In this week’s edition…what’s causing the Eurozone downturn…the effects of Brexit on the EU’s smaller member states…blockchain explained for a child or an expert (and everyone in between)…Openwater proposes using holograms to read and write your thoughts…Pulitzer Prizes giving a “Damn”…a Russian cultural nuance explained…and more. Have a great weekend! Business & Economics
I recently wrote a post claiming that it’s not possible to fix Facebook’s serious, and dangerous, flaws by merely tweaking or adjusting the current business. I argued that there are inherent flaws in the company’s platform, business model and leadership that that make it impossible to fix this platform without starting again from scratch. I hardly
Every economist loves a good argument, and there is a good one raging over on Prospect Magazine’s about whether the world needs an entirely new discipline of economics. Arguing for the destruction of the current version of economics is Howard Reed, whose long analysis of the field lays out several aspects he thinks are incurable ills.
McKinsey has just released it’s latest Economic Outlook report. Some highlights of what is always a must-read: Respondents around the world are sanguine about the current state of the global economy and their economies at home, according to McKinsey’s newest survey on economic conditions.1But as they look ahead, they are less likely to expect
I wrote last week that Facebook can’t be fixed, and though I was not alone in voicing that sentiment it looks like the brands feel otherwise. AdAge lays out the latest developments in a good summary here. Bottom line is that brands are staying put: Though marketers such as Mozilla and Pep Boys have said
Interesting commentary on FT.com about America’s aristocracy problem here Some highlights: We think of America as having distinct mores from Britain — but there are traditions she retains, even after Britain has let go of them. Hunting with dogs was outlawed in Britain more than a decade ago. But on winter mornings in Maryland and
It seems that Facebook has finally run into a scandal shocking enough to make at least some people question the point of being on their social network. I’ve read quite a number of articles and op-eds this week decrying the company, its CEO and its business model. As I read these attacks on the company,
Don’t miss MIT Tech Review’s interview with political scientist Virginia Eubanks about her new book, Automating Inequality. Some highlights: In Automating Inequality, author Virginia Eubanks argues that the poor are the testing ground for new technology that increases inequality. The book, out this week, starts with a history of American poorhouses, which dotted the
Amid all the (justifiable) concerns this week over the Administration’s steel and aluminum tariff warning, the business press did not focus too much on Apple’s quiet announcement about its new health care initiative, AC Wellness. A quick glance through the AC Wellness web site does not provide much information, but what is there is enough
Back in 2015 a new provision of the Dodd-Frank law was approved stipulating that U.S. companies had to start disclosing the pay gap between their top boss and regular employees, i.e., the “CEO pay ratio.” This provision wasn’t discussed very much at the time, and there was debate in 2016 about how to actually measure and
