The Curious Engineer

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Governance Cybernetics

governance.fyi

Good governing isn't about finding middle compromises for opposing views, but about blending the best solutions, even if they seem to clash. Industrial & Market Policy, Government Ops. & Quality, Urbanism (YIMBYism), Family Policy (Pronatalism), etc. Click to read Governance Cybernetics, a Substack

Society / politics / economy

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251 from 18 Jan 2024 to 5 Oct 2026
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weekly (75 in the last year)
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2026 60

  1. Governance Cybernetics Reader Survey (and Apps’ Sneak Peek)
  2. So You Think You Could Be An Electrician?
  3. The Permitting Grand Bargain Is Here
  4. State Capacity Starts at Home: What We Can Learn from Zohran Mamdani (and Chick-fil-A)
  5. Land is Scarce, Just Burn Your Trash
  6. How Japan can turn AI demand into industrial strength
  7. What Caused The Burrito Discourse? One Fund Who Ate Chipotle's Goodwill
  8. Three Types of State Housing Laws
  9. Accidental Aesthetics and Romance of Power Wires
  10. For My Californian Readers
  11. I Read Hostile Profiles of NY-DSA and Progressive Victory. I Took Notes.
  12. The Marrying Up Trap
  13. Bringing back Eisenhower's process for getting rid of process
  14. Don't Just Sell YIMBYism in San Francisco! Sell It in Cleveland.
  15. Something Special For Next Week
  16. It's harder to fire someone in China than in California (with caveats)
  17. Data centers could lower power bills. Energy utilities won't.
  18. Nobody Trains a Zohran Mamdani or an Andy Byford. That's the problem, and it's a fixable one.
  19. Costco and Safeway are getting housing built where others fail. It isn't because a mayor wants it
  20. Boris Johnson sees a "blessing" in falling British births. Britain's grandsons don't.
  21. Walt Disney And The Romance of Building (A Ton of Apartment Buildings)
  22. Pragmata Now, Miyazaki Before: Marketing Kids Is Extremely Easy! So why birthrates are falling? Gamers? Girlbosses?
  23. The CCP and China are even more competent (and fragmented) than you think.
  24. Dead Malls and Dying Downtowns Are the Best Places to Build (Local) State Capacity
  25. Alchemy and Machinery: What Apple's Steve Jobs Can Teach Pronatalists
  26. Accessory Commercial Units (ACUs): The Alchemy of Turning Suburbs Into Walkable Neighborhoods
  27. Japan & East Asia Investing More in Oil & Gas. American Drillers Need Capital. Why Aren't They Meeting?
  28. Ugly Buildings, Beautiful Cities: Emergent Tokyo, Fractured Houston, and What the Online YIMBY Discourse Gets Wrong About Urban Aesthetics
  29. The Abbey That Fueled Scotland's Street Violence and Saved the World's Bees: A Case for Work, Not Moral Panics
  30. Marc Andreessen Is Right That AI Isn't Killing Entry-Level Jobs. Interest Rate Hikes Are. And That's Not Even the Worst Part
  31. Alchemy of ADUs: Why America's Most Expensive Housing Unit Is the Only One That Scales
  32. When Did China Become A Leader in Medical Innovation?
  33. Your City Is Worse at Filling Potholes Than New York City. Yes, That New York City.
  34. A Housing Playbook (Outline) for the Rust Belt
  35. Silicon Valley's "Pronatalists" Killed Remote Work. Then the Strait of Hormuz Brought It Back
  36. Are Taxes Are for Suckers?
  37. A Personal Message from the Desk of Productive Catastrophe
  38. No/Low Cost Way For Local Governments To Boost Birthrates (Before Spending)
  39. South Korea's Birth Rate One Of the Lowest on Earth. The Missing Piece Might Be Better Urbanism
  40. It Doesn't Matter Whether Your Mayor Is a Democrat or a Republican. Your City Still Won't Build Enough Housing
  41. Wall Street Killed the Wildcatters: $100+ Oil Now Means Bigger Buybacks With Fewer Jobs and Babies Than Ever Before
  42. Mamdani's (Possible) 9.5% Property Tax Hike While Red States Are Abolishing Property Tax Entirely
  43. A Small Hokkaido Town Just Announced the Prefecture's Biggest Baby Bonus. Can It Actually Work?
  44. What Los Angeles Permitting Actually Costs in Housing Development
  45. Penguins Are Solar Geoengineers
  46. 4B Doesn't Matter: Young Men's Job Market Is Why Korea's Birth Rate Fell to 0.72 and Japan's Didn't
  47. How in the Hell Did Joann Fabrics Die While Best Buy Survived? It Wasn't Amazon
  48. America vs. Singapore: You Can’t Save Your Way out of Economic Shocks
  49. America's Pensions Can't Beat a Vanguard Account Or Finance a Transmission Line, But They Can Close Your Hospital
  50. The Cheapest Pro-Natalist Policy Nobody Wants, Least of All Nigel Farage
  51. You Know What Else Kills Birth Rates? Being in a Region That's Falling Behind
  52. California (and the Rest of America) Can't Build Like America's Corps of Engineers
  53. NIMBYs Aren’t Just Shutting Down Housing
  54. Yes, I am a pro-natalist
  55. Why Singapore & Estonia's EdTech Works, but America's Doesn't?
  56. The Drafts Folder is Out of Control, Help Us Clear it Out!
  57. Shiseido’s Fall, Japanese Cosmetics, & Did You Know China Has an Industrial Policy for Lipstick?
  58. A Workforce Tool Hiding in Plain Sight: The Community College Bachelor's Degree
  59. Korean Men Are Falling Out of the Marriage Market Faster Than Women
  60. Half the Fire Truck Fleet Was Sidelined. Gavin Newsom Banned Duplexes. YIMBYs Fight Back.

2025 124

  1. Mario Draghi, Austerity Architect of The Eurozone, Says It Backfired. A Study of 19 Countries Agrees
  2. Public investment draws $2 of private capital for every $1 spent
  3. Why Are There So Many Car Companies in China & Japan vs the US? Is Antitrust Part of Industrial Policy?
  4. San Francisco's Marina Could Get 790 Homes. Mayor Daniel Lurie Says No. YIMBYs Say Yes.
  5. Recycling Is (Not) a Scam: Captain Planet’s “The Power Is Yours” vs State Capacity
  6. How State/Local Budgets and Bureaucratic Rules Make Good Government Impossible
  7. The Care Penalty: What Happens When Caregivers Try to Return to Work (in Flanders, Belgium)
  8. Mr Beast & Elon Musk vs Barnes & Noble! What is Operational Alpha & Why Does It Matter?
  9. In the Real World, YIMBYs (and Pronatalism) Aren't Just Good, They're Great!
  10. Job Uncertainty Lowers Men's Fertility Intentions In Sweden
  11. Why Rising Rent Means You'll Never Start That Business! Housing Costs vs Entrepreneurship
  12. Isaac Asimov's Foundation & Why China/Singapore Want More Manufacturing Jobs
  13. Evolution Keeps Inventing Crabs (And So Does Medical Industrial Policy) : Operation Warp Speed & Japan's "Wasteful" MRIs
  14. What Is State Capacity? Does China Have It? Does America Really Lack It?
  15. Introducing Factory Settings
  16. Can you actually build implementation capacity (across states) in K-12 education?
  17. Even More Pronatalist Research Showing Local Governments Can Boost Birth Rates (Study: 1,741 Cities in Japan!)
  18. Why are mothers in the developed world are having less kids?
  19. The Pentagon’s Best Schools & Safest Nuclear Program with the Expanse’s “Dream of Mars”
  20. Working From Home, Mental Health & The Choice Makes All the Difference
  21. All-Natural Geoengineering with Frank Herbert's Dune
  22. Is Pronatalist Research More Interesting Than the Discourse?
  23. How to Build a Better Suburb: YIMBY Lessons from Disney, Houten, Japan, and Carmel
  24. California Needs to Learn from Houston & Dallas; Especially about Homelessness
  25. The Mississippi Miracle Doesn't Scale; Building Implementation Capacity Does
  26. Two Weeks Makes the Difference: How Paternity Leave Can Increase/Decrease Divorce
  27. Young Man, There's (Not) A Place You Can Go: The Death of YMCA Housing & What Japanese Internet Cafés Can Teach Us
  28. Government Administration: An Annotated Bibliography
  29. Made in China 2025 Improved Robot Quality. Core Components Still Come From Japan
  30. Career Women More Likely to Want Kids (in Japan)
  31. A Lack of Trust Fuels Baby Bust (in China)
  32. The Bank of Mom & Dad: How Parents Insure Against Income Shocks
  33. Brazil's $1B Farm Tech Investment Returned $17 for Every Dollar
  34. Textbook: What Actually Works in K-12 Education
  35. 3/5 - Why Rising Family Size Temporarily Hid America's Motherhood Decline (1980-2016)
  36. 2/5 - Why economic (especially energy) shocks permanently lower fertility rates & total maternal rates (TMR)?
  37. 1/5 - Are We Measuring Fertility Wrong?
  38. How Much of "Urbanism" is Just Mourning the Death of Functional Small Towns?
  39. Stop Fighting Housing Development vs. Flood Control: Houston's Disaster vs. Jersey City's Success
  40. College Towns, Strong Towns, YIMBY, NIMBY
  41. The Rise of Shippable Microfactories
  42. Fed Rate Hikes Drive Up Rent Prices
  43. Why Does Raising the Retirement Age Hurt Young People? What Would It Take to Start/Restart Their Careers?
  44. How Process Charts Kept the Lights On
  45. Two 'Failed' Cities (Detroit & Baltimore) Built Local State Capacity To Bring Crime to New Lows
  46. The Brand of LA, California, USA From East Asian Megacities
  47. Clearing Up the Free-Bus Debate
  48. NIMBYs overplayed their hand
  49. Supply Shocks creates Inflation; China gets it but we sure don’t
  50. Northern Europe : The Younger You Are, The Unhappier You Are! Even in the UK? Especially the UK!
  51. How Industrial Policy Saved South Korea in the 70s & 80s
  52. China : The Investor State
  53. Booms, not Busts, Drives Innovation, Especially in Mid Size American Cities
  54. How the Feds Invented Lean Manufacturing
  55. Parents explain 62% of missing babies in rich nations — childlessness just 38%
  56. China's $5 Trillion Industrial Policy Weapon: State-backed Finance
  57. Delivery Democrats: Breaking Points, WelcomeFest, & the Factions of "Abundance"
  58. Reviving Dead Malls and Dying Colleges: 2 Successful Cases of Adaptive Reuse
  59. Adaptive Reuse Across Asia: Singapore's Fragmented Ownership, Japan's Rural Revival, & Korea's Material Limits
  60. Spain's 37.5-Hour Workweek Winners
  61. Finland (Wants To) Bets Big on Industry
  62. British productivity paradox: Workers have $128 capital/hour vs $190 in peers but generate 22% more value
  63. America's Suburban Building Boom Declared Dead: 15 Million Missing Homes & Counting
  64. America's Invisible Care Infrastructure: Distance Drives Intergenerational Family Support
  65. China's Export Restrictions vs Global Industrial Policies: How The Rare Earth Gambit Backfired
  66. Two Mexican States, Same Industries, Different Outcomes: Local Institutions & Industrial Policy
  67. Child Tax Credits Pay for Themselves via Reduced Future Government Spending & Increased Tax Revenue
  68. Tulsa Remote's $10,000 Question: Why Paying Remote Workers to Relocate Returns $4.31 per Dollar
  69. Russia's Birth Rate Crisis Get's Emotional
  70. Crash Course On China's Industrial Policy
  71. Invisible Infrastructure, Pronatalism vs Pro-Family, & The Homemaking Blindspot in Economic Metrics with The Home Front's Ivana Greco
  72. Uncle Sam's Problem Children
  73. Sneak Peak, Last Finals & Half Year Survey
  74. How universal preschool creates $20 for every $1(to $3) dollar(s) spent
  75. €25,000 Per Job: German Regional Subsidies Defy Orthodoxy, Boost Less-Educated Employment 23%
  76. Institute For Family Studies: Cash For Kids Works
  77. Management Cybernetics 101 for Urbanists & YIMBYs
  78. Unconditional Cash & Parental Priorities
  79. Focusing on Implementation Unlocked Faster Aid for Millions in India
  80. Is US Policy Getting the Cost of Children Wrong?
  81. Do R&D Grants Work? New Research Shows A Firm's Size Matters
  82. The University Dividend: Capital, Research, and Regional Renewal
  83. Building Urbanism+ on BlueSky
  84. How Micromobility is Reviving Urban Travel
  85. Russia's Birth Rates: The Surprising Economic Links
  86. Construction Capacity: America's Diminishing Housing Pipeline
  87. College Towns: Urbanism from a Past Era with Ryan Allen
  88. Truman's Bureaucrats
  89. Practical Urbanism: Insights from Car Free America's Mark Brown
  90. Is Job Insecurity the Hidden Driver of Japan's Low Birth Rate? Research Shows It Explains 45% Increase of Childless Men
  91. YIMBY & Antitrust: Natural Allies, Uneasy Partners, or Sworn Enemies? Interview with Antimonopoly Counsel's Basel Musharbash
  92. Does Increasing Housing Supply Cut Housing Costs? Does YIMBYism & Getting Rid of Zoning Increase Housing Supply?
  93. Collective Care & Family Formation: Natal Gazing's Darby Saxbe Discusses Progressive Approaches to Falling Birth Rates
  94. Work Simplification, Historical Government Efficiency & Management Practices with Kevin Hawickhorst
  95. South Korea: Parks + Safety = Happier Parents
  96. Forking Work Simplification & More
  97. America's (Lack Of) Customer Service in National (and Local) Governments
  98. We are evolving
  99. Fast internet fuels more marriages (in Spain)
  100. Germany: Each 1% Rise in "Female-Dominated" Jobs = Birth Rates Up .01
  101. One-Third of America: The Spread of 'Rental Desert' Neighborhoods
  102. A Modest Proposal - Train Local YIMBY (and Others) Groups in Process Improvement
  103. Zoning out: How regulations drive homelessness
  104. Rural Minamiminowa’s 1.76 Birth Rate and 150 Years of Growth
  105. 17-20% fewer construction workers: Great Recession's lasting scar on housing supply
  106. Iceland's COVID Baby Surge: Why Third Births Jumped 38% Among Educated Women
  107. Boston Fed: New England's Housing Crisis as Migration Booms and Construction Lags
  108. Does Automation Lower Birth Rates? Apparently It Does in China
  109. Stable job = more kids: Finland's fertility equation
  110. Bad Weather Proved It: New Housing Helps All Renters, German Study Shows
  111. Public Daycare Outperforms Cash in Boosting Japan's Birth Rates—But Both Are Essential
  112. Zoning Reform Works (Even For Small & Mid Sized Cities): The Lower Hutt Evidence
  113. Beyond Skepticism: Data Confirms Auckland's Zoning Reforms Delivered on Housing Promises
  114. Study: If You Want More Babies, Make Mortgages Affordable For Young People
  115. Process and Performance: How America traded systematic improvement for quick wins—and lost both
  116. South Korea: Youth Policy is Family Policy and Integration Matters!
  117. When Bigger Isn't Better: Rethinking Local Control and Housing Development
  118. Gut vs. Numbers: Wang Huning's 'America Against America' (kinda) predicted the loss of institutional trust
  119. Study: North Korean birth rates lower than UN data shows, NK officials have more kids
  120. Residential Parks x Tiny Houses = More Australians in Affordable Homes
  121. America can beat China on energy
  122. Miyazaki’s Right: Local Governments Boost Birthrates by Investing in Families (While Nations Fail)
  123. Local & Regional Government Quality Boost European Birthrates
  124. Building More Housing Reduces Displacement in Californian Cities — With Limits

2024 67

  1. China: Internet Increases Users' Demand For Kids
  2. Portugal: Airbnb's "Creative Destruction"
  3. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Inclusionary Zoning & Construction Slowdown
  4. Job Security, Lasting Choices: Birth Rate Insights from Germany & Australia
  5. Singapore's fertility crisis: Could flexible & remote work be the answer?
  6. American (and Global) Singapore(s): 60+ Cities (and Growing) with Success Stories to Inventory
  7. American Singapore(s): Taking Inventory of Competent City Governance
  8. Rich Neighborhoods, High Barriers: Study Maps NIMBY Opposition
  9. Higher Incomes Now Key Driver of Having Kids in the Netherlands
  10. Universal Pre-K: Big Gains for Parents
  11. South Korea: Relationship Between Childbirth Benefits & Total Fertility Rate of Local Governments
  12. Thailand’s Demographic Crisis: An ASEAN & Provincial Perspective
  13. On the higher fertility of semiconductor workers
  14. Simple Messaging Increases YIMBY/Housing Supply Support
  15. Germany: Monetary Policies & Regional Housing Markets
  16. Results (Don't) Speak For Themselves: A Case For Documentation
  17. Refillable planet
  18. Gordon Brown’s Baby Boom
  19. "Quality Management is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural": Mini-cases of Houston and Akashi
  20. Walt Disney Was Right; Our Cities’ Problems Are Our Biggest Problems
  21. South Korean Study: Housing & Education Costs Drown Out Economic Growth's Impact on Fertility Rates
  22. Since 2021: Vance Rants About Childless Cat Ladies, Walz Implements CTCs and School Lunches
  23. Study: Income Inequality Linked to Lower Fertility Rates in China
  24. 2024 NBER Working Paper: Paid Sick Leave Allows Parents to Spend More Time with Kids
  25. Study: Automation's Ripple Effects on Careers and Voting Patterns
  26. Munich, Germany: Housing Supply (Un)Responsiveness and Urban Planning
  27. Belgium & Overeducation Risk: Job Market Friction vs Education Overinvestment
  28. Automation Increases Demand for Contract Work in Italian Firms
  29. Don Quixote's Fried Eggs: Purpose Of A System Is What It Does
  30. United States: Expanded Child Tax Credit improved Parents' Mental Health
  31. England: Local Restrictions, Local Monopolies, & Construction Lags
  32. Quebec, Canada: Higher Parental Insurance/Parental Leave Boost Birthrates
  33. Finland: Local Land Policies & Housing Supply's Responsiveness
  34. Miyazaki Might Be Right: Cases of A Town, A City, A Province, & A Country That Boosted Birth Rates
  35. Ireland: Housing supply more responsive to costs than prices
  36. American Singapore(s): Competent city governance hiding in plain sight
  37. Houston: 2013 Minimum Lot Size Reform & Land Prices
  38. China: Hukou, House Prices, and Birth Rates
  39. Hidden Driver of Evictions: Energy Burdens
  40. Japan: WFH Boost Fathers' Household Chores & Family Engagement
  41. Germany: Cutting Child-Related Benefits Cuts Birth Rates
  42. United States: Apartments boost local property tax base
  43. Japan: Early career setbacks reduce marriage and birth rates
  44. France: Cutting child benefits reduces births, increases work hours
  45. Europe & Taxing Kids: The Full Transfer Cost of Rearing Children
  46. Japan: Fertility Rate Trends by Income & Education among People Born 1943–1975
  47. France: Job insecurity reduces fertility especially for the well-off
  48. Denmark & Germany: Unemployment Benefits Protects Birth Rates
  49. Denmark: Child Benefit Cuts Also Cuts Birth Rates
  50. Korea: Work culture is crushing birth rates
  51. Los Angeles CA: Impact of Approval Pathways on Multifamily Housing's Time to Permit
  52. Norway: Fertility & Long Term Earnings
  53. NYC: New luxury housing lowers nearby rents
  54. Connecticut: The Impact of Zoning Regulations on Housing Development
  55. Japan: Informing people about current family policies boosts marriage intentions
  56. Singapore: No Flat, No Child
  57. South Korea: Baby Bonus Boosts Births, Reduces Sex Imbalance
  58. Israel: Financial Incentives Boost Birth Rates
  59. South Korea: Paid Childcare Leave, Birth Rates, & Labor Supply
  60. South Korea: Effects of Living in the Same Region as Workplace on the Total Fertility Rate
  61. Spain: Grandparent help boosts women's (but not men's) fertility plans
  62. Spain: Labor Market Institutions and Fertility
  63. Sweden: The Relationship Between Income & Birth Rates of People Born 1940–70
  64. Auckland, New Zealand: Zoning Reform Slashes Rents by Up to 35%
  65. Brazil: Free Trade & Birth Rates
  66. Minneapolis, MN: Rent Stability Study
  67. California: The COVID-19 Baby Bump: Surprising Trends in U.S. Births