MinimalStateAuthor Archive
Can Google shareholders gain from the China confrontation?
It’s hard to see exit from the Chinese market as maximizing Google’s profits. China is, after all, very large (though Chinese growth in searching is slow). It may be that Google is being, at least in part, high-minded. After all, it’s motto is “Don’t be evil” & it is reported that Sergey Brin’s aversion to [...]
Party of No: pouring Republican sand in the gears
Can seeking to prevent the elected government from governing be an electoral winner? The US Republican party is taking that bet, having decided to not merely vote no on almost everything, but to slow or prevent executive appointments, and most recently, to reduce Federal agencies capacity to undertake hearings:
Emulation: Do not merely replicate known objects
Brad Delong (linking to Marco.Org) pointed me toward Soulver, a rather nice calculator ap for the iPhone (the Mac version is much more expensive). Most calculator aps replicate the real world object, which is handy as most of us know how to operate physical calculators, but that that should not constrain the developer. Soulver does [...]
Prescription insurance: Moral hazard vs transaction costs
A person with insurance for drug prescriptions is more likely to use drugs and less likely to worry about getting the cheapest or most cost effective prescription. This leads to the expectation that the demand from the insured for drugs would result in higher prices than if individuals bore most the cost of drug prescriptions, [...]