competition

US reaction to Putin’s COVID vaccine both predictable and dishonest

On Tuesday I gave an English lesson, really in the form of practice and conversation, with a student who has become a friend as well. This student is older than I and the work the student does is quite prominent – as an example, our lesson was periodically interrupted by messages from or regarding high ranking government officials.

Huawei an enemy, Part II – Rural American carrier of choice [Video]

In part I of this series about Huawei’s current status as the new scapegoat of US foreign policy, we explored the mythological roots of the propaganda push against the Chinese company. We noted that the tactic taken to demonize it resembles almost identically the same tactic as it was deployed against Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, and its owner and founder Evgeny (Eugene) Kaspersky. That tactic was the employment of a highly circumstantial line of reasoning, that both Mr. Kaspersky and Mr.

The Utility of Rules and Hierarchy

The overzealous politically correct-speech crowd has triggered a backlash. One person who took exception is Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto who rocketed into the spotlight for his courageous dissent against compelled speech. I support that stance taken by Peterson. Peterson also has a youtube presence, and this year his book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Crisis (Penguin Random House UK) was published.

Amazon Loses $30 Billion in One Day After Rumors Trump May Try to Break Its Monopoly

In a free country, citizens do not have the right to use force against their neighbors to prevent them from selling their products below cost - even if their intent is to force competitors out of business. If we do not have that authority as individuals, we cannot delegate it to politicians to do it either, regardless of how much we may like the idea. Therefore, there should be no anti-trust laws, but there CAN and SHOULD be laws against favoring one company or consortium of companies over their competitors, which creates monopolies. Click link for full commentary by GEG.

The Failure to Repeal Obamacare Is an Intellectual Failure

Why can’t we get there? The people with decision-making power lack confidence in the solution simply because doing so would require a level of understanding which they seem either incapable of or unwilling to embrace. The belief that you can legislate your goals into being has subverted the courage it would take to repeal everything that stands between us and a free market.

How Did Hamburgers Get So Darn Good?

The hamburger is at least a hundred years old, possibly much more depending on who you believe. It’s a simple sandwich, a ground beef patty between two pieces of bread, plus a slice of cheese if you’re lucky. It doesn’t seem like a product that has room for much improvement, and yet, year after year, hamburgers keep on getting better. How is this possible? How can something with so little complexity continue to get tastier and tastier, year after year?

Let Amazon Play Monopoly

Amazon's offer to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion sounds pretty great to both parties, but it seems that isn't good enough. The proposal has a lot of people worried about Amazon becoming an indestructible monopoly, and the government is all too happy to step in and settle the issue. But this concern ignores consumers' own preferences as well as business and entrepreneurial history. This week in Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R.