Governor Jerry Brown will leave office next month with a legacy of presiding over one of the biggest public policy failures in the state’s history. The California High-Speed Rail project began in 2008 at an estimated cost of about $39 billion to build high-speed train service between Northern California, Southern California, and the Central Valley. Despite the project having been significantly scaled back, the price tag for the down-sized system is likely approaching $100 billion.

“Big Brother is Watching You.” —George Orwell, 1984 Privacy is dead. It’s death is best described as a homicide committed by tech titans, whose power and wealth are unprecedented, and millions of American accomplices whose insatiable quest to be noticed and validated — epitomized by the now-ubiquitous “like” button — has overcome any sense of foreboding.

Tyler Cowen recently linked to a debate between Stanford professor Katie Haun and Paul Krugman on cryptocurrency. I found myself torn but I did learn a few things and noticed a few interesting things. It starts with a 36-minute presentation by Haun. Then there’s a 25-minute presentation by Krugman and then a third 39-minute video with Q&A with the audience in Mexico City.

It appears the third and largest wave of American innovation is drawing to a close, according to an ambitious and inventive effort to identify the most influential inventions of the past 180 years.