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This week I talk about who owns the media and why that matters. I get into the consolidation of media outlets from local owners a century ago to mostly multinational super-rich corporations today, and I unpack some of the ways that change has shaped the media we consume, which in turn shapes us. I talk about the Fairness Doctrine, the war on drugs, free speech, Buster Brown shoes, monopolies and why they are generally discourages in the US, Reagan, neoliberalist policy and lots more. You can find a visual version of this episode with graphics on YouTube. Support the show
Monopolies are nothing new. Government allowing companies to merge and acquire and metastasize into monopolies, though, that is relatively new. The ideas that support monopolies come from a handful of jerks supported by other jerks, who provide trucks full of money. I focus my hairy eyeball of criticism today on one such full truck funded fuck in this Episode 268: Rich Uncle Money-Bork, Welfare Queen. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/08/episode-268-rich-uncle-money-bork.html
On today's episode, Kyle Grieve discusses a thought-provoking framework that redefines competitive advantage through the lens of customer loyalty. Kyle breaks down the five types of customer loyalty moats, introduces the Moat Strength Index (MSI), and explains how investors can use this approach to measure, monitor, and deepen their conviction in high-quality businesses. IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 03:45 – Why scale effects are ineffective against disruption via innovation 06:22 – Why having high customer loyalty is so powerful as an advantage vs competitors 10:01 – The five customer loyalty moats you must know 17:15 – Why ecosystem moats are so hard to build, but generate significant customer loyalty 18:53 – How platform moats generate powerful customer loyalty between multiple parties 20:08 – How can we objectively measure a company's moat using customer loyalty advantages 23:09 – The nine failures in using retention-like KPI's 25:31 – The three barriers that create customer loyalty 26:57 – Why the moat score index is such a handy tool for measuring moat 47:17 – How customer loyalty moats can be disrupted And so much more! Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join Clay and a select group of passionate value investors for a retreat in Big Sky, Montana. Learn more here. Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Buy a copy of Hidden Monopolies here. Listen to TIP694 The Scuttlebutt Edge here. Follow Kyle on Twitter and LinkedIn. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our Premium Feed. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, The Intrinsic Value Newsletter. Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: SimpleMining Hardblock AnchorWatch Human Rights Foundation Cape Unchained Vanta Shopify Onramp Abundant Mines HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Spotify! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm
Steve is joined by retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness to call out the growing monopoly on tech and equipment repairs. Drawing from his decades of military service and leadership, Maness explains why Congress must take action to bust the repair monopolies that hurt consumers, stifle innovation, and threaten national resilience.
Last time we talked about old fashioned censorship, NOW we're talking about how it's used these days! Back in the day there were limited pathways for you to disseminate information: newspapers, radio, TV, public speaking, posters, books, film, pamphlets, ads… They were all easy for governments to shut down in various ways. But then along came the internet and suddenly it was a free for all! Anyone could easily make a website and info was freely shared for good or ill, and it was almost impossible to stop. Then Google made things easier than ever to find. Youtube meant we could share videos. Along came social media where it was easy to connect with others and get info out, Twitter users were even described as “citizen journalists”. Smartphones from Apple and Google made it even simpler to share stuff. But little did we know the seeds had been sown for a return to the bad old days… Monopolies are usually a bad thing and now the internet is divided among a small cadre of huge monopolies. The massive success of social media at connecting us, Google search, Youtube for videos, and Apple and Google at managing our phones and online lives has narrowed us all down and made us far more vulnerable. It's still possible to skirt them all and use other services, but their reach, versatility, utility, ubiquity and user-bases means you're sacrificing a hell of a LOT if you do. Governments are still ineffective at censoring these but they can ban and restrict them which means the media companies that own these services introduce there own forms of restrictions and censorship as a way to try and avoid that and the loss of revue it would mean. The impact of those restrictions are massive since so much of our lives are online now. They can have all your online accounts deleted, it can affect access to all the photos you've taken of your kids, your phones and tablets can become useless, work contacts and friends can be lost, years of work at building an online client base or fans can be wiped out in seconds with no way to get it back, and that's just a small sample. There are REAL costs involved too, these media companies like Meta can steal your money from you and you have zero recourse- the building of those fanbases and connections, online galleries, video production etc has REAL monetary value FAR in excess of the service they provide you (especially since their ads and data mining pay for it), but they treat you and your work as a free resource. Corporate censorship is THE worst issue facing us now in this context, because of its power, reach, arbitrariness, and total lack of any accountability. With a simple change of their Terms of Service, new policies, the AI bots they're using to police stuff suddenly for no reason you can find yourself in peril. Lastly there is the idea of “cancel culture”, which has been quite exaggerated because it's seen as left wing and therefore scary. The truth is it's always been around and practised equally by right wing, left wing, and centrist people. The internet HAS given it more reach and made it a bit easier to “cancel” people because you can more easily find out info about them and what they've done and you can also easily make up things and spread campaigns to attack people whether they're based on truth or lies. What is “cancel culture”? Basically it's a kind of mob justice with all the issues and problems mob justice always has: people are stupider in groups, there is no presumption of innocence or context, and there's no possible limit to the “justice” enacted. For every righteously cancelled person there will be many more who it was done to maliciously. And ALWAYS remember when you support stuff like this, if it can be done to others then it can be done to you. We like to think that these things are only done to “bad” people, but reality doesn't work that way, anyone can see you as bad at any time. Out of it all though, corporate censorship is by far the worst, as the official Drunk Duck Instagram can attest. In an ironic twist it was taken down and deleted by Meta after this Quackcast was recorded. Drunk Duck has had itself “censored” repeatedly by Google because their system downgrades us on its search engine for their own silly reasons, like lack of a mobile site option, putting social media results ahead, we got downgraded for lack of HTTP even though it's not needed at all on our site because accounts contain nothing sensitive and don't deal with money, so we had to pay money to get that up and running to retain our visibility… Have you been the victim of any form of censorship? Even as a viewer? I know many people who've suffered losses and issues do to corporate censorship. Gunwallace wasn't able to do a theme this week so instead we have a reprise of Tales from Two Tiny Tittybars - Bouncing boobs in DA CLUB! This was originally from 6 Nov, 2017 in Quackcast 228. Topics and shownotes Links Previous Quackcast on censorship - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/quackcast/episode-750-censorshipping Forum post about censorship issues - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180046/ Another forum post on censorship problems - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180048/ Twitter is made of bots - https://mashable.com/article/x-twitter-elon-musk-bots-fake-traffic Featured comic: Mister Man Eater - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jul/28/featured-comic-mister-man-eater/ Featured music: Tales from Two Tiny Tittybars - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Tales_from_Two_Tiny_Tittybars/ - By Moneko, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
The historic stock market bull streak has finally come to an end as August kicks off, raising concerns about seasonal weakness, rising volatility, and technical breakdowns. Lance Roberts breaks down what triggered the reversal, how meme stock speculation is adding risk, and what the August-September period historically means for investors. Lance Roberts discusses the latest earnings reports, and provide insights on how to navigate the market correction risks, why investors should be wary of excessively high valuations; managing portfolios for risks today. Lance also covers the aspect of time investors have to recover from adverse results; it's different for a 60-year old vs a 30-year old. Markets are sailing on tailwinds now, but hat if...? Commentary on monopolies, duopolies, and how big is too big? SEG-1a: Our New Digital Format & Housekeeping SEG-1b: Market Commentary - High Beat Rates SEG-2a: New Show Format explainer SEG-2b: The Big Trick with Valuations SEG-2c: Investor Sentiment, Valuations, & FOMO SEG-2d: Managing Portfolios for Risks Today SEG-2e: How Much Time Do You have? SEG-2f: Market Tailwinds & What-if's SEG-2g: Ad Spending on Meta & Google SEG-2h: A Brief History of Monopolies & Gov't Regulation SEG-2i: Markets Are Being Driven by only 6 Companies SEG-2j: Be Cautious Hosted by RIA Advisors RIA Chief Investment Strategist, Lance Roberts, CIO Produced by Brent Clanton, Executive Producer ------- Watch today's video on YouTube: ------- The latest installment of our new feature, Before the Bell, "Is a Reflexive Rally on the Way Today?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PFQOOnWZxI&list=PLwNgo56zE4RAbkqxgdj-8GOvjZTp9_Zlz&index=1 ------- Our previous show is here: "Herd Mentality Could Be Costing You Big" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkyUUEPAlWY&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 ------- Register for our next Candid Coffee, "Savvy Social Security Planning," August 23, 2025: https://streamyard.com/watch/pbx9RwqV8cjF ------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: https://www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to SimpleVisor: https://www.simplevisor.com/register-new -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #MarketRisk #MarketCorrection #BreakingTrendLine #20DMA #StockMarket2025 #BullMarketEnds #AugustStockTrends #InvestingAdvice #Money #Investing
What if your podcast could reach listeners in their native language with your own voice? With Marc traveling today, co-host Sid Meadows takes the lead as we unpack YouTube's new AI dubbing tool and what it could mean for creators. Nick explains how it works, and the rest of us weigh the pros and cons, asking the big question: Will any of us actually use it? We then explore Riverside's move into podcast hosting and whether an all-in-one platform is truly beneficial for podcasters. As always, we end the week by sharing wins and lifting up the community.Episode Highlights: [01:49] Where's Marc?[03:29] YouTube's New Dubbing Feature[13:52] Riverside's New Hosting Capabilities[18:52] Monopolies in Media Platforms[25:37] Exploring New Short-Form Podcast Ideas[27:51] Digital Sales vs. Digital Marketing[35:03] Community-Based Podcasting[42:27] Sharing Wins Links & Resources: Join The Empowered Podcasting Facebook Group:www.facebook.com/groups/empoweredpodcastingGet Your Tickets for The Empowered Podcasting Conference:www.empoweredpodcasting.comMomentum & Flow: https://podcast.app/momentum-flow-p7043162Story Lab Podcast: https://thestorylabpodcast.buzzsprout.com/Remember to rate, follow, share, and review our podcast. Your support helps us grow and bring valuable content to our community.Join us LIVE every weekday morning at 7 am ET (US) on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/house/empowered-podcasting-e6nlrk0wOr Join us on Chatter: https://preview.chattersocial.io/group/98a69881-f328-4eae-bf3c-9b0bb741481dLive on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@marcronickBrought to you by iRonickMedia.com Please note that some links may be affiliate links, which support the hosts of the PMC. Thank you!--- Send in your mailbag question at: https://www.podpage.com/pmc/contact/ or marc@ironickmedia.comWant to be a guest on The Podcasting Morning Chat? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1729879899384520035bad21b
Today we'll be talking about the fear of market consolidation in the wake of new cannabis regulations, in separate incidents Indian tourists robbing a transgender person and calling the cops over a bar girls smaller than expected cup size, and a little later Bangkok and Thailand in general seeing a surge in tourism that should help boost a sluggish economy.
Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature | Bioneers Radio Series
From local communities and states to federal policy, antitrust movements to dismantle monopolies are challenging the system that can be summed up as: Make Feudalism Great Again. Although breaking up is hard to do, we've broken up monopolies before. In this second of our two-part program, we join Thom Hartmann, Stacy Mitchell and Maurice BP-Weeks to survey the landscape of rising antitrust movements to break the stranglehold of corporate power and level the playing field for a democratized economy. Featuring Thom Hartmann, the top progressive talk show host in America for over a decade, a four-time Project Censored Award-winning journalist, and bestselling author. Learn more at his website. Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which produces research and develops policy to counter corporate control and build thriving, equitable communities. Maurice BP-Weeks, Co-Executive Director of ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy) where he works on campaigns to create equitable communities by dismantling systems of wealth extraction in Black and Brown communities. The Hidden History of Monopolies by Thom Hartmann Fighting Monopoly Power | Institute for Local Self-Reliance All Life Is Organized Around Democracy | Thom Hartmann's keynote address to the Bioneers 2020 Conference Democracy vs. Plutocracy panel discussion (video) | Bioneers 2020 Conference Our Economic Future | Bioneers Reader eBook This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.
Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature | Bioneers Radio Series
In this first part of a two-part program, we travel back and forth in time to explore the battle between democracy and plutocracy that goes back to the very founding of the United States. The extreme concentration of corporate power and the prevalence of monopoly are indeed inarguable. If the solution is once again to throw the tea in the harbor, what does that look like in the 21st century? In today's new Gilded Age of rule by the wealthy, rising anti-trust movements are challenging the stranglehold of corporate monopoly. Featuring Thom Hartmann, the top progressive talk show host in America for over a decade, a four-time Project Censored Award-winning journalist, and bestselling author. Learn more at his website. Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which produces research and develops policy to counter corporate control and build thriving, equitable communities. Maurice BP-Weeks, Co-Executive Director of ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy) where he works on campaigns to create equitable communities by dismantling systems of wealth extraction in Black and Brown communities. Resources The Hidden History of Monopolies by Thom Hartmann All Life Is Organized Around Democracy | Thom Hartmann's keynote address to the Bioneers 2020 Conference Democracy vs. Plutocracy panel discussion (video) | Bioneers 2020 Conference Our Economic Future | Bioneers Reader eBook This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss their long-standing production schedule and reliance on listener support through Patreon. They share humorous anecdotes and frustrations about everyday tech issues, such as fixing client problems and dealing with insufficient AI-generated messages. The conversation delves into the ever-increasing costs of essential services like QuickBooks and the challenges of using AI tools like ChatGPT for tasks ranging from contract creation to tech support. They also touch on broader issues involving monopolistic behaviors of tech giants and the impact of poor customer service on consumers. 00:00 Introduction and Support Request 00:28 Prom Date Analogy 00:54 Safari Issue and Client Gratitude 01:53 AI Summaries and Notifications 05:04 Apple Intelligence Rant 05:12 Google Assist Anecdote 06:47 Voice Dictation Errors 10:38 AI Contract Creation 12:43 Challenges with AI Refinement 21:20 AI in Daily Tasks 24:14 The Importance of Note Taking 24:53 AI in Coding and App Development 25:51 Gardening with AI Assistance 29:09 QuickBooks Pricing and Features 36:43 Challenges with Tech Support and Monopolies 46:54 AI's Potential and Limitations 48:22 Conclusion and Support
Monopolies! They're a problem as old as our country itself. On this week's TLDR, we talk to Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, authors of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, about how Canadian companies got so big. And, we look at a surprising proposal for tackling the problem (at least in the airline industry). Plus, we explore how a new wonder drug could spell the end of the opioid epidemic. And, we watch as the pump and dump gets a makeover for the digital age.This episode was hosted by Devin Friedman, business reporter Sarah Rieger and former hedgefunder Matthew Karasz, with appearances by writers Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn. Follow us on other platforms, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter: linkin.bio/tldrThe TLDR Podcast is offered by Wealthsimple Media Inc. and is for informational purposes only. The content in the TLDR Podcast is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell assets or securities, and does not represent the views of Wealthsimple Financial Corp or any of its other subsidiaries or affiliates. Wealthsimple Media Inc. does not endorse any third-party views referenced in this content. More information at wealthsimple.com/tldr.
We're back with a particularly spicy Rich Girl Roundup—this time covering the absolute barrage of feedback on the last three episodes ("Student Loans, 50% Save Rates, and Being a Capitalist" with JL Collins, "How to Use Economic Uncertainty to Get Closer to Your Dream Life" with Amanda Holden, and Rich Girl Nation's Ask Me Anything conversation). Plus, a few clips from the Rich Girl Nation launch party. Get your copy of Rich Girl Nation: https://moneywithkatie.com/rich-girl-nation Transcripts, show notes, resources, and credits can be found at: https://moneywithkatie.com/monopolies — Money with Katie's mission is to be the intersection where the economic, cultural, and political meet the tactical, practical, personal finance education everyone needs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Connect with Mikehttps://x.com/saunders3000 https://xp.xyz/ More from Andrew Follow me on X - https://x.com/AndrewSteinwoldFounders seeking capital, reach out to us at Sfermion - https://www.sfermion.io Subscribe to my newsletter - https://andrewsteinwold.substack.comCheck out my podcast speaking with crypto investors - https://www.youtube.com/@AngelstoAllocators
PBM Pricing Nightmare: Pharmacists Expose Hidden Tactics! We dive into the most frustrating PBM tactics pharmacists face today, revealing unjust pricing discrepancies where reimbursements are lower than acquisition costs.
Kiva posed an excellent question about economic hygiene that we encourage you to reflect on. Join us as we deconstruct, “PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America” by Dr. Claud Anderson. This episode wraps up our discussion about Chapter 1, entitled “Racism, Monopolies and Inappropriate Behavior.” We are Kiva and Kahawia. This episode features music from Lewy Lotus. Visit AfroSoFly.comBecome a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/afrosofly
In this episode of the California Underground Podcast, hosts Phil and Camille discuss significant issues in California politics, focusing on San Diego's budget crisis under Mayor Todd Gloria, the implications of budget cuts on community services, and the ongoing corruption within LA's Homeless Services Authority. TAre you a Californian who feels isolated and alone in your political views in a deep blue state? Feel like you can't talk about insane taxes, an overbearing government, and radical social experiments without getting a side eye? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast on all things California politics.Original air date 5.13.25Chapters00:00 Introduction to California Politics Podcast03:25 Cringe Moment of the Week: Bernie Sanders06:28 San Diego's Budget Deficit and Todd Gloria's Proposal09:37 La Jolla's Secession Attempt and Its Implications13:30 Public Services Cuts: Libraries and Arts Programs15:23 Community Reactions to Budget Cuts18:19 The Impact of Political Promises on City Budgets21:29 Monopolies in City Services: Trash Collection and More24:17 Controversial Spending: Rainbow Flag Project27:30 Conclusion and Future Implications36:46 Budget Shortfalls and City Projects41:47 Public Servants and Salary Cuts45:10 Local Elections Matter46:51 Corruption in LA's Homeless Services59:35 Government Connections and Accountability*The California Underground Podcast is dedicated to discussing California politics from a place of sanity and rationality.*Check out our full site for more information about the show at www.californiaunderground.liveCheck out our sponsor for this episode, StopBox, by going to www.stopbox.com/californiaunderground to get 10% off your orderFollow California Underground on Social Media Instagram: www.instagram.com/californiaunderground X: https://twitter.com/CAUndergoundTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@californiaunderground?_t=8o6HWHcJ1CM&_r=1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj8SabIcF4AKqEVFsLmo1jA Read about our Privacy Policy: https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/
Mark Meador is the newest commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, which plays a dual role: enforcing both antitrust and consumer protection laws. It also serves as America's de facto technology regulator, including overseeing digital privacy and cybersecurity issues.Commissioner Meador embodies the political realignment reshaping conservative views on big business, capitalism, and free trade. The Trump Administration's antitrust cases against Big Tech represent arguably the clearest expression of this shift. While the Biden administration aggressively targeted mergers and acquisitions—Wall Street's bread and butter—many financial elites hoped Donald Trump's return would restore a laissez-faire approach to antitrust. They've been in for disappointment.A recent speech by Meador laid out a conservative vision for antitrust, challenging long-held Republican Party orthodoxies and sparking backlash from libertarians. He joins Evan to discuss the tensions at the heart of the this realignment: how free-market principles can coexist with robust antitrust enforcement; how skeptics of big government find common cause with critics of big business; and how conservatives are crafting their own distinctive approach to antitrust while embracing the bipartisan consensus that has emerged over the past eight years.
The MacVoices Live! panel of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, and Jeff Gamet analyze the latest developments in the Epic vs. Apple lawsuit, focusing on Judge Gonzalez's criticism of Apple's failure to enable alternate payment options in good faith. Allegations of perjury against an Apple executive and the company's strategic missteps take center stage. The group debates Apple's App Store fee structure, the role of government oversight, and whether developers will embrace the new rules or remain cautious. MacVoices is supported by Insta360 and their new Insta360 X5 360° 8K camera. Get a free invisible selfie stick worth $24.99 at store.insta360.com and use the promo code “macvoices”. Selfie stick offer available for the first 30 standard packages. Show Notes: Chapters: 00:08 Introduction to MacVoices 03:10 The Epic vs. Apple Court Case 12:33 Apple's Compliance and Developer Reactions 16:01 The Future of App Store Payments 34:22 Government Oversight and Monopolies 35:45 Closing Thoughts and Next Steps Links: Court orders Apple to stop collecting fees for purchases made outside the App Store https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/court-orders-apple-to-stop-collecting-fees-for-purchases-made-outside-the-app-store-110036376.html Epic v. Apple: a judge says Phil Schiller wanted Apple to comply with the court order, but Tim Cook ignored him, and its finance VP “outright lied under oath” https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/30/court-finds-apple-executive-lied-under-oath.html Apple files appeal against court ruling that mandated App Store changes https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/05/05/apple-files-appeal-against-court-ruling-that-mandated-app-store-changes It's Been 22 Years Since Apple Launched the iTunes Store https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/28/itunes-store-22-year-anniversary/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon http://patreon.com/macvoices Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web: http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon: https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe: Audio in iTunes Video in iTunes Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss
In this episode, we look at a major legal ruling that could shake up the adtech market, some new capabilities to make AI agents even smarter, and a tech industry deal that could breathe new life into a struggling giant.
In this week's episode, Lizzie and Arden unravel the truly complex world of U.S. antitrust laws! Join them as they learn their history, the different acts that make up the laws today, and the impact they have had on the economy! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @letsgetcivical, @lizzie_the_rock_stewart, and @ardenjulianna. Or visit us at letsgetcivical.com for all the exciting updates! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Many of us are at war on an emotional level, which is damaging to collective economic growth. Join us as we deconstruct, “PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America” by Dr. Claud Anderson. This episode covers our notes from pages 1-16 of Chapter 1, entitled “Racism, Monopolies and Inappropriate Behavior.”We are Kiva and Kahawia. This episode features music from Tommi Truthz. Visit AfroSoFly.comBecome a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/afrosofly
The line between technological innovation and dehumanization grows increasingly blurred as companies embrace AI solutions that fundamentally alter human interaction. At the forefront of this shift is Otter AI founder Sam Liang, who has developed an AI-powered avatar that attends 90% of his business meetings, complete with voice synthesis mimicking his speech patterns and the ability to make decisions based on his past behaviors. This represents a troubling evolution where leadership presence becomes optional, raising profound questions about authenticity, trust, and what we sacrifice when algorithms replace human connection.Meanwhile, scammers continue finding sophisticated ways to exploit our trust through technology. A particularly alarming trend involves fake banking apps designed to mimic legitimate banking platforms, allowing fraudsters to display convincing "payment successful" screens while walking away with sellers' goods. The face-to-face nature of these scams blends old-fashioned confidence tricks with digital deception, leaving victims thousands of dollars out of pocket with little recourse.The tech landscape continues to be shaped by major corporate competition and legal challenges. Google faces its second antitrust loss in a year as a US judge ruled the company maintains an illegal monopoly in online advertising. Simultaneously, Amazon expands its technological empire across multiple fronts—from entertainment franchises to autonomous vehicles with Zoox robotaxis, to challenging SpaceX's Starlink with its Project Kuiper satellite internet service.These developments highlight the growing consolidation of power among tech giants while raising important questions about innovation, competition, and how technology serves humanity. As AI systems increasingly stand in for human judgment and interaction, we must critically examine whether these advances truly enhance our lives or merely replace authentic connection with algorithmic approximation.Join us as we navigate this complex technological landscape with humor, insight, and a commitment to understanding how these developments affect our daily lives and future prospects.Support the show
DOGE places AmeriCorps staff on administrative leave, Google in the hot seat for its search engine monopoly, 'Sinners' dominates the box-office with $45M on opening weekend, and lab-grown chicken nuggets make its way in rotation. NewsDOGE comes for AmeriCorps staff in Washington and across the countryThis week in science: Drumming crabs, lab-made nuggets and LSD without the trip'Sinners' is a box-office winner, making $45 million on its opening weekendThe Justice Department is about to make its case for a Google breakup. Here's what to know Follow @PodSaveThePeople on Instagram.
President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House greeted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a close ally who wants to act as a power broker between Washington and Europe amid tensions over U.S tariffs.Alphabet's Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled on Thursday.European and Ukrainian officials held talks in Paris to plead Kyiv's case to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff.
From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated regularly on weekdays, featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Anchored by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.
Kevin Hartz is Co-Founder and General Partner at A*, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments. Before establishing A*, Kevin co-founded Eventbrite and guided the company as CEO for its first 11 years before it went public. His entrepreneurial journey also includes co-founding Xoom, a digital money transfer service that PayPal acquired in 2015 for over $1 billion. Kevin has established himself as a successful angel investor with seed investments in companies like PayPal, Airbnb, Pinterest, Ramp, Trulia, and Anduril. His investment portfolio also includes early stakes in prominent companies such as Uber, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Gusto, and numerous others.00:00 - Intro04:25 - Kevin's North Star06:27 - The Bottleneck to Entrepreneurship09:20 - The Explosion of Capital in Private Technology Markets11:52 - Monopolies and the Shift in Private Enterprise Value Distribution15:18 - Do Public Markets Price Themselves In?16:37 - When Is VC a Suitable Capital Instrument?19:09 - Agglomeration and The Future of Venture Capital20:56 - Cost of Capital and Competing in Venture23:09 - Is Value-Add Real?25:33 - On IPOing27:14 - Picking and Magnitude of Outcomes28:41 - Founders and Investors as Personality Types29:56 - Seed and Growth Investing as Distinct Skillsets32:02 - Incubations33:56 - Symptoms of Excess Capital35:55 - Can You Kingmake With Capital?37:17 - When Does It Make Sense to Raise a Huge Round?38:17 - Capital Efficiency39:39 - The Expansion of Technology Markets41:51 - Capital Innovation in Venture43:47 - The Endgame of Evaluation44:33 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?
The United States government created the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890 because the country was facing serious problems due to the centralization of power into the hands of oligarchs in the oil, steel, and railroad industries. Standard Oil had 91% of the market share in the oil refining industry when it was broken up in 1911, but the remnants remain in the form of Exxon Mobile, Chevron, Amaco, Conoco, Marathon, and Atlantic Richfield. U.S. Steel almost felt the wrath of the Department of Justice, but market forces intervened, and Microsoft could have been broken up in 2001 had it not been for a legal act of God. What current company is heading in that direction towards total market domination, and what could a captured American government even do to stop it from happening? Probably depends on who got campaign donations and who did not. The Octopus of Global Control Audiobook: https://amzn.to/3xu0rMm Hypocrazy Audiobook: https://amzn.to/4aogwms Website: www.Macroaggressions.io Activist Post: www.activistpost.com Sponsors: Chemical Free Body: https://www.chemicalfreebody.com Promo Code: MACRO C60 Purple Power: https://c60purplepower.com/ Promo Code: MACRO Wise Wolf Gold & Silver: www.Macroaggressions.gold LegalShield: www.DontGetPushedAround.com EMP Shield: www.EMPShield.com Promo Code: MACRO ECI Development: https://info.ecidevelopment.com/-get-to-know-us/macro-aggressions Christian Yordanov's Health Transformation Program: www.LiveLongerFormula.com Privacy Academy: https://privacyacademy.com/step/privacy-action-plan-checkout-2/?ref=5620 Brain Supreme: www.BrainSupreme.co Promo Code: MACRO Above Phone: abovephone.com/macro Promo Code: MACRO Van Man: https://vanman.shop/?ref=MACRO Promo Code: MACRO Activist Post: www.ActivistPost.com Natural Blaze: www.NaturalBlaze.com Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/macroaggressionspodcast
Satellite internet is rewriting the rules of connectivity. In this episode of All Things Policy, Ashwin Prasad and Sowmya Prabhakar, COO at the Takshashila Institution, unpack the rise of Cloud Nomads and how beaming broadband from space will shift digital behaviours, challenge governance frameworks, and spark geopolitical issues.Monopolies in the sky? Check.Satellite insurance (yes, it's a thing)? Check.Privacy when your data is literally out of this world? Double-check.Tune in as we orbit around the universe of implications that satellite internet could have on society, markets, and government.The PGP is a comprehensive 48-week hybrid programme tailored for those aiming to delve deep into the theoretical and practical aspects of public policy. This multidisciplinary course offers a broad and in-depth range of modules, ensuring students get a well-rounded learning experience. The curriculum is delivered online, punctuated with in-person workshops across India.https://school.takshashila.org.in/pgpAll Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/...Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
Tinfoil Hat Tuesday: Filibusters, Pubic Hair Rings, and Trump's Tariff TantrumsDan and Corey kick off this wild episode of Libservative with a pubic hair ring gift idea, hilarious technical hiccups, and a deep dive into Michigan oil spills. They mock Cory Booker's epic 25-hour filibuster, rant about Trump's tariffs and foreign policy bluffs, and dig into Netanyahu's perpetual warnings about Iran. They also tear apart the ridiculous non-citizen Social Security numbers and voter fraud claims. Strap in for politically incorrect rants and no-holds-barred commentary.00:00 Welcome to Lib Conservative01:13 Liberation Day and Tariff Talk01:27 Netanyahu's Plans and Michigan Oil Spills02:22 The Pubic Hair Ring Gift Idea06:52 Political Breakup Story17:42 Tim Burchett's Hot Pocket Comment22:14 Marjorie Taylor Greene vs. British Reporter29:08 Michigan Oil Spills and Deregulation Debate36:39 Understanding Deregulation36:54 Regulation and Economic Waste37:52 Libertarian Views on Free Market39:49 Monopolies and Power Companies45:31 Government Spending and GDP49:06 SNAP Benefits and Corporate Welfare53:01 The Hamster Wheel of Economic Policy01:01:04 Tariffs and Free Trade01:10:20 Immigration and Social Security Fraud01:21:03 Electoral Strategy and Voter Distribution01:21:51 Non-Citizens and Social Security Numbers01:22:27 Immigration and Government Benefits01:23:30 Legal Hispanic Voters and Trump01:25:30 Trump's Foreign Policy and Iran01:28:22 Netanyahu and Iran's Nuclear Threat01:45:16 Cory Booker's Filibuster02:00:04 Closing Remarks and Podcast Information
Send us a textThis week on 2 Fat Guys Talking Flowers, the spotlight is on... us! That's right; the Fat Guys Crew takes over the mic to chat about everything from hilarious AI roasts to the joys of running an independent boutique farm. We're also sharing some exciting news—Fresh Fest 2025 is officially on the horizon! Tune in to hear the big reveal of the date and location for this year's highly anticipated event. Want to learn more about Fresh Fest? Reach out to Mimi at mimi@jetfreshflowers.com. It's an episode packed with laughs & insights.
Is the economy on the brink of collapse? Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley break down the emergency financial crisis no one is talking about The Diary Of A CEO's economics debate is joined by 2 experts: Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley. Gary Stevenson is a British economist, former financial trader, and author of The Trading Game. Daniel Priestly is an award-winning serial entrepreneur who has written 5 books on starting and scaling businesses. In this conversation, Gary, Daniel, and Steven discuss topics such as, whether there is a financial apocalypse looming, if both the US and the UK are running out of money, how the next financial crash could be worse than 2008, and why millionaires are fleeing the UK. 00:00 Intro 02:10 Who Is Gary Stevenson? 07:30 Who Is Daniel Priestly? 10:04 The Importance of Economic Freedom 11:56 Who Are We Blaming for the Economic Situation? 13:32 The UK & US Debt We're Carrying From COVID 17:44 Is There Financial Security for Most of Us in 2025? 26:13 What Does Gary Think of Daniel's Views? 28:58 The Current Homeownership Situation 34:21 US vs UK Market With Building Technology 36:38 Taxing Billionaires 41:03 Do You Tax Their Value or the Countries Where They Trade? 45:36 Why Are Millionaires Leaving the UK? 48:49 Stopping Profit Shifting of Companies 52:40 How $10M+ Companies Avoid Taxes 58:01 Where Is the Biggest Amount of Money Going? 01:00:06 How to Bring Big Tech Companies and Entrepreneurs to the UK 01:04:45 Are Tax Evasions Causing Issues With NHS, Education, and Higher Crime? 01:10:31 Why Poor People Are Struggling to Build Wealth 01:19:49 Ads 01:20:53 How to Create Wealth in the Economy 01:37:17 Monopolies 01:40:18 Advice to Younger People 01:45:02 What to Do as a Young Person 01:47:12 Take Action: Play the Cards You Are Dealt 01:51:45 Do We Have Personal Responsibility to Change This? 01:54:05 Is the Current Education System Failing Us? 02:00:56 Inheritance Taxes 02:04:50 Ads 02:10:05 America's Approach to Building Wealth Follow Gary: YouTube - https://g2ul0.app.link/xdrUsPgERRb Instagram - https://g2ul0.app.link/OoThWmfERRb Follow Daniel: X - https://g2ul0.app.link/3ui4EJjERRb Instagram - https://g2ul0.app.link/Wa2RfsaHRRb Website - https://g2ul0.app.link/jUbxNu8GRRb Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook You can purchase the The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards: Second Edition, here: https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Fiverr - http://fiverr.com/diary with code DIARY WHOOP - https://JOIN.WHOOP.COM/CEO Perfect Ted - https://www.perfectted.com with code DIARY40 for 40% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rob Pizzola is joined by the Director of Trading at Amelco, Mark Hill to discuss the behind-the-scenes of sportsbook operations, the inner workings of the regulated market, the future of the sports betting industry, and much more in what is bound to go down as a classic Circles Off episode.
Cecilia Rikap explains how today's big tech hegemons build intellectual monopolies and use their power for corporate planning beyond ownership. This episode was recorded during a live event with Cecilia Rikap, hosted by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation Berlin. Many thanks to everybody involved! For information on the event, see: https://www.rosalux.de/en/event/es_detail/2MGCX --- If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help: Democratic planning – an information website https://www.democratic-planning.com/ Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1. https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1 Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk] https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction International Network for Democratic Economic Planning https://www.indep.network/ Democratic Planning Research Platform: https://www.planningresearch.net/ --- Shownotes Cecilia Rikap at University College London (UCL): https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/94616-cecilia-rikap Cecilias upcoming book: Rikap, C. (2025). The Rulers. Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud. Verso Books. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790833/the-rulers-by-cecilia-rikap/ Rikap, C., & Lundvall, B.-Å. (2021). The Digital Innovation Race: Conceptualizing the Emerging New World Order. Springer Nature. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-89443-6#overview Rikap, C. (2021). Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Capitalism-Power-and-Innovation-Intellectual-Monopoly-Capitalism-Uncovered/Rikap/p/book/9780367750299?srsltid=AfmBOoohn2o3_THE5S57rt4kTs62Fp3kv5AUNj8rUTdn7ywK9LFhfEro Rikap C., Durand, C., Paraná, E., Gerbaudo, P. and Marx P. (2024). Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty: A Roadmap to build a Digital Stack for People and the Planet. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2024/dec/reclaiming-digital-sovereignty Bensussan, H., Durand, C., Rikap, C. (2023) 100 years of Corporate Planning. From Industrial Capitalism to Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism through the lenses of the Harvard Business Review (1922-2021). https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:171107 Rikap, C. (2023) Mapping the Cloud. Big Tech taking the Sky by Storm. CITYPERC Working Paper, No. 2023-05. https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/280831 Rikap, C. (2024) From Planning AI to Planning the Green Transition. Intellectual Monopolization amid the ecological breakdown. https://youtu.be/cckqeiwXuHA?si=N3lRKBiN-KVQaXyA Rikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. Knowledge Predation and Corporate Planning in the 21st Century. https://www.youtube.com/live/VMU1IHm8838?si=jiOLSryWIyM9NvYL Rikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. How Big Tech Companies became the World's largest Planners. https://youtu.be/4va-JedZGQA?si=0p_Lm-CJ-mbK6GoN on the concept of Value Chains: https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/pgcerts/value-chain-defs on “demand sensing”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_sensing on the concept of „the stack” and its relation to states: Bratton, B. H. (2016). The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty. MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262029575/the-stack/ on Doge and its cutting of jobs at US government agencies: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23vkd57471o on Lina Kahn, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Biden and her policy efforts (including antitrust laws against Big Tech): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Khan on the different political strands coming together in the current Trump Administration, including the influence of Curtis Yarvin: https://youtu.be/YIPWekMahXc?si=mcY_ntC1-etzulF5 on Yann leCun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_LeCun Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics S03E24 | Grace Blakeley on Capitalist Planning and its Alternatives https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e24-grace-blakeley-on-capitalist-planning-and-its-alternatives/ S02E44 | Evgeny Morozov on Discovery Beyond Competition https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e44-evgeny-morozov-on-discovery-beyond-competition/ S01E45 | Benjamin Bratton on Synthetic Catallaxies, Platforms or Platforms & Red Futurism (Part 2/2) https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e45-benjamin-bratton-on-synthetic-catallaxies-platforms-of-platforms-red-futurism-part-2-2/ S01E44 | Benjamin Bratton on Synthetic Catallaxies, Platforms or Platforms & Red Futurism (Part 1/2) https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e44-benjamin-bratton-on-synthetic-catallaxies-platforms-of-platforms-red-futurism-part-1-2/ S01E42 | Moira Weigel on Palantir, Tech-Nationalism & Aggression in the Life-World https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e42-moira-weigel-on-palantir-tech-nationalism-aggression-in-the-life-world/ Future Histories Contact & Support If you like Future Histories, please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistories Contact: office@futurehistories.today Twitter: https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/ Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistories English webpage: https://futurehistories-international.com Episode Keywords #CeciliaRikap, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #futurehistoriesinternational, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #BigTech, #CapitalistPlanning, #Monopolies, #PlatformCapitalism, #ProgressivePolitics, #EconomicPlanning, #TechnoPolitics, #Capitalism, #BigData, #TheStack, #Platform, #DataPolitics, #TechNationalism, #Techno-Nationalism, #PeterThiel, #SiliconValley, #Palantir, #CurtisYarvin, #IntellectualMonopolies, #KnowledgeCapitalism, #TechSovereignty, #DataColonialism, #AiAndCapitalism, #TechnoFeudalism, #IntellectualPropertyRegimes
Unusual Whales Pod Ep. 57: Quality Investing, Moats, and Buffett sponsored by TemaETFsThis episode of the Unusual Whales Pod was recorded Live on March 13th, 2025. Nicholas is joined by the Founder and CEO of Tema ETFs Maurits Pots, who manages the Monopolies and Oligopolies ETF, $TOLL investing in Quality Companies with tangible Moats to Unlock Long-term Compounding.Join us as we explore the concepts of quality investing, what makes a moat, and how investors can navigate the turbulent waters of current market volatility.Panel:Maurits Pot https://x.com/mauritspot Pieter “Compounding Quality” https://x.com/QCompounding Hosted by: Nicholas FNS: https://twitter.com/NicholasFNSUnusual Whales: https://twitter.com/unusual_whalesThis Pod is not financial advice. Unusual Whales Inc. is not registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) or any state securities regulatory authority. The stock market is risky, and any trade or investment is expected to have some, or total, loss. Please do research before any trade. Do not use this information for financial decisions or for investing. You should consult your legal or tax professional regarding your specific situation.Unusual Social Media:Discord: https://discord.com/invite/unusualwhalesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/unusualwhalesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unusualwhales/Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/unusual_whales/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unusual_whalesTwitter: https://twitter.com/unusual_whalesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/unusualwhales/Merch: https://unusual-whales.creator-spring.com/**
Vlad Panin, CEO and Founder of iFrame.AI , leads a pioneering company transforming medical coding through AI by replacing manual coding labor with an automated, HIPAA-compliant solution. iFrame.AI ’s flagship product offers advanced ICD, CPT, and HCPCS coding capabilities with a vast context window, EHR integration, and features like ROI-optimized modifiers and prior authorization tips, promising efficiency and security for healthcare providers. Beyond iFrame.AI , Panin also mentors at Alchemist Accelerator and contributes to Forbes, sharing expertise on healthcare technology and RPA advancements. Key Takeaways: 01:11 - Dismantling Outdated Systems 04:28 - The Medical Monopoly Problem 20:24 - AI-Driven Solutions 24:33 - Fear of Efficiency 26:03 - Resistance to Innovation 31:07 - Public Awareness and Demand for Change in the US Healthcare System 31:53 - Empowering the People to Challenge the System Quote of the Show: 31:06 "For me. Is it just so obvious to raise these questions. They were not raising them before now. So now I see that people are asking, why should it be this way? Why do the doctors quit? Why we cannot afford medicine that costs literally like a few cents in Europe. And it's not like third party country rates. What are the best developed countries in the world? Let's put it this way, it's affordable. And here it's not, in the richest country in the world. That's crazy.” Podcast Information Want PR that actually matters? Get 30 minutes of expert advice in a fast-paced, zero-nonsense session from Karla Jo Helms, a veteran Crisis PR and Anti-PR Strategist who knows how to tell your story in the best possible light and get the exposure you need to disrupt your industry. Click here to book your call: https://info.jotopr.com/free-anti-pr-eval Ways to connect with Vlad Panin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-iframe-ai/ Company website: https://www.iframe.ai/ How to get more Disruption/Interruption: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruptionApple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlDSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Please enjoy this encore episode of Caveat. This week on the show, Dave and Ben are excited to welcome N2K's very own Ethan Cook, a trusted policy expert, who will be joining regularly for a new segment. Starting this month, Ethan will be contributing every second week to dive deep into the world of law, privacy, surveillance, and more, offering insightful analysis on the latest policy stories. While this show covers legal topics, and Ben is a lawyer, the views expressed do not constitute legal advice. For official legal advice on any of the topics we cover, please contact your attorney. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: US state-by-state AI legislation snapshot Policy Deep Dive In this Caveat Policy Deep Dive, our conversation and analysis revolves around antitrust policy. Throughout this conversation, we break down what the current antitrust landscape is and how this landscape may change as the incoming administration takes over. Some key aspects focused on during this conversation center on some of the key antitrust cases currently being pursued, such as the landmark Google antitrust case, and how the Trump administration may utilize, revise, or remove Biden's antitrust policies, as with the 2023 merger guidelines. Get the weekly Caveat Briefing delivered to your inbox. Like what you heard? Be sure to check out and subscribe to our Caveat Briefing, a weekly newsletter available exclusively to N2K Pro members on N2K CyberWire's website. N2K Pro members receive our Thursday wrap-up covering the latest in privacy, policy, and research news, including incidents, techniques, compliance, trends, and more. This week's Caveat Briefing covers the story of the U.S. has announcing new regulations restricting the global flow of AI chips, aimed at maintaining its leadership in AI while limiting access to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The rules impose export quotas on about 120 countries, with exemptions for key allies like Japan and the Netherlands, while setting stringent conditions for major cloud service providers to build data centers abroad. Curious about the details? Head over to the Caveat Briefing for the full scoop and additional compelling stories. Got a question you'd like us to answer on our show? You can send your audio file to caveat@thecyberwire.com. Hope to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Get Your Copy of Cooperation and Coercion Now! http://www.cooperationandcoercion.com See More Ant and James! http://www.wordsandnumbers.org Show Your Support for Words & Numbers at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wordsandnumbers Topic of the Week https://www.libertycon.com Words & Numbers Backstage https://www.facebook.com/groups/130029457649243/ More James at Smoke & Stories https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjILow4-ZJpBV-NnmSusZJ_vCuzKUJ4Ig More Ant on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/antonydavies Let Us Know What You Think mailto:wordsandnumberspodcast@gmail.com Antony Davies on Twitter https://twitter.com/antonydavies James R. Harrigan on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesRHarrigan #AntonyDavies #JamesRHarrigan #WordsAndNumbers #economics #government #politics #policy #libertarian #classicalliberal #podcast #educational
Lots of healthy disagreement in this week's THAT WAS THE WEEK tech show with Keith Teare. We debate the impact of AI on coding jobs, with Keith suggesting that while traditional coding skills may become less important, system architecture and AI guidance skills will be crucial to maintaining the value of human labor. We also discuss the rise of early-stage unicorns, military-tech AI start-ups, and disagree strongly on the status of billionaires, with Keith arguing that it's “not hard” to be a billionaire in Silicon Valley today. Here are the five KEEN ON takeaways from today's conversation:* Divergent Market and Valley Sentiment: While the stock market is having its worst performance since Trump's inauguration, Silicon Valley remains optimistic, particularly about AI. Keith argues there's no short-term correlation between Silicon Valley sentiment and market performance.* Evolution of Tech Skills: The rise of AI is changing the nature of technical skills needed in startups. Keith suggests that traditional coding skills are becoming less crucial, while the ability to architect systems and guide AI is becoming more important. He notes that universities are already adapting their computer science programs to include AI.* Rise of Efficient Startups: AI is enabling lean startups to do more with fewer people. Keith uses his own company Signal Rank as an example, noting they've built a complex system with just five people, two of whom are coders, highlighting a shift in how startups can be built efficiently.* Military-Tech Convergence: There's a growing trend of Silicon Valley companies entering the defense sector, exemplified by Saronic raising $600 million for autonomous warships. This represents a broader shift in how military technology is being developed and funded through private companies.* Debate about Wealth Creation: The conversation concludes with a debate about wealth accumulation, sparked by Robert Reich's controversial X post about billionaires. Keith argues that technology's global reach and distribution capabilities have made it easier than ever to build valuable companies, with Andrew strongly disputing the idea that becoming a billionaire is "not that hard."That Was The Week - February 22, 2025With Andrew Keen and Keith TeareAndrew Keen: Hello everybody. It is Saturday, February the 22nd, 2025. The last Saturday in February, the last Saturday we're going to do That Was The Week tech roundup. It's been an odd week. On the one hand, the stocks notched the worst week since Trump's inauguration six weeks ago. It's been a long six weeks. According to the Financial Times, the geopolitical rupture, which of course has been caused by Trump, has sparked a quiet market rebellion. Niall Ferguson had an interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal about the demise of the United States because of its massive debt, and Elon Musk has been continuing to make a public fool of himself this week, waving a chainsaw and pretending to be an Argentine politician, which I'm not sure reflects that well on him. However, in spite of all that bad news, Keith Teare's That Was The Week newsletter is actually very optimistic. Unicorns are back, according to Keith, and we have an image, of course, created by AI of these imaginary beasts horses with horns. Keith is joining us, as always, from Palo Alto, the home of optimism. Keith, do you think it's coincidental that suddenly everyone is optimistic again in Silicon Valley whilst the market is sliding to those two things in an odd way, kind of go together?Keith Teare: There's no correlation between Silicon Valley and the markets at all in any day to day sense. There's long term correlation, but not short term. Silicon Valley is having a moment because of AI, and Grok Three was launched this week. Crunchbase launched its new AI driven data platform, and the CEO declared that historical data is dead, meaning only future predictive data is any good anymore.Andrew Keen: And historical data being dead. The future is predictive intelligence. What does that mean?Keith Teare: He means that it's now possible, because of AI, to see patterns and trends and predict them. Just knowing the past is not the point anymore. Obviously it's stretching a point. You still need the history from the past to see the trends. But he's saying the needle has turned from looking backwards to predicting the future because of data. That's true in biology as well. There's a massive arc this week announced a new model that understands DNA and can predict the likelihood of solving diseases.Andrew Keen: Your editorial this week, Keith, is quite personal. You know that as the person in charge of Signal Rank, your startup, AI has been remarkably helpful in it. You refer in the editorial to an interesting piece in the New York Times about how AI is changing Silicon Valley build startups like your own Signal. What does your experience at Signal Rank tell us about the future of startups?Keith Teare: Signal Rank is five people. Two of us have coding skills. We've raised $5 million ever to spend on building Signal. All the other money we raised is to invest in companies. That article is focusing on the fact that it's almost like the Lean Startup story from the early 2000s, except it's true this time, because the most expensive thing in a startup is people. And the one thing you need less of is people. That's a massive shift. Of course, if you're building large language models, the opposite is true, because the most expensive thing is GPUs, which you pay Nvidia for. And that's super expensive. But everything else that's sitting on top of that is getting faster, cheaper and better.Andrew Keen: You also refer to a New York Times piece about how AI is prompting an evolution, not an extinction for coders. Your son's a coder, in a sense, you're a coder. Ultimately, one and I was at this thing with Tim Draper a couple of weeks ago where he was talking about companies, billion dollar companies built and managed by single people won't ultimately make most coders extinct. Maybe not all. But when founders like yourselves simply become coders and you won't have the need for other help.Keith Teare: I make the point in an editorial that I didn't write a single line of code, but I've built a very complex system with lots of AI agents working together and delivering results for users. Learning to code is going to be a low requirement. A very high requirement is learning to architect and guide the AI because the AI can code, but it can't imagine systems to build or know when it got it right or when it got it wrong. The skill base is going to shift to what normally would be the domain of a product manager who has coding skills and can understand what's happening and can understand what it can ask for and what it can't ask for. But coding itself, learning Python, learning JavaScript or Java? Probably less essential.Andrew Keen: So what happens to kids like your son who just graduated and now works in Silicon Valley as a coder?Keith Teare: He'll still be needed for some time. In his company, they're not allowed to use AI yet. It's a little bit like dying skills always protect themselves until they can't. Engineers that are defensive or companies that are defensive about using AI are going to fall behind a little bit. But eventually everyone gets there because it's just a better way of doing things.Andrew Keen: You're an innovator and instinctive in terms of innovation. But are people going to start going to college and doing majors and working with AI rather than learning how to code? Will computer science be really about how to ask the right questions and ask it to do the correct things?Keith Teare: Yes, but to do that you need to understand systems architecture. My youngest son just got an offer from my old university in the UK, Kent, and it's for a course called Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, so they're already evolving the courses to teach the new skills. I think it's going to be imperative if you can talk to a machine and you can imagine what you want it to build. Imagine you could describe to a machine the website you'd really like for Keen on America, and it would build it, and then you'd look at what it built and say, no, I didn't mean that, I meant this. It gives you massive power to produce things.Andrew Keen: And I think it's also true with writers. I'm not a coder. But the thing with AI is it's not designed to replicate human writing. It's designed to answer questions and organize ideas in ways that are instant as opposed to taking hours or days for humans. So it's similar in that sense. Meanwhile, let's go back to your unicorns. It's all coming out of Crunchbase that your wife works for. She writes for it. And what is Crunchbase telling us this week about quote unquote minting early stage startups? Are unicorns back in fashion? We haven't talked about unicorns for about a year. We talk about them every week.Keith Teare: The rates of unicorn production declined massively from 2021 onwards and reached the bottom last year.Andrew Keen: While the market was strong and now it's falling and unicorns are back.Keith Teare: This article is specifically about early stage unicorns. These are unicorns that become unicorns at a series A or a series B round. They're raising very large sums of money. The top six series A raises this week all raised more than $50 million.Andrew Keen: And the average valuation I guess early round has jumped to 3.3 billion. But doesn't the unicorn term become slightly absurd if you're raising hundreds of millions of dollars? It's given that you're going to be a unicorn. But does that really mean anything?Keith Teare: If you try to put it into a rational framework, the amount of money put into a company and the valuation is determined by supply and demand and likely outcomes. Investors who are writing these checks are making a calculation of what this company will be worth in the next five to ten years. They're writing checks appropriate to a gain of at least ten times that money. They're projecting into the future a likely outcome from writing the checks and the competition to invest in these companies is so intense that the checks get bigger earlier. Obviously that creates risk. The risk is that you're making the call too early and you're going to be wrong in your predictions. The upside is that you know you're right and you'll be smiling all the way to the bank. That's just the nature of any technology transfer.Andrew Keen: Is this different from any other hysteria boom? Just the numbers are larger. Is this different from the dot-com boom where huge amounts of money were poured in? Most companies failed. Some succeeded, like Amazon or like web 2.0, or like social media or like crypto.Keith Teare: It's very similar. It's more like the gold rush because there really was gold. There really is gold. Even in the dot-com boom, the asset class of venture capital did very well. Individual investments failed, but the asset class as a whole did very well. When you allocate to a tech boom like AI really is and the AI boom is real, there's real value being produced and real change in human experience that's going to generate lots of money. Placing those bets at the asset class level makes sense. Individual investments is a totally different story.Andrew Keen: You also refer to Hunter Walk, who is a very smart guy. He said, you have to assume every company will have access to the same LLMs and voices. The challenge then is to build a company that thrives despite this reality. Given the commodification of AI and all these platforms from xAI to OpenAI to Anthropic AI to Google Gemini, that are basically now all the same. We're seeing this commodification of LLMs. Doesn't that point to a weakness in this AI hysteria?Keith Teare: You have to distinguish between LLMs, reasoning agents and agents that can do things. This week, Grok Three was launched. It's very good, by the way. But it's only a little bit better than all the others. So it didn't get the attention that say deepfaked.Andrew Keen: And next week someone will come out with something else that will be a little better. And as this race continues, the differences between the products will become less and less.Keith Teare: But for you and me, that's fantastic. You use Anthropic, I use Perplexity, I use Claude, we're basically getting free intelligence to do work.Andrew Keen: I wonder whether in that sense it's rather like the early days of the internet where we got a lot of stuff for free, and then everyone woke up and started charging. I mean, we are paying. I pay my $20 a month to Anthropic. You pay your monthly fees, but it's still pretty small amounts of money.Keith Teare: OpenAI now has 400 million daily active users and is making billions of dollars.Andrew Keen: I hope so because it's raised tens of billions of dollars.Keith Teare: But that is the game. Think of the Andrew Keen world. You wouldn't want to constrain yourself to investing almost nothing and making almost nothing. You want to invest as much as possible as long as you know you can make more than that back.Andrew Keen: On the unicorn front, you've been at this rodeo before many times. You're about as experienced as it gets. Are you taking these arguments about unicorns seriously, or should we be taking them like unicorns themselves with a pinch of salt?Keith Teare: When you build startups, the valuation of the startup is not even in your mind as a variable. You're just building whatever your vision is and it costs money to build it. So you're raising money. You sell shares in your company at the highest price you possibly can. It's good news if you're a unicorn from the point of view of the company you're building. Founders don't really think about valuations as much as they think about how much money they need and what they're going to do with it. Normal people read the headlines and think that Silicon Valley is awash with irrationality. It isn't really true.Andrew Keen: Well, you're providing us with those headlines. One of the other pieces you linked to this week is from the FT about Silicon Valley fighting EU tech rules with backing from Trump. Most of the news this week has been about Trump outside technology. It's Trump changing the rules in terms of big tech and particularly Europe and tariffs completely.Keith Teare: Coinbase announced yesterday that the SEC has withdrawn its lawsuit against Coinbase. That's the latest little indication of the trend. There are rumors that Ripple, which was also subject to an SEC case, will have that case withdrawn. The Trump administration does not want to stand in the way of big tech or little tech for that matter, and it sees Europe, rightly so, as a bit of a backwater. The zeitgeist is changing. Even in Europe, the innovators are fairly pro the Trump message even if they're not pro Trump. The need to innovate and relax constraints.Andrew Keen: The German economy now seems to be in crisis or German culture is in crisis. But they probably left it too late. The horse or the unicorns, so to speak, has left the barn here, hasn't it?Keith Teare: Apple yesterday announced that it's turning off encryption in Europe, in the UK now, not the whole of Europe, because the UK asked for a backdoor. So now UK users of the iPhone have no security on their phones because Apple, rather than comply with a backdoor, would turn the whole security layer off. That's going to be a bit of a trend. The governments trying to control tech, especially if they're snooping on their citizens. Tech is not going to bend over and agree with them anymore. And Trump is going in the opposite direction. He's not trying to get them to do back doors.Andrew Keen: The interview of the week, my interview was with Tim Wu, who was perhaps the most influential critic of monopoly Big Tech in the Biden administration. He has an interesting new piece out on decentralizing capitalism. With the help of Claude, we came away with five points from my conversation with Wu. It's all about decentralizing capitalism, getting away from monopoly capitalism, which I think he sees in companies like Google and Facebook and even OpenAI. I know you're not a big fan of regulation, but do you think Wu has a point? He's in favor of decentralizing capitalism. He's not against the market. He's in favor of innovation.Keith Teare: What does he mean? Because you could frame that as being nation states that are too centralized or you could frame it that big tech is too centralized. How does he frame it?Andrew Keen: He frames it as capitalism lends itself to a winner take all economy. He goes over the argument that America has always been a more innovative and wealthier society when you attack the monopolies, whether it's the oil monopolies, the railroads, pharma. And the same needs to be done now to unleash creativity, to unleash guys like yourself. One of your close friends, Lina Khan, was on MSNBC this week, talking about what she calls an anti-monopoly hunger in America. I'm not sure whether that's an exaggeration, but certainly there is an anti-monopoly feeling, both on both sides of the aisle. It's one of the few things that unite Democrats and Republicans, isn't it?Keith Teare: No, I disagree. The zeitgeist is exactly the opposite. The desire to control, especially big tech is nonexistent. The Democrats live in their own bubble world on MSNBC, and they really don't know how normal people think. Most people think Google's awesome. They think Amazon is awesome. They like using AI. More and more people are using it.Andrew Keen: You can like using AI and not be in favor of monopolies. That's two different subjects.Keith Teare: Normal people don't even use the word monopoly. It's not a word in the normal lexicon. It's a purely political word, used only in the circles of the Democratic Party that have this kind of Stalinist influence. The word state monopoly capitalism came out of Stalin.Andrew Keen: But I think you need to read Wu's piece on decentralizing capitalism, because he's as much a critic of Stalinism and centralization as you. He uses models from postwar East Asia, particularly Taiwan, and of course, the Danish model to talk about reforming the US. So what would you advise guys like Wu to be arguing? Should they just throw in their chips with Donald Trump and say you're right?Keith Teare: Where I would agree with them, and this is the common thread where we can agree, is capitalism has the tendency to create what I think of as greater socialization. You get bigger and bigger units, more interconnected. The interconnected piece is super important. It's not just that they're big, they're interconnected and that tends to be global. There's a globalizing tendency within capitalism. As you globalize and you socialize production, small individual industries tend to go by the wayside. Artisan industries. All of that is true. But you don't fix that by trying to break it up. The real social good is that the human race increasingly becomes interconnected and interdependent. That's a good thing. What's wrong is the private ownership of the wealth that it produces.Andrew Keen: Last week we talked about Alva van Gogh's critique of Vance's Paris speech, although he agreed with it in part. This week, you connect with Albert's humanist vision for AI. The speech at the Paris AI summit he would have given. What is Albert's vision?Keith Teare: It's a little bit 1960s cumbayah-ish. I am one of those, so I agree with him. But it's basically saying that AI is a tool for humanity, not a tool against humanity. And he makes the case for that. He doesn't say there are no safety risks, but he minimizes safety risks and places human good first, which I think does correlate to Tim Vance. It's an opportunity to be taken, not a safety risk. So I think he's kind of on the same page as Vance, to be honest.Andrew Keen: Whenever anyone uses the word humanist, it always makes me slightly skeptical. I'm not entirely sure what it means. I mean, who's anti-humanist except for a few Marxist philosophers in Paris? Meanwhile, lots of other tech news. Microsoft announced what it sees as a breakthrough in quantum. Is that right, Keith?Keith Teare: You and I probably are not clever enough to know, but I think we are safe. The answer is yes. That headline says they've created a new state of matter, and that pertains to something called a topological qubit, which is a qubit that can be programmable. And they're so tiny and there's so many of them that a quantum computer can do calculations at much greater scale, much faster than anything before. And they claim to have reduced this new state of matter down into a chip that can be plugged into a computer, an electrical computer, not a quantum computer, and can run. And the claim is that that will accelerate quantum computing by decades, to the point where there are promising programs that mean something within five years. And so that's a new timeline from Microsoft.Andrew Keen: I think quantum is like we're going to talk about it and talk about it and talk about it, and everyone will be skeptical. Some people will say it's for real, and then suddenly something will come along, the equivalent of OpenAI or ChatGPT and quantum, and it will be real. But that certainly isn't this week. Meanwhile, your startup of the week is exactly what you've been talking about. A unicorn Saronic, which raised this week $600 million to mass produce autonomous warships. It's another example of how Silicon Valley and the Pentagon and the defense industry seem to be becoming one. Tell us about Saronic.Keith Teare: Saronic is part of that trend for Silicon Valley and military spending to converge. The same investors in Saronic are also in Anduril and some of the other companies we talked about from time to time, space as well. So it's symptomatic of two things. The first is militarized investment coming out of Silicon Valley, and the second is the valuations. I should disclose, by the way, that Signal Rank owns shares in Saronic. So this was good news for us this week.Andrew Keen: Or at least your investors own shares. It's interesting that this week Palantir also has done very well for the first few weeks of 2025. But it also crashed. This is a very frothy market, tech military startups isn't it?Keith Teare: I wouldn't say crashed. It's up like 200%. If you're an investor in Palantir and you've been holding, you wouldn't be too upset by this pullback. The world we're living in, and I'm not a fan of this by any means, but military investment by private companies selling to governments is going to be a rising trend because governments can't really innovate the military. They're so stuck with old fashioned views of what conflict might look like. It's interesting that even Musk and DOGE this week and Trump announced they're going to try to reduce the U.S. military budget by 10% annually.Andrew Keen: And they've seen some cuts. And I think when historians look back, the rise of companies like Saronic, the DOGE initiative, and the behavior which I'm like most people, I think rather critical of, of pulling back from Ukraine, they're all going to be part of the same narrative. Something is profoundly changing here on the military industrial, but the military political from the US's involvement in the world and the technological piece of this.Finally, post of the week and it comes back to the conversation you and I were just having about Tim Wu. Robert Reich, a well-known MSNBC type who was in the Clinton administration, posted that there are basically five ways to accumulate $1 billion: profiting from a monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud and inheritance. And Brad Gerstner, amongst others, was horrified with this. He said it was such a terrible, bitter and sad take on America. I'm assuming you're in the Gerstner camp, Keith.Keith Teare: I am, but that isn't why I posted it. I posted it because I wanted to focus on the absolute chasm between the democratic intellectual elite and the rest of us. Robert Reich almost is saying that you have to be a criminal to get rich. And that isn't how most people think.Andrew Keen: The American dream, right? But I, being a great fan of Reich, think he is the dinosaur of dinosaurs, but he isn't saying that. He's talking about being a billionaire. That's not being rich. So you have to distinguish.Keith Teare: This might be shocking to the listeners and maybe even to you, but it isn't that hard to become a billionaire if you do the right things these days, because 4 billion people on Earth are consuming technology outputs at increasing rates and paying for that. Being a billionaire is like what used to be being a millionaire. And it's only going up.Andrew Keen: I've got my title of this week's show Keith. "Keith Teare says it's not that hard to be a billionaire." How close are you to being a billionaire?Keith Teare: I've been very close twice in my career.Andrew Keen: No you haven't. When?Keith Teare: Absolutely have. Both RealNames and Easynet were valued at well over $1 billion.Andrew Keen: Yeah, but you didn't own the whole thing.Keith Teare: I owned a lot. And by the way, it was early in the life of the companies, and that was in 1994 and 1999. In 2025, those would be small outcomes. Today's outcomes, getting a company to be worth $1 billion happens early. That early stage unicorns point happens early.Andrew Keen: But let's be clear as well. What Reich is talking about is not billionaires. And as I said, I'm not particularly sympathetic to what he's saying either. But he's talking about real billionaires, people with $1 billion in the bank or with investors.Keith Teare: Let's just ask this question. Look back at what Reich says, and let's answer a few questions. Where would the brothers who run Stripe fit on that list? They're worth much more than $1 billion. They're not anywhere on that list. Where is Musk on that list? Where is Bezos on that list? Where are the founders of Google on that list?Andrew Keen: No, I agree with you. I think that he's wrong to say there are basically five ways to accumulate $1 billion: profiting from monopoly, insider trading, political payoffs, fraud and inheritance. You're absolutely right. But my disagreement with you is it's still incredibly hard to be a billionaire. How many billionaires are there in the US?Keith Teare: Of course it's hard.Andrew Keen: But you just said it was not that hard to be a billionaire.Keith Teare: Let me tell you what I mean by that. It's the easiest it's ever been, and it's going to get easier.Andrew Keen: Or it's easiest it's ever been because of inflation.Keith Teare: No, because of the scale of distribution networks and the revenues that come back from them. It used to be super hard. When I did Easynet, we had to put floppy disks on the front of magazines to distribute our software. When I did my most recent startups, you put an app in two app stores, and it's in the whole world the next day. And so the flow of money that comes from the ease of distribution of software to people who can pay for it if they like it, has completely changed the dynamics.Andrew Keen: I take your point. But coming back to this issue, how do you consider wealth? Who is rich? How much do you have to earn?Keith Teare: I think rich is totally subjective from your point of view. I thought I was rich when I didn't have credit card debt back in the day.Andrew Keen: Meaningless term, then. It's just entirely subjective.Keith Teare: Yes, but you can build the pyramid of wealth in terms of a smaller number of people at the top with very large amounts of wealth and go down to the bottom where lots of people have nothing. And that pyramid will change its shape and the scale at different levels through history, usually in a positive direction. That's one of the results of the socialization of production and the coming together of the human race into a single GDP growth. There's never been a period in human history recently where that pie or pyramid hasn't improved in both scale and distribution.Andrew Keen: As a bit frothy Keith, your new middle name is Keith "It's not that hard to be a billionaire" Teare. But coming back to Reich, I do agree with you. I think his approach is absurdly negative and reactionary, and the idea that you can't become a billionaire unless you're basically cheating, unless you're an inside trader or fraudulent or inherit money from someone else. He couldn't be more wrong on that, given, as you say, the Stripe guys, the Google guys, the Amazon people, even Musk. I'm no great fan of his but he didn't cheat to become a billionaire.Keith Teare: And you've got to believe, and this is why I put it in, that what he's saying is received wisdom in the minds of people like Lina Khan and Elizabeth Warren.Andrew Keen: That you're going to pick on your friend Lina Khan and Tim Wu as well. Wu teaches at Columbia. I wonder what Wu would say about that. I wonder whether Wu would argue that in a decentralized capitalism, it would be possible to be a billionaire. I'd have to get him back on the show to talk about that. Would we want a society, Keith? A decentralized capitalism where nobody was a millionaire, where the wealthiest people were worth 50 or $100 million?Keith Teare: No, I think the nightmare scenario for the future is that as production socializes and globalizes, a very small number of people control the wealth. But I think that's the right place to discuss how does the wealth get distributed to everyone? So you uplift human life, not just a few individuals, but I don't think you achieve that by trying to break up monopolies.Andrew Keen: The point is, it's not even breaking up monopolies. Reich's point is that one way to get $1 billion is to profit from monopoly. But the Google people, it's back to Peter Thiel's argument. Any entrepreneur wants to be a monopoly, that's the nature of doing startups. You want to win and winning becomes a monopoly, right? For better or worse. Google didn't start as a monopoly. Maybe it is one now because it's successful.Keith Teare: That's correct. If everyone was a failure, there'd be no monopolies. It's only success that creates market power and monopolies. It's a little bit like the word fascist. It's become a swear word to describe anything big. And fascist has become a swear word to describe anyone you disagree with. The truth is, these words mean things. Monopolies do get built. Google isn't one, in my opinion. And when they do, there's usually benefits that people are enjoying, which is why they're successful. And the key is how do you transition the world from massively concentrated private wealth to widely distributed aggregate wealth?Andrew Keen: And that's not about breaking up companies.Keith Teare: No, it's about distributing wealth, not breaking up companies.Andrew Keen: Also with Reich, there are lots of politically responsible or politically liberal billionaires. Reed Hoffman comes to mind. We talked about him last week. Finally, and this comes back to your point, Gerstner had another interesting post this week. He said the DOGE dividend could be a massive, game-changing legacy for Trump. Just one day of DOGE savings, apparently - this is what they claim, who knows whether they're really saving it - $3.7 billion could fund a private investment account with $1,000 for each child born in America. With just a little added per year, this could grow to $200,000 by age 30. Do you think Trump needs to do something radical on this front because he's not getting a great deal of good press on DOGE? A lot of people are losing their jobs every day. There are heart-rending stories of laid-off people. And it's not the billionaires losing their jobs. They're being fired by the billionaires. It's people working at poorly paid jobs in the first place. So does he need to do something with all the money he's supposed to have saved? Maybe in terms of a sovereign wealth fund or something more innovative?Keith Teare: What Gerstner is talking about there is about the distribution of wealth. It's one example of it. I think it's unlikely that Trump has the DNA to really follow through on anything like that. I don't think Donald Trump has any kind of social awareness at all about uplifting everybody. I do think there are people that do think like that. Sam Altman is one of them, and Reed Hoffman may be another, where the question of if there is abundance, how does everyone benefit from it? That's a real question. Gerstner's idea is not terrible, but I think it's a macro idea. There's a much bigger conversation needed than how to deploy the DOGE savings.Andrew Keen: I agree with you. And I think that I also agree with you on the Reich front that his kind of thinking, which is purely negative, is pointless. And what's missing on the progressive side amongst Democrats are creative, innovative thinking about the redistribution of wealth, rather than just taxing the rich or making it illegal to be a billionaire.Keith Teare: Yes.Andrew Keen: Well, we're in agreement, Keith.Keith Teare: Shocking.Andrew Keen: Shocking agreement. Although we disagree, I think it is still hard to be a billionaire. One thing I can guarantee is I've never been close and I never will be a billionaire. You say you've been close. What are the chances in the next few years, Keith, that you're going to be a billionaire from Signal Rank?Keith Teare: Don't even think about it. I think about what Signal Rank can do for everyone else. And if it does well, I'll do well.Andrew Keen: Go on bro. If it does well, I hope you'll pay me for this show. Keith Teare, publisher of That Was The Week. The man who argues that it's not that hard to be a millionaire. It's still a little hard, Keith, but we will be back next week to talk more billionaires, unicorns, AI, and everything else in the world of tech. Have a great week and we'll be back at this time next week. Thanks, Keith.Keith Teare: Bye. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Guest: Karina Montoya is a senior reporter and policy analyst at the Open Markets Institute, covering antitrust and data privacy, focusing on large digital platforms and AI. Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash The post Antitrust Under Trump & AI Monopolies and the Future of Society appeared first on KPFA.
Mase & Sue give their Super Bowl picks and entertainment journalist Richard Rushfield talks about the beginnings of his candid, insightful industry newsletter,
Tom finds the AI for choice for the youth and Molly has a new marriage thing. Then Tom simplifies the phone to its essential function and Molly is feeling colorful.LINKS:Lavender marriagesMocha mousseSnap's My AI on SnapChat Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on the show, Dave and Ben are excited to welcome N2K's very own Ethan Cook, a trusted policy expert, who will be joining regularly for a new segment. Starting this month, Ethan will be contributing every second week to dive deep into the world of law, privacy, surveillance, and more, offering insightful analysis on the latest policy stories. While this show covers legal topics, and Ben is a lawyer, the views expressed do not constitute legal advice. For official legal advice on any of the topics we cover, please contact your attorney. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: US state-by-state AI legislation snapshot Policy Deep Dive In this Caveat Policy Deep Dive, our conversation and analysis revolves around antitrust policy. Throughout this conversation, we break down what the current antitrust landscape is and how this landscape may change as the incoming administration takes over. Some key aspects focused on during this conversation center on some of the key antitrust cases currently being pursued, such as the landmark Google antitrust case, and how the Trump administration may utilize, revise, or remove Biden's antitrust policies, as with the 2023 merger guidelines. Get the weekly Caveat Briefing delivered to your inbox. Like what you heard? Be sure to check out and subscribe to our Caveat Briefing, a weekly newsletter available exclusively to N2K Pro members on N2K CyberWire's website. N2K Pro members receive our Thursday wrap-up covering the latest in privacy, policy, and research news, including incidents, techniques, compliance, trends, and more. This week's Caveat Briefing covers the story of the U.S. has announcing new regulations restricting the global flow of AI chips, aimed at maintaining its leadership in AI while limiting access to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The rules impose export quotas on about 120 countries, with exemptions for key allies like Japan and the Netherlands, while setting stringent conditions for major cloud service providers to build data centers abroad. Curious about the details? Head over to the Caveat Briefing for the full scoop and additional compelling stories. Got a question you'd like us to answer on our show? You can send your audio file to caveat@thecyberwire.com. Hope to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this lecture, Stefan Molyneux analyzes the relationship between capitalism and socialism through Peter Kropotkin's critiques. He emphasizes the importance of addressing societal needs over profit motives and discusses capitalism's inefficiencies and mischaracterizations, particularly in terms of overproduction and scarcity. Molyneux contrasts Kropotkin's vision of decentralized production with capitalist structures, examining the dynamics between workers and capitalists while critiquing governmental roles in sustaining monopolies. He advocates for a transformative perspective that prioritizes genuine needs in economic frameworks.GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Also get the Truth About the French Revolution, multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material, as well as targeted AIs for Real-Time Relationships, BitCoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-Ins. Don't miss the private livestreams, premium call in shows, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2022
How are monopolistic corporations able to gain their economic dominance? By getting politicians to give it to them.Consider the old robber barons. They weren't brilliant investors or managers, but ruthless exploiters of government giveaways and bribers of officials who permitted their monopolistic thievery.Likewise, today's monopoly players have captured local, state, and national markets – not through honest competition, but by getting public officials to subsidize their expansion and to rig the rules against small competitors. Monopolizers buy this favoritism with the legalized bribes of campaign donations they lavish on compliant lawmakers.Investigative digger Stacy Mitchell recently documented how this corrupt political favoritism has allowed massive retail chains like Walmart, Kroger, and Dollar Store to crush thousands of local grocers. This has left millions of Americans living in “food deserts” – poor and rural communities with no food store.What happened? As grocery chains spread from local to regional to national, they demanded that food manufacturers give them big discounts, giving them a dramatic monopoly pricing advantage over independent rivals. So, hometown grocers began hemorrhaging customers... and going broke.This raw, anti-competitive, price discrimination was a flagrant violation of America's anti-monopoly law – but here came Big Money to protect the monopolists. In 1980, as Ronald Reagan was railing against “silly” consumer protection laws, supermarket lobbyists poured campaign cash into top officials of both parties. What they bought was bipartisan agreement to simply stop enforcing the “fusty” old antitrust law that had protected a competitive grocery economy for nearly 50 years.But good news! That useful, highly-effective law is still on the books, so let's build a long-term grassroots campaign to rejuvenate it and re-outlaw monopolization, redlining, and price gouging by food giants. For more information, go to Institute for Local Self Reliance: ilsr.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe
How are monopolistic corporations able to gain their economic dominance?
On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey are joined by Louis Navellier. Louis is a growth investor with more than 40 years of experience in the markets. His Growth Investor newsletter at our corporate affiliate InvestorPlace is catered toward individual investors. It helps give these folks an easy-to-understand look at current market trends and opportunities. Louis kicks things off by sharing how he got his start in finance, how he learned about "anomalies and efficiencies" in the market, and why he dislikes banking stocks. He predicts that the implosion of private credit is going to be the next black-swan event to upset the markets. With 11% yields, private credit simply isn't sustainable. Louis also discusses what changes President-elect Donald Trump will have to make for prosperity to rise, as well as what's happening in Ukraine. (1:14) Next, Louis touches on the market narrowing, describes which metrics his stock-grading system factors in, lists off several growth stocks he likes today, and reviews many legal monopolies he has profited from. One such name is chipmaker Nvidia, which Louis says he'll "be holding through the end of the decade." After that, he talks about why he's bullish on natural gas, how he spots legal monopolies in the first place, and the Biden administration's hostility toward tech. (18:55) Finally, Louis shares how he decides when to cut a stock loose and gives his take on nuclear energy. When it comes to his investing philosophy, he notes, "I only buy things when they earn money." And Louis closes with his reasoning for not buying utility stocks. (38:22)