The victory condition isn’t highest profits, it’s market dominance
Capital-as-power, a framework from Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, holds that companies don’t seek to be as profitable as possible — but rather to accumulate as much power as possible. A company doesn’t seek to be as big as possible, but rather, as dominant.
There are two strategies for…
Trend Mill
Retailers are skipping queues for convenience, but at what cost?
When Amazon launched its first cashier-less store in 2016 — a ‘just walk out’ store as the company prefers — it blew people’s minds. Was it an end to the dreaded supermarket queue? The ability to walk into a store, do your shopping, and leave without standing in a queue…
A divorce that seems inevitable does not have to be ugly, does it?
It’s not often that we get to have some fun with the modern entertainment companies themselves instead of their products — but this is exactly what’s happening in the last few days with one of the greatest video game publishers in the world, Electronic Arts, and FIFA, the “non-profit” organization…
No Mercy No Malice
The state of the streaming wars in late 2021
Two weeks ago, at the Code Conference, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel claimed “the total addressable market of content is infinite.” Netflix is spending $17 billion a year to validate his thesis. So far, they’re both right. Since last Friday, Netflix raised subscription prices in 11 countries by as much as…
Supply constraints and shipping bottlenecks could force us to recalibrate our holiday buying habits
We spend a lot of money every holiday season. Even in the heart of the pandemic, consumers managed to spend nearly a trillion dollars ($876 B), which was, remarkably, 4.1% more than the pre-pandemic previous holiday shop fest.
But for most of 2021, a storm’s been brewing and is now…
Did the BLM-supporting, pronoun-pin wearing tech company I work have to hire another white guy for the C-suite?
Around this time last year, my company went through the process of hiring a new C-suite exec. Unlike a lot of other tech companies, the one I worked for was all about inclusivity and diversity, at least on the surface. They visibly and financially supported the Black Lives Matter movement…
A new book chronicles the rise of passive investing, the pioneers who made it a dominant force in finance — and its potential downsides
When the renowned investor Warren Buffett bets a million dollars on an outcome, it’s rarely a good idea to take the other side of it. In 2008, the hedge fund manager Ted Seides decided to try his luck anyway, taking on Buffett’s public wager that an index fund that tracked…
No Mercy/No Malice
Digital ad fraud could be a $150 billion business by 2025, which would make it the largest criminal enterprise after the drug trade
If Edward Snowden was injected with a megadose of Super Soldier Serum, he’d look something like Frances Haugen. Perhaps Haugen’s disclosures — that among so many other evils, Zuckerberg knew Facebook’s products “harm children” — means that Facebook has crossed the wrong cowboys, specifically … cowgirls who are moms. …
As the clothing rental company prepares to go public, its S-1 filing reveals a brand that’s high on style but short on substance
WTF Is Depreciation?
Nothing gets my heart racing like the phrase “the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen since WeWork,” so my palms got sweaty when I saw this Tweet:
All assets have limited lifespans. Trucks can only drive for so many miles. Computers and IT hardware become obsolete. When’s the last time…
I Read It So You Don’t Have To
A recovering productivity addict wants us to think about time management through the lens of our imminent mortality
What did I read?
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
So who is Oliver Burkeman?
Burkeman is an award winning feature writer for The Guardian, where he wrote the weekly column, “This Column Will Change Your Life.” …
Marker
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