researchers at the University of Rochester report that they have created a new superconductor that can operate at room temperature and a much lower pressure than previously discovered superconducting materials. Superconductors demonstrate what physicists call the Meissner effect, when a material expels its magnetic field. If you put a superconductor near a magnet, it will levitate. For the new study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the researchers tweaked their superconductor recipe—adding nitrogen and a rare-earth metal known as lutetium to the hydrogen instead of sulfur and carbon—and once again heated and squeezed it in the diamond anvil cell. They named the resulting material “,” after observing how the material’s hue changed from blue to pink to red as it got compressed. The Rochester lab found that “reddmatter” could exist at 69 degrees Fahrenheit and 145,000 pounds per square inch, or psi, of pressure—about 1/360th of the pressure in Earth’s core. That is about a 10-degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature and a drop to about 1/1000th of pressure compared with its predecessor from 2020.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. University of Rochester researchers report in Nature that their superconductor, dubbed "reddmatter," operates at 69°F and 145,000 psi, roughly 1/360th of the pressure at Earth's core.
  2. The reported conditions represent about a 10°F increase in temperature and roughly 1/1000th of the pressure required by the lab's 2020 predecessor material.
  3. The Rochester researchers changed their recipe by adding nitrogen and the rare-earth metal lutetium to hydrogen instead of sulfur and carbon, then heating and compressing it in a diamond anvil cell.

AI Summary. A claim of superconductivity at everyday temperatures and comparatively low pressures in a lutetium-based material has met resistance within the high-pressure physics community, and the researcher behind it denies all allegations of wrongdoing. He states the paper underwent multiple rounds of peer review over the better part of a year, with raw data shared and published alongside the result.

Charlie Wood and Zack Savitsky Quanta Magazine
Date Posted:

Some researchers are suspect of the new University of Rochester “reddmatter” given previous retractions by the authors; however, others argue @Nature has a rigorous review process. @QuantaMagazine

Some researchers are suspect of the new University of Rochester “reddmatter” given previous retractions by the...

Is a claim of room-temperature superconductivity meeting resistance from physicists?

Core argument: Ranga Dias denies all allegations of wrongdoing and continues working to establish his claim of superconductivity at everyday temperatures and what counts as almost-everyday pressures within the high-pressure physics community.

Dias strongly denies all allegations of wrongdoing and continues to make efforts to rigorously establish his claims of finding superconductivity at everyday temperatures and what counts as almost-everyday pressures in the high-pressure physics community. He stresses that today’s paper describing low-pressure superconductivity in the lutetium material underwent an unusually rigorous peer review process involving multiple rounds of review over the better part of a year. Dias also said that he shared all of his raw data with Nature, and that it will be published alongside the new result. Multiple independent experts voiced confidence in Nature’s ability to make sure that the result was as rigorous as possible.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Ranga Dias denies all allegations of wrongdoing and continues working to establish his claim of superconductivity at everyday temperatures and what counts as almost-everyday pressures within the high-pressure physics community.
  2. Dias says the paper describing low-pressure superconductivity in the lutetium material underwent an unusually rigorous peer review involving multiple rounds of review over the better part of a year.
  3. Dias says he shared all of his raw data with Nature and that it will be published alongside the new result, and multiple independent experts voiced confidence in Nature's ability to ensure the result was as rigorous as possible.

AI Summary. The Netherlands said it plans to restrict exports of some semiconductor manufacturing technology on national security grounds, joining US efforts to limit China's access to advanced chipmaking equipment, and China has formally protested. Dutch equipment maker ASML said the rules would require export licenses for its most advanced immersion DUV lithography systems.

Kawala Xie South China Morning Post
Date Posted:

China has logged a formal complaint with Dutch authorities as the Netherlands, home to ASML, introduces new export restrictions on semiconductor production equipment. @SCMPNews

China has logged a formal complaint with Dutch authorities as the Netherlands, home to ASML, introduces new export...

Will the Netherlands restrict chipmaking equipment exports to China?

Core argument: The Netherlands said it planned to restrict exports of some semiconductor technology on national security grounds, and is set to be the first country to join the US drive to hobble Chinese hi-tech development.

The Netherlands, a key player in chipmaking technology, said it planned to introduce restrictions on exports of some semiconductor technology over national security concerns. Beijing has formally protested against Dutch plans to restrict semiconductor exports, with the Netherlands set to be the first country to join the US drive to hobble Chinese hi-tech development. In a statement, ASML said the new restrictions would require the company to apply for export licenses in order to ship its “most advanced” immersion DUV systems. Plans are also in the works to target other key sectors, such as 5G and artificial intelligence. Washington stopped issuing export licenses for US companies to sell to Huawei in January, moving towards a total ban on doing business with the Chinese tech giant.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. The Netherlands said it planned to restrict exports of some semiconductor technology on national security grounds, and is set to be the first country to join the US drive to hobble Chinese hi-tech development.
  2. ASML said the Dutch restrictions would require the company to apply for export licenses to ship its "most advanced" immersion DUV systems, with plans also in the works to target sectors such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
  3. Beijing formally protested the Dutch plans, while Washington stopped issuing export licenses for US companies to sell to Huawei in January, moving toward a total ban on doing business with the Chinese tech giant.