On Friday the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced a crackdown on two massive robocall operations as described on their website. Unfortunately the penalties sound less like a crackdown than a wrist-slap. The two “ringleaders,” Justin Ramsey and Mike Jones, along … Continue reading
In 2001 investigative reporters working for The Boston Globe uncovered evidence that the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston was moving priests around to conceal rather than adequately address their sexual abuse of minors, a problem the reporters themselves had trouble believing … Continue reading
In a free market businesses are free to set prices, customers are free to buy or not, and competitors are free to compete by offering an alternative product at a better prices. But sometimes customers don’t really have a choice … Continue reading
Recently the health insurance company Aetna announced that starting in 2017 it would no longer be selling policies through the Affordable Care Act exchanges in several states because it was losing too much money. Curiously, though, one of those states … Continue reading
A few weeks a couple of friends of mine asked me for some investment advice about their retirement savings, and if I’d known about this video I would have just told them to watch it. I highly recommend it. Link: … Continue reading
Ukrainian-American comedian Yakoff Smirnoff once said that when he became a naturalized American citizen the first thought that entered his mind as an American was “I hate these foreigners. They come here and take our jobs!” And of course that’s … Continue reading
The free market is a wonderful thing. It’s remarkably good at supplying the goods and services people want and need, and the alternative of top-down planning has been shown pretty conclusively not to work. (I should admit my bias here: … Continue reading
In this short (under four-minute) video essay John Green talks about YouTube Red — which basically gives you ad-free YouTube and some exclusive content for $10 a month — and what that might mean for the future of YouTube. John … Continue reading
Apparently McDonald’s is trying out a design-your-own-burger kiosk in some of its restaurants. Here someone attempts to create the maximum possible burger with reasonably amusing results. Among other things, he discovers a bug in McDonald’s point-of-sale software, and McDonald’s might … Continue reading