Please wait...
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pppahl9
God created economists to make astrologers look respectable.
This is mostly an opinion piece, but I thought it interesting that someone out there calls out against laissez-faire economics, and touts the Swedes as having a good model.
Nothing new about liberals making that sort of statement. What hasn't been pointed out before, is the irony of Sweden (among the least laissez-faire economies in the world) issuing the Nobel mostly to laissez-faire advocates. (Think they're having a little inside Swedish joke at somebody's expense?)
It's funny, the article mentioned Myron Scholes. Say what you will about his politics (which I don't agree with), or his repeated failures as a fund manager, there is no doubt that his work was paradigm-shifting and is now fundamental to options trading. He probably deserved the Nobel as much as anyone.
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/ayn_rand_loving_ceo_destroys_his_empire_partner/
I have no clue about the credibility of that salon.com site, but the article was a funny read. Sears also got what they deserved for messing with their clients warranty questions ;)
Man... I liked Sears. Used to be a solid, reputable company. They really have taken it on the chin lately. If this is the reason why, it's quite understandable.
A funny read, yes, but it would be funnier if he hadn't destroyed an American institution. Sears *invented* catalogue retail and the Midwest was built out of their supplies.
Everyone knows that I'm no fan of Ayn Rand, but coming from the commie rag Salon, the whole article reads like "see, capitalism doesn't work after all."
The free market is ambivalent towards good and bad business plans. The free market rewards good business strategy while allowing bad business strategy to fail.
And yes, the decline of Sears is sad to watch. They were a staple. Unfortunately though, it's evolve or die. The same could be said for Radio Shack, whose stock price is less than a tenth of what it was a decade ago, because they voluntarily made themselves insanely un-cool.
Everyone knows that I'm no fan of Ayn Rand, but coming from the
commie rag Salon, the whole article reads like "see, capitalism
doesn't work after all."
*if* you equate capitalism with this one man's wacky management philosophy. He doesn't sound like a very nice guy to work for, and one can see how the incentives he created could lead to perverse results.
I've worked for clowns like him. Aaaargh...
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-google-has-become-germanys-boogeyman--and-why-it-matters-2014-9
Google and other big American tech firms have become ersatz targets
ersatz - another german word in english? or just a not well written article?
I like this conclusion:
The biggest fear is that Germany's proud carmakers will be relegated to mere producers of "tin cans". If they lose ownership of the data and software that make self-driving cars move, and control of the display screens inside them, the firms' margins will get squeezed. There may be a more profitable business in telling a driver that the product he wants is available cheaply at the next autobahn exit than in building the car he is sitting in.
(while I right now already think of cars as tin cans anyways...)
'Ersatz', to us, comes to mean 'in place of a real version'. So, an ersatz keyboard is a keyboard that one uses in place of a proper keyboard.
And an ersatz car might be a Yugo.
The AI used for driving a car requires that the system already have the route mapped in virtual 3-d space, which they update with observations from the spinning camera above the car.
I'm curious about how well it can handle driver stupidity.
If every single car is driving by AI on something like a well maintained highway, without such error sources as pedestrians, it might work out.
Mixed scenarios, especially when they involve aggressive, egoistic and/or stupid travelers, seem to beg for catastrophes.