I have spent some of today learning about the 2011 #Norwegian "butter panic".
#Butter saw a serious #shortage in late 2011 after too much rain & mismanagement. #Christmas was near & prices soared to €39/NOK 300 for 250g.
#Swedish supermarkets gave butter handouts to Norwegian customers & the #Danes had a TV special to help their neighbours, resulting in 4000 buttery gifts.
It's actually an interesting study in #monopolies & the problems of #rich countries.
Microsoft put their tax-evasion in writing and now they owe $29 billion
"If there's one thing I took away from Propublica's explosive IRS Files, it's that "tax avoidance" (which is legal) isn't a separate phenomenon from "tax evasion" (which is not), but rather a thinly veiled euphemism for it:"
I think we're missing a word for a #democracy that by the principle of how it's electoral system works prevents new parties to meaningfully enter the #political scene.
The Lost Cause is my next novel. It's about the climate emergency. It's hopeful. $LibraryJournal called it "a message hope in a near-future that looks increasingly bleak." As with every other one of my books #Amazon refuses to sell the audiobook, so I made my own, and I'm pre-selling it on #Kickstarter:
That unchecked corporate power has no better avatar than Amazon, one of the tech #monopolies that has converted the old, good internet into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four":
A reminder that #Scandinavia can be home to short-term thinking shits, too. Today’s poster child: #1 Mowi (~30% global salmon & trout market.) of Bergen, Norway. Ex-Unilever.
"I came to office determined to change the economic direction of this country and to move from trickle-down economics to my middle out, bottom up vision: #Bidenomics."
@w7voa I still hope #Biden pushes for more price competition (for example, by promoting stronger #antitrust enforcement guidelines for breaking up #monopolies and cartels (#oligopolies ) ).
Bidens policies have recovered us from a recession (the #COVIDshutdowns ) but the fact is many people in the US are still doing worse than their parents were at the same age. We should not be excessively raising #InterestRates; it hurts the poor and vulnerable the most.
As someone whose finances were just rocked by yet another death in my family – and after a lifetime of worldwide financial crises and almost no public services – can I just post this and say “hahahahahahahaha” without anyone screaming in my mentions
So if there is not scarcity create it to maximize profits watch chicken prices go up at the grocery stores even as they go down for farms because of #monopolies the #government won’t break up #food#economy
It's not that #conservatives aren't sometimes right - it's that even when they're right, they're highly selective about it. Take the hoary chestnut that "#IncentivesMatter," trotted out to deny humane benefits to poor people on the grounds that "free money" makes people "workshy."
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It's this belief that leads the right to embrace #monopolies as "efficient": "A company's dominance is evidence of its quality. Customers flock to it, and competitors fail to lure them away, therefore monopolies are the public's best friend."
But this only makes sense if you don't understand how monopolies can prevent competitors.
Reminder, the government is requesting your feedback on new Mergers Guidelines. I commented. I encourage you to do the same. The Guidelines are easy to read and understandable. You can have a say in increasing the prevention of the consolidation of U.S. industry in the hands of the few. If wealth accumulates at the top, they simply consume any competition. Think GDP. Think innovation. Think climate change. Think education. Think access to healthcare. Think what your vision for the America of the future looks like. Yes, consolidation or absorption of competition impacts all of these. Read the new guidelines, authored by the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission and let our government know your opinion and suggestions.
Antitrust enforcers released a draft update outlining new rules today that officials say will make it easier to crack down on mergers and acquisitions that could substantially lessen competition in the US.
My god, they sure hate#LinaKhan. This once-in-a-generation, groundbreaking, brilliant legal scholar and fighter for the public interest, the slayer of #Reaganomics, has attracted more vitriol, mockery, and dismissal than any of her predecessors in living memory.
She sure must be doing something right, huh?
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this to read or share, here's a link to pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
"Once you trap hundreds of millions — or billions — of people inside a walled fortress, where warlords who preside over have unlimited power over their captives, and those captives the are denied any right to liberate themselves, enshittification will surely and inevitably follow."
"England is one of the few countries in the world where water is fully owned by private companies. These companies answer to investors based thousands of miles away from their customers."
"About 10% is known to be owned by English investors, while about 72% is owned by overseas investors and 18% is unaccounted for."
“What we have here is just a crazy system. We are managing our water in the interests of offshore investors.”
Wwater privatisation is the very worst money-grubbing Tory idea. Water is essential to all life. It is created by nature. It is a most essential public good. There is no monopoly to be made of water, and so Thatcher went against the basic tenet of right-wing economics. She created mini-monopolies, with ready made helpless customers who had to use water to stay alive. Water that was sold at a profit. Results now known. An utter disgrace. #water#monopolies#profiteering#Capitalism
FTC rewrites rules on Big Tech mergers with aim to ease monopoly-busting (arstechnica.com)
Antitrust enforcers released a draft update outlining new rules today that officials say will make it easier to crack down on mergers and acquisitions that could substantially lessen competition in the US.