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Ifo Institute: Companies in Germany Doing Little to Protect Against Technical Dependence on the U.S.
MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 12 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 11, 2026:
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Companies in Germany Doing Little to Protect Against Technical Dependence on the U.S.
A good fifth of companies in Germany consider their reliance on digital products and services from US providers to be risky, but have no plans to take any countermeasures, according to a recent survey by the ifo Institute. "Companies know very well where they stand, but take hardly any appropriate action," says Klaus Wohlrabe, Head of Surveys at ifo. "Reasons for that may be that companies shy away from the additional
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MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 12 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 11, 2026:
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Companies in Germany Doing Little to Protect Against Technical Dependence on the U.S.
A good fifth of companies in Germany consider their reliance on digital products and services from US providers to be risky, but have no plans to take any countermeasures, according to a recent survey by the ifo Institute. "Companies know very well where they stand, but take hardly any appropriate action," says Klaus Wohlrabe, Head of Surveys at ifo. "Reasons for that may be that companies shy away from the additionalcosts of this risk provision, and they cannot be certain that suppliers or customers are also willing to take on these investments in digital independence."
Just under 88 percent of companies use products from US providers, and 31 percent consider themselves heavily dependent on them. Of those who see that as a risk, more than four in ten do not want to do anything about it. The survey was prompted by the temporary suspension of access for foreign users to the most powerful AI models from the US provider Anthropic, which the US Department of Commerce had ordered in mid-June and lifted again by the end of June.
The service sector feels the hardest hit, at 39 percent, while construction has been affected the least, at 15 percent. It is striking that the companies most severely affected do not necessarily give the highest assessment of the risk. In advertising and market research, 72 percent of companies consider themselves heavily dependent, but only 51 percent view that as very risky.
When companies want to take action, they look to Europe: Switching to European alternatives is the most frequently cited measure, at 34 percent, followed by diversifying suppliers, at 30 percent. Setting up their own IT infrastructure trails far behind at 18 percent. However, the European Union accounts for less than 5 percent of the global computing capacity recorded for AI applications.
"The willingness to switch is there, but the opportunity to do so is lacking," says ifo President Clemens Fuest. "Europe needs to significantly accelerate the expansion of data centers and energy infrastructure and shorten approval processes from years to months. At the same time, the government should leverage its own buying power: Binding public sector purchase commitments would give European suppliers the planning certainty that scattered private demand fails to provide."
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Publication
2026 Article in Journal
Abhangig, aber gelassen? Wie deutsche Unternehmen ihre Abhangigkeit von US-Digitalanbietern einschatzen
Clemens Fuest, Jonas Hennrich, Klaus Wohlrabe
ifo Schnelldienst digital, 2026, 7, Nr. 12 01-09
Learn more (https://www.ifo.de/en/publications/2026/article-journal/abhaengigkeit-von-us-digitalanbietern)
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Original text here: https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2026-08-11/companies-germany-technical-dependence-united-states
[Category: ThinkTank]
New York Shouldn't Run from the Data Center Future
PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug. 11 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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New York Shouldn't Run from the Data Center Future
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A nineteenth-century cartoon, "The Unrestrained Demon," portrayed a terrifying sight: a skeletal monster racing through a city street, its skull-like head fixed beneath a glowing bulb and its body tangled in overhead wires. A horse lies collapsed in the road. Men are thrown backward. A mother faints before her child. The city looks under attack.
The image did not caution about war, plague or natural disaster. It was warning about the
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PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug. 11 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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New York Shouldn't Run from the Data Center Future
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A nineteenth-century cartoon, "The Unrestrained Demon," portrayed a terrifying sight: a skeletal monster racing through a city street, its skull-like head fixed beneath a glowing bulb and its body tangled in overhead wires. A horse lies collapsed in the road. Men are thrown backward. A mother faints before her child. The city looks under attack.
The image did not caution about war, plague or natural disaster. It was warning about thedangers of electricity. The image captured a familiar instinct: when a powerful new technology arrives, many people first see danger, disorder and loss of control.
Today, the monster is the data center, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has cast herself in the role of hero, arriving just in time to rescue New York by enacting the nation's first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale facilities.
To critics like Hochul, these facilities look like dangerous, alien intrusions on ordinary life: oversized warehouses consuming land, electricity and water for the benefit of large technology companies. But they are not speculative indulgences, according to work done by the Goldwater Institute. They are the physical infrastructure of the digital economy. They support the modern world: AI tools, financial transactions, medical records, supply chains, classrooms, defense systems, cloud backups and the everyday digital services Americans rely on.
The digital economy may feel weightless, but it rests on steel, concrete, fiber, servers, cooling systems and electric power. We can pretend otherwise only because the system usually works too well to notice.
That is why the current debate is so often backward. Critics tally the costs of AI infrastructure while ignoring the value it creates.
The recent rise of artificial intelligence makes that infrastructure even more important. AI is not merely another consumer product or workplace convenience. It is a general-purpose technology that can expand access to knowledge, reduce the cost of complex tasks and give individuals and small firms capabilities that once belonged only to large institutions. That kind of progress requires a physical foundation.
None of this means concerns about electricity, water, land use or local communities should be dismissed. They should be answered - with evidence, markets and clear rules, not moratoriums, retroactive zoning changes and political vetoes dressed up as planning.
The grid challenge is real. But the answer is not to stop data centers. It is to build more energy, improve transmission, incentivize large users pay for the upgrades they require and use prices that reflect scarcity when the grid is under strain.
Data centers have become a convenient scapegoat for rising electricity prices, but the likelier culprit is years of policy choices that made power more expensive and less abundant. Reliable generation was retired before adequate replacements were ready. New supply has been slowed by permitting delays, regulatory barriers and green-energy mandates. A data center may expose those weaknesses, but it did not create them.
Electricity prices are not acts of nature; they are shaped by policy choices, generation constraints and market design. Blaming data centers for the consequences of Green New Deal-style energy mandates will not make power cheaper or more reliable. It will only give politicians an excuse to avoid fixing the system they helped break.
The same is true of water. Modern data centers are increasingly designed to reduce water use through air cooling, closed-loop systems and reclaimed or non-potable sources. Water is not free to operators. It is a cost, and markets create powerful incentives to conserve it. Political rationing is a crude substitute for innovation.
A serious policy framework should begin with a simple presumption: America should welcome the infrastructure of the future unless there is evidence of concrete harm. Projects that meet objective standards should receive predictable approvals. Large-load users should pay their own way. Energy policy should favor abundance and reliability. Privacy and constitutional protections should follow Americans into the digital age.
The alternative is a new Luddism, one that treats every emerging technology as guilty until proven harmless and every infrastructure project as a threat until politics permits it to exist. That path will not stop AI, cloud computing or the digital economy. It will simply move the investment, jobs and infrastructure somewhere else.
Europe offers the warning. For years, much of the continent has approached technology through a politics of suspicion: regulate first, permit slowly, ration energy, elevate process over production and treat scale itself as a danger. The result has not been a more humane technological future. It has been slower growth, fewer global technology champions and a growing dependence on innovations built elsewhere.
America should not copy that mistake. A nation that lets fear dictate its infrastructure policy will still use the tools of the future. It just will not own them, build them or profit from them.
The future will be built. The question is whether America will build it here.
Carl Paulus, PhD, is an author, political historian, and public policy analyst with the Goldwater Institute.
This article originally appeared in The Center Square New York.
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Original text here: https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/new-york-shouldnt-run-from-the-data-center-future/
Hudson Institute Issues Commentary to Wall Street Journal: How to Salvage Science in Fauci's Wake
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Aug. 10, 2026, by distinguished fellow Mike Gallagher to the Wall Street Journal:
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How to Salvage Science in Fauci's Wake
A White House report argues that competition and freedom can bring about a new 'golden age.'
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Anthony Fauci finally found a camera he didn't like. Under questioning from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 29, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Aug. 10, 2026, by distinguished fellow Mike Gallagher to the Wall Street Journal:
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How to Salvage Science in Fauci's Wake
A White House report argues that competition and freedom can bring about a new 'golden age.'
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Anthony Fauci finally found a camera he didn't like. Under questioning from the Senate Homeland Security Committee on July 29, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and InfectiousDiseases and onetime media darling invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid discussing his actions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last smug gasp of the disgraced administrator startled even prominent Democrats. Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith was so embarrassed by Dr. Fauci's display that he used his show's monologue to apologize to NBA guard Kyrie Irving for having pilloried him for choosing not to take the Covid vaccine.
Ashish Jha, President Biden's Covid response coordinator, declared after Dr. Fauci's disastrous Senate hearing that he believed the origin of the Covid outbreak was "more likely to have been a lab leak."
Dr. Fauci's refusal to answer any questions about the pandemic eerily mimics the tactics of his Communist Party collaborators in China, who have repeatedly blocked any international investigation into the origins of the outbreak. His silence denied transparency to millions of people who lost loved ones and livelihoods during the pandemic.
In spite of his efforts to shirk accountability, Dr. Fauci has taught Americans plenty with the release of his diaries by Sen. Rand Paul, Homeland Security Committee chairman.
Read in Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/opinion/how-to-salvage-science-in-faucis-wake-245a39dc).
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Mike Gallagher is a distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute. He is also head of defense at Palantir Technologies.
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Original text here: https://www.hudson.org/domestic-policy/how-salvage-science-faucis-wake-mike-gallagher
[Category: ThinkTank]
Hudson Institute Issues Commentary to Wall Street Journal: China Presses a Weakness in America's Tech Policy
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Aug. 9, 2026, by senior fellow David Feith, and Jimmy Goodrich, senior fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, to the Wall Street Journal:
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China Presses a Weakness in America's Tech Policy
Washington's semiconductor strategy must address not only who controls chip-making but also who controls the language those chips speak.
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Washington has spent the past decade working
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Aug. 9, 2026, by senior fellow David Feith, and Jimmy Goodrich, senior fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, to the Wall Street Journal:
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China Presses a Weakness in America's Tech Policy
Washington's semiconductor strategy must address not only who controls chip-making but also who controls the language those chips speak.
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Washington has spent the past decade workingto secure choke points of the semiconductor industry: fabrication plants, lithography equipment, advanced packaging, critical minerals and the handful of companies that dominate each.
Now a new choke point has emerged in part of the industry that policymakers have barely considered: the instruction set architecture, or ISA.
ISAs are the language through which software tells a chip's processor what to do, such as perform calculations, move data or execute commands in a program. For more than two decades, two ISAs have dominated mainstream computing: x86, which powers most personal computers and servers, and Arm, which dominates smartphones and is expanding into cars, defense systems and artificial intelligence.
The two operate through different business models: x86 is used almost exclusively by Intel and AMD, while Arm historically has licensed its technology broadly to other chip designers.
Read in Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/opinion/china-presses-a-weakness-in-americas-tech-policy-2391ed0e).
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David Feith is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He specializes in US-China relations and technology policy, including artificial intelligence, export controls, and managing dual-use risks.
Jimmy Goodrich, Senior Fellow at the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
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Original text here: https://www.hudson.org/technology/china-presses-weakness-americas-tech-policy-david-feith
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center for Economic & Policy Research: Colombia's Debt Burden Is Largely a Legacy of the Pandemic Era, New Paper Finds
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (TNSrep) -- The Center for Economic and Policy Research issued the following news release on Aug. 10, 2026:
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Colombia's Debt Burden Is Largely a Legacy of the Pandemic Era, New Paper Finds
New research (https://cepr.net/publications/beyond-the-headlines-what-colombias-public-debt-numbers-actually-show/) from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that Colombia's substantial public debt burden, often blamed on decisions made by former President Gustavo Petro, is in large part a legacy of COVID pandemic-era borrowing and other inherited fiscal obligations,
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (TNSrep) -- The Center for Economic and Policy Research issued the following news release on Aug. 10, 2026:
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Colombia's Debt Burden Is Largely a Legacy of the Pandemic Era, New Paper Finds
New research (https://cepr.net/publications/beyond-the-headlines-what-colombias-public-debt-numbers-actually-show/) from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that Colombia's substantial public debt burden, often blamed on decisions made by former President Gustavo Petro, is in large part a legacy of COVID pandemic-era borrowing and other inherited fiscal obligations,while persistently high central bank interest rates increased the cost of servicing domestic debt.
"The Petro administration in Colombia was blamed for racking up public debt through supposed profligate spending, but the facts tell a very different story," Paola Jaimes Santamaria, who coauthored the new CEPR brief, said. "Much of this is actually a COVID story and began before Petro became president."
"Recent media coverage and commentary often framed the fiscal situation in stark terms, warning of a 'lack of fiscal control,'" the authors of the new CEPR brief write, with "the debt burden becoming 'unpayable', or the government borrowing at increasingly high costs." But this did not happen. The Petro administration inherited fiscal pressures from the pandemic period before Petro became president in August 2022. These included short-maturity emergency external borrowing made during the pandemic and legacy fuel subsidy obligations that had accumulated over previous years.
Contrary to the narrative of irresponsible spending by Petro, central government expenditure remained reasonably stable under his administration, ranging from 21.9 to 22.6 percent of GDP during its three full calendar years. The Petro government reduced external debt relative to GDP and increasingly relied on domestic borrowing instead. Interest payments as a percentage of GDP were lower by 2025, the authors note, and under Petro external debt edged back toward pre-pandemic levels relative to GDP.
The share of Colombia's debt stock denominated in foreign currency decreased from about 40 percent in January 2023 to 29 percent in September 2025. This shift from external debt to domestic borrowing had important ramifications, as countries have to use scarce foreign exchange reserves, mostly gained through exports and remittances, to service external debt. External debt payments can siphon away public resources that are otherwise used to pay for essential imports and support balance of payments stability.
"By lowering foreign-denominated payments, Colombia potentially gains a more secure external position, and thereby is less likely to face balance of payments problems or even crises -- or the inflationary risks or increased interest rates on external borrowing that can also result from external financing pressures," the brief states.
The brief also notes that the relatively high interest rate maintained by Colombia's central bank -- which acts independently of the government -- has increased domestic borrowing costs, and that lowering the policy rate would lighten the domestic debt burden and ease fiscal pressure.
"The Petro administration inherited substantial debt and fiscal obligations, but managed those challenges well, reduced reliance on foreign debt, and kept the economy stable despite persistently high interest rates," coauthor Ivana Vasic-Lalovic said.
Previous CEPR research (https://cepr.net/publications/colombia-under-petro-social-gains-amid-monetary-and-fiscal-constraints/) has highlighted the positive social gains during the Petro administration, including a historic decline in poverty, a substantial increase in the real minimum wage, and an expansion of the social safety net.
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Original text here: https://cepr.net/newsroom/colombias-debt-burden-is-largely-a-legacy-of-the-pandemic-era-new-paper-finds/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Center for American Progress: Illinois Becomes Third State To Advance New Model for Rideshare Workers to Unionize, Continuing National Trend
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- The Center for American Progress issued the following news release on Aug. 10, 2026:
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Illinois Becomes Third State To Advance New Model for Rideshare Workers to Unionize, Continuing National Trend
Illinois has become the third state to advance a new model for rideshare workers to unionize, underscoring a growing national trend toward modernizing labor law for the gig economy, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress. The state's landmark legislation would allow Uber and Lyft drivers to collectively bargain through a sectoral bargaining framework,
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- The Center for American Progress issued the following news release on Aug. 10, 2026:
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Illinois Becomes Third State To Advance New Model for Rideshare Workers to Unionize, Continuing National Trend
Illinois has become the third state to advance a new model for rideshare workers to unionize, underscoring a growing national trend toward modernizing labor law for the gig economy, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress. The state's landmark legislation would allow Uber and Lyft drivers to collectively bargain through a sectoral bargaining framework,following similar efforts in Massachusetts and California.
In Massachusetts, approximately 70,000 rideshare drivers selected the App Drivers Union as their official bargaining representative earlier this year, creating the largest new private sector bargaining unit since 1941. California drivers are also organizing under the state's new law, while workers in additional states are pursuing similar legislation. If drivers in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois successfully negotiate collective bargaining agreements, roughly 1 million workers could ultimately gain union coverage.
"States don't have to wait for Congress to modernize labor law," said David Madland, senior fellow and senior adviser to the American Worker Project at CAP and author of the analysis. "By creating a simpler path to unionization and sectoral bargaining, states are giving workers the tools to build power in the modern economy while helping firms compete on a level playing field. With Illinois joining Massachusetts and California, this model is quickly proving that it can expand collective bargaining to industries where too many workers have been left behind."
Sectoral bargaining is uniquely suited to the rideshare industry, where workers are dispersed, classified as independent contractors, and often excluded from traditional labor protections. The new Illinois state law provides drivers with a faster path to forming a union, stronger protections against employer delay tactics, and the opportunity to negotiate industrywide standards that can improve pay, benefits, and working conditions.
Among the analysis's key findings:
* Illinois is the third state in less than two years to enact a sectoral bargaining framework for rideshare drivers, following Massachusetts and California.
* Approximately 1 million workers could gain union coverage if drivers in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois successfully negotiate collective bargaining agreements.
* Massachusetts' newly certified bargaining unit represents approximately 70,000 rideshare drivers, making it the largest new private sector bargaining unit formed since 1941.
* Sectoral bargaining is designed for industries with dispersed workforces, allowing workers across an industry to bargain together while helping employers compete on a level playing field.
* Half of American workers say they would like to join a union, yet only 6 percent of private sector workers are union members because current federal labor law makes organizing and bargaining extraordinarily difficult.
Read the column: "New Illinois Law Continues Momentum for Rideshare Sectoral Bargaining" (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/new-illinois-law-continues-momentum-for-rideshare-sectoral-bargaining/) by David Madland
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Christian Unkenholz at cunkenholz@americanprogress.org.
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Original text here: https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release-illinois-becomes-third-state-to-advance-new-model-for-rideshare-workers-to-unionize-continuing-national-trend/
[Category: ThinkTank]
American Action Forum Issues Commentary: Tracker - Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Aug. 10, 2026, by Financial Services Policy Director Thomas Kingsley:
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Tracker: The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
Introduction
This tracker follows the Federal Reserve's (Fed) total consolidated assets, held on its balance sheet, as the best indicator of the Fed's direct intervention in the economy.
Context
The Fed's dual mandate requires it to ensure both stable prices and maximum employment. The traditional tool the Fed uses to accomplish these goals is the adjustment of the federal funds rate,
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Aug. 10, 2026, by Financial Services Policy Director Thomas Kingsley:
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Tracker: The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
Introduction
This tracker follows the Federal Reserve's (Fed) total consolidated assets, held on its balance sheet, as the best indicator of the Fed's direct intervention in the economy.
Context
The Fed's dual mandate requires it to ensure both stable prices and maximum employment. The traditional tool the Fed uses to accomplish these goals is the adjustment of the federal funds rate,the short-term interest rate that determines how much it costs for banks to lend to each other overnight.
The 2007-2008 financial crisis, however, demonstrated that even lowering the interest rate to zero was considered insufficient to shore up economies in freefall, and the Fed turned to more unusual tactics. One of these measures was what the Fed refers to as "large-scale asset purchases," which is more commonly known as "quantitative easing."
Under this process, the Fed enters the market to buy securities, typically mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and Treasuries, injecting both capital and liquidity into the market. This approach is not without risks - for the first time in its history, the Fed is regulator, supervisor, and now participant in the economy.
The development of quantitative easing as a go-to tool for the Fed in times of crisis has led to an unprecedented focus on one of its traditionally unremarkable aspects - the Fed total assets. Just as with any other firm, securities that the Fed purchases are considered assets and therefore are represented on the Fed's balance sheet. This therefore is the most reflective guide of the state of quantitative easing and, by extension, the degree to which the Fed has deemed it necessary to intervene in the economy.
Each week, the Federal Reserve publishes its balance sheet, typically on Wednesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m.
As of August 5, the Fed's assets stand at $6.7 trillion, up $10 billion from the prior week and over $108 billion higher than a year ago.
Sources:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TREAST
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WSHOMCB
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Original text here: https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/tracker-the-federal-reserves-balance-sheet/
[Category: Think Tank]
