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matthewmcvickar + economics   19

Tim O'Reilly: Before Solving a Problem, Make Sure You've Got the Right Problem
I was pleased to see the measured tone of the White House response to the citizen petition about SOPA and PIPA, and yet I found myself profoundly disturbed by something that seems to me to go to the root of the problem in Washington: the failure to correctly diagnose the problem we are trying to solve, but instead to accept, seemingly uncritically, the claims of various interest groups.
internet  piracy  sopa  pipa  government  economics  media  film  music 
8 weeks ago by matthewmcvickar
Ben Brooks: Readability and Collection of Money for Others
Readability has no right collecting money in my name without my consent. Now, realistically, I have given Readability consent by signing up — but what about other publishers that have not only not signed up, but have actively chosen to not sign up? Is it still OK for Readability to be collecting money in their name? I think not. But how do you solve this problem? I don’t know, but it is a very real problem.
business  economics  publishing  readability  instapaper  internet  writing 
8 weeks ago by matthewmcvickar
Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater — Statement
Reflecting on his newly self-released $5 internet-only special.

‘I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.’
business  comedy  economics  filesharing  internet 
december 2011 by matthewmcvickar
Slate Magazine: Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses
“After all, if Starbucks can make a profit by putting its stores right across the street from each other, as it so often does, why couldn't a unique, well-run mom and pop do even better next-door? And given America's continuing thirst for exorbitantly priced gourmet coffee drinks, there's a lot of cash out there for the taking. As coffee consultant Dan Cox explained, ‘You can't do better than a cup of coffee for profit. It's insanity. A cup of coffee costs 16 cents. Once you add in labor and overhead, you're still charging a 400 percent markup—not bad! Where else can you do that?’ Until Americans decide they need to pay four bucks a pop every morning for a custom-baked, designer-toast experience, probably nowhere.”
business  economics  food 
april 2011 by matthewmcvickar
Salon.com: How our "security" obsession costs us
"As the TSA feels you up and dresses you down, terrorists are tearing a hole in a new target: The U.S. economy."
america  history  government  security  terrorism  economics  war 
december 2010 by matthewmcvickar
NYTimes.com: Paul Krugman: This Is Not a Recovery
economics  america  history  opinion  writing 
september 2010 by matthewmcvickar
Robert Reich: The Origins of the Enthusiasm Gap
"A stimulus too small to significantly reduce unemployment, a TARP that didn’t trickle down to Main Street, financial reform that doesn’t fundamentally restructure Wall Street, and health-care reforms that don’t promise to bring down health-care costs have all created an enthusiasm gap. They’ve fired up the right, demoralized the left, and generated unease among the general population."
politics  economics  history  2010  government  america 
august 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Economist: Deepwater Horizon: Redundancy prevents catastrophes
We won't spend the money necessary to prevent this from happening again.
bp  oilspill  pollution  environment  history  economics  future 
june 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Atlantic: The Quiet Coup
An International Monetary Fund veteran explains how the US financial situation is like that of a less-powerful nation's developing economy. Oligarchy, corruption, and the financial sector's control of the government — it's not good.
finance  america  history  government  money  politics  economics  business  democracy 
june 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Atlantic: The End of Men
Is it?
culture  women  men  history  society  economics  business  education  feminism  future 
june 2010 by matthewmcvickar
Washblog: Four Basic Kinds of Health Care Financing Around the World
The four most common types of healthcare that really work and don't really work and how ours is a jumble of parts of all four and all the proposals are pretty shitty.
healthcare  america  world  government  economics  health  society  history 
june 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The American: The Omnivore's Delusion — Against the Agri-intellectuals
I want to revisit this later; it is an interesting retort to Michael Pollan and others' condemnations of current farming techniques.
business  ecology  economics  environment  food  policy  politics  science  sustainability  america 
june 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Atlantic: How to Save the News
"Everyone knows that Google is killing the news business. Few people know how hard Google is trying to bring it back to life, or why the company now considers journalism’s survival crucial to its own prospects."
news  journalism  google  internet  information  economics  media  newspaper 
may 2010 by matthewmcvickar
tecosystems: Why I Am Against Software Patents
Plain and simple: software patents don't work because there's too much software and not enough people who know about it.
copyright  economics  ip  patents  software  technology 
march 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Economist: Mobile-phone culture: The Apparatgeist calls
How mobile phone usage differs geographically, and how the difference is lessening.
technology  culture  economics  mobile  phone 
january 2010 by matthewmcvickar
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: A not-so-brief chat with Randall Stephenson of AT&T
"I had this vision of the future — a ruined empire, run by number crunchers, squalid and stupid and puffed up with phony patriotism, settling for a long slow decline."
america  politics  technology  innovation  humor  business  culture  apple  iphone  economics  satire  at&t 
december 2009 by matthewmcvickar
Times Labs Blog: Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?
"The most immediate revelation, of course, is that at some point next year revenues from gigs payable to artists will for the first time overtake revenues accrued by labels from sales of recorded music."
music  business  internet  money  copyright  filesharing  piracy  economics  riaa  graph  chart 
november 2009 by matthewmcvickar
Opposing Views: Should the Government Regulate Net Neutrality?
I want to read this collection of articles someday, but I doubt I will.
netneutrality  technology  web  business  society  internet  government  debate  economics 
march 2009 by matthewmcvickar
Tax Policy Center
A great collection of neutral articles about the facts and possible effects of candidates' proposed tax plans.
taxes  economics  tax  politics  america  economy  research  finance  government  society 
october 2008 by matthewmcvickar

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