Donald Trump’s tariff-centered push to remake who we are as a nation reminded me of something I’d seen before: a pivot. What is a pivot? In the world of startups, a pivot is radical decision to shift the strategic direction of a company, usually because the original strategy is just not resonating. You see this,…
The US economy, whipsawed by inflationary tariff threats and soon to absorb many laid off federal workers, may be headed for a recession. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics now puts the odds of a recession soon at 35%, while J.P. Morgan Chase rates the likelihood as 40%. President Trump has admitted that a recession is…
Newsletter 77. Toxic growth, journal editors resign, business novellas, three people to follow and three books to read. Bigger’s not better, for companies or countries Companies pursue size. If Donald Trump has his way, so will the United States of America. Observe what happens when companies get bigger and there are some relevant lessons. The…
Newsletter 73. Change you can believe in is change you can understand, merry Christmas to booksellers, how to stump ChatGPT, plus three people to follow and three books to read. How change feels There are two kinds of change: change in what you do, and change in who you are. Both create uncertainty. But the…
Two things are true. One: that many of our most important decisions depend on data generated by the government. And two: regarding the people who produce the government data, president-elect Trump has promised that “As many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out — and I mean immediately — of Washington.” Here’s why that…
All of us who watched the ABC News presidential debate this week shared an experience: a whole bunch of “What the fuck?” moments. These were statements made by the candidates that seemed, not just odd, but completely incendiary, implausible, and out of left field. So let’s evaluate what they said and just as important, was…
You already know what you think today. There’s no point in my attempting to share some witty insight. And there’s no point in competing with news this pervasive. Talk amongst yourselves. See you Monday.
Multiple people on my timeline recently shared the photo of Donald Trump and famous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on a plane, shown below, which is a fake: How do I know it’s fake? As soon as I saw this, I was suspicious. Why? Because while I’ve seen other photos of Trump and Epstein together — as…
For years now, it’s been hard to be a citizen. Cynical and corrupt people appeared to be succeeding in using modern media tools to bamboozle and subvert the political desires of normal, rational folks. In short, it has seemed as if there’s no penalty for lying, deception, and outright lawbreaking. I have wanted to believe…