Corporate Might (Let Them Fight)
From copyright law to banking and ecigarettes, it’s good to have the big boys on your side.
Education and Making a Good Living
How necessary is to go to college in order to make a good living? Are we getting what we are paying for? Who doesn’t need to go to college in order to make a good living, indeed, even to get rich? Those are the issues I explore here while reflecting on Bryan Caplan’s new book that argues for austerity in education and how a friend of mine is doing quite well in business without a college degree.
Will Uber Bounce Back in 2018?
This year will be a crucial one for the New York-based company.
Rethinking Distribution, Disinviting Theft
We accept the unacceptable sometimes because it never occurs to us not to.
The Undignified Auction
How much should cities even want Amazon’s HQ2? What should be they be willing to pay and do?
Too Efficient By Half
The choice paradox, but with labor.
The New E-Conomy
American workers are at a cross-roads and our political leaders all seem to be leading them in the wrong direction. What the ‘Amazon effect’ means for the future of labor.
Little Red CoreDEBT
A look at the relative culpability of overly optimistic borrowers for automobile loans.
The Cable And The Stream
In which I am the last person on Earth to discover that cable television is doomed.
Timesheets From On High
Oregon is cracking down on loose scheduling.
Kmart’s Death Without Dignity
Kmart deserves either a good death or second chance at retail life. But looks more and more that it will get neither and that’s a shame.
Not Everything Is About How Terrible America Is
Focus, people, focus.
What Trump has in Common with a Subsistence Farmer
Not paying taxes for 18 years is not necessarily tax evasion
Moore’s Law Investing Strategy
A Princeton professor has demonstrated that you can’t pick stocks that “beat the market.” The future, by in large, is unpredictable. Except one area of the future, is predictable. For a possible investing strategy that relates to that predictable area of the future, read on.
Five Random Lessons from Covering the Theranos Debacle
Not one of which is, “You know, that Jim Cramer is really on to something.”
V for Vindication: Justifications for Piracy and Copyright
Perhaps there is more to piracy than its need to be stopped.
Not Paranoid Enough
The best biography written by a CEO is not a business biography.
How Much for Oral Sex?
How does the unregulated “free market” determine the wages paid to prostitutes?
Aubrey McClendon, The Gambler
A CEO crashing his car is an accident. A CEO crashing his car and dying a day after being indicted for criminal charges is not.
Twitter is a Business, Not the Government
Valuing one set of customers’ wishes over another’s is not the harbinger of Freedom and Liberty’s End Times.
Idle Speculation on the Future of Media
Vikram explains to his daughter why Buzzfeed is great.
Who Will Win the Driverless Car War?
Some light speculation as to which companies may get there first.
Why Alphabet?
Alphabet is about Google not becoming Microsoft.
What Would a Utilitarian do with Volkswagen?
It doesn’t go well for VW.
The Value of Diluting your Brand
Brand Extensions!
Eighteen Things I Learned from The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Reflections on of a very good book about the financial crisis
Ban Private Media. Support NPR
A modest proposal for media organizations
A Failed Search for an Asian Barbie
Chinese people don’t want Chinese Barbies.
Practical Shaving with a Double-edge Safety Razor
A double-edged safety razor is actually less fussy than the alternatives.
The Value of Playing with Commercially Produced Toys
The merits of playing with loose parts seems oversold.
If Your Customers don’t Understand Your Product, it’s Your Fault
Looking in vain for ChinesePod’s pedagogical philosophy.
Hatchbacks, Keyboards, and College
Something about path dependence
The Bright Side of Short Sellers
Short sellers helped focus attention on the practices of Lumber Liquidators.
How I Think You Should Try to Get into an Elite College, Part 2
How to get into an elite college while Asian
How I Think You Should Try to Get into an Elite College
“Well-rounded” may not mean what you think it means.
The Gatekeepers and the Service Providers
Service providers need to decide whether they are impediments or helpers for their customers.
