talkpolitics | Entries tagged with business

Boeing, a once fine company run by engineers has been ruined by the bean counters that ruined McDonnel Douglas. I have a high school friend that is very high up at Boeing, he was one of the MD guys that ruined that place. Boeing still has a lot of good planes out there, the 737 700, 800 and 900, and the later 767's and the long discontinued 757 and 747i and the 777. But the Max series and the 787 are crap.

Boeing hid questionable parts from regulators that may have been installed in 737 Max planes, new whistleblower alleges

Boeing is a cautionary tale about modern American capitalism and where it can lead.

Oh sure, you create lots of “shareholder value” by compromising safety and the long term sustainability of your business.

Hooray?

fridi

DeSantis’ ‘anti-woke’ bills are costing Florida millions of dollars in business

Even though it's not part of DeSantis' strategy, one part of me is happy that government and big business are having a "falling out" in their collusive relationship and I hope it happens elsewhere too. In the long run it's better for private citizens when businesses and government are mortal enemies rather than overly friendly, even if it's an accidental consequence of right-wing policymaking. In the short term it's going to cause some increased difficulty for people no matter how it comes to be though.

Although in a state so dependant in tourism it is kind of distressing. It's like biting the hand that feeds you. Only a moron would attack the state's largest employer or a man that can not handle the power granted him in DeSanitis' case. He has gone mad and the legislature just keeps bending over for more. At least the rest of the nation appears to see him more clearly as the egotistical, power mad Mussolini wannabe he really is.

Sad thing is, even when Meatball gets his butt handed to him in the primary, folks will still be stuck with him as governor for another two years. That's thanks to his pet legislature changing the law so he didn't have to resign to run for president. He can do a lot more damage those two years. There's no provision to recall him so the only hope is for Democrats to flip the state legislature in 2024 and impeach his fascist ass. Yeah, won't happen but people can dream.

What's really quite amusing to watch in Florida is that the Republicans cry 'freedom' and 'small government', but then elect a man who is pushing government control over business and personal freedoms as hard as he thinks he can get away with. Can some Floridian Republican explain how that works to me?

mahnmut

LOL this goes to show that people weren't buying Teslas because they were EVs, but rather, they bought them because of Elon:

Tesla Drivers Are Getting Fed Up With Elon Musk's Twitter Meltdowns

He created a cult of personality and used it to sell crappy cars at exorbitant prices based on future features that can not ever work.

Penn and Teller did an episode of BullShit in which they presented a “fine dining aficionado” with immaculately presented food that was really just a tv dinner. The foodie loved it, even though the food was objectively terrible. Humans are bad at being objective.

I’ve thought of Tesla’s in this way, the presentation is fantastic... But the build quality and materials are god awful. If you switched the T for a chevy logo, would anyone think that it was a good car?

Five years from now used Tesla's will be as cheap as VHS machines.
Sorry, great idea, lousy execution, crappy build quality, and a price that can only be compared to early first gen DVD players, which originally retailed for well over 1500 bucks.

(The Tesla car Musk didn’t design (the roadster) is a very cool car)

kiaa

And it's getting rather ugly.

I wasn't aware Bezos and Musk had such a problem.

Watch on YouTube

To be frank, It seems Elon has a huge lead. I have admired his spacecraft from the get go.

He not only has carried passengers to space, he has 3 civilians up in space now.

And his rockets are proven to land back on Earth or on his ship. I understand that Bezos is almost as rich as the Federal Government. Richer if you count Bezos lacks the enormous debts. Musk is going up in wealth as fast as his rockets climb.

So we may thank Musk like we do the Wright Brothers for the US entry into space or in the case of the Wrights, up in the air.

Billionaire vs. billionaire. At least they're the right kind of billionaires (rich, white, & male). /trollface/

airiefairie

The big winning innovation that really propelled google and Facebook into a cash-machine status was not internet search, and neither the social linking of millions of users. The core of their success was their sale of ad space around content they were getting for free.

Now, as the regulatory authorities of Europe and the US and in other parts of the world have realised the question of breaking up the monopolies from Silicon Valley, these giants are being compelled to amend their formula. The two companies have started signing agreements with news organisations, and paying for the news content they have been getting. This is meant to not just help them bring their activities in line with the new copyright laws, but also restore some trust from the media industry.

Why Google and Facebook are being asked to pay for the news they use

( Read more... )

abomvubuso

A month has passed since the UK has left the united European market and the customs union, shaking up trade relations on the continent to the core.

While the worst expectations for huge lines of trucks at the British ports, food shortages at the stores, etc did not come to pass, lots of companies are warning that they're still struggling to adapt to the new agreements stemming from the trade deal with the EU.

There are about half a dozen sectors that are most affected, and where the difficulties are most acutely felt in the transition period after Brexit. Some of these problems could become chronic unless they're addressed properly.

( Read more... )

kiaa

Mars, here we come! Those are Elon Musk's words from a tweet in December when he launched the first (almost successful) Starship flight. Humanity's most powerful rocket ever, the start of a new stage in the space race, triggered by innovation in the private sector. Now that the countries and companies have gradually started adapting to the Covid realities, 2021 is about to become a tipping point in space flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

The next 12 months will probably be a hectic time in space, as we're likely to witness the privatization of near-Earth orbit. Near space will be saturated with spacecraft from new companies who'll build small rockets solely through private investment. The big players in the sector and the national space agencies will in turn redirect their efforts to larger and bolder undertakings, directed at Moon and deeper space, like Mars, Venus and the asteroid belt. But we'll be needing new, more powerful rockets for that. 2021 is expected to give us at least 4 or 5 of those: Starship of SpaceX, SLS of NASA, Vulcan of ULA, the Russian Angara 5A, and probably also New Glenn of Blue Origin, Bezos' space company.

( Read more... )

fridi

Jeff Bezos Donating $10 Billion Barely Dents His Surging Fortune

Jeff Bezos obviously has no sense of irony. By vowing to donate 10 billion dollars for fighting climate change, he must imagine himself a true champion of the environment. In fact, that's only drawing the public attention to the ecological madness behind Amazon's business model. In this situation, to throw money around and claim you're fighting for the environment is just insanely hypocritical.

( Read more... )

abomvubuso

After long years of digital neglect, last year the EU finally introduced a new set of standards for personal data protection, thus beating the Silicon Valley in terms of regulation. With the advance of AI-based apps, the Chinese companies are also striving for a leadership in this domain.

The Chinese AI startups needed about 7 years to evolve from merely riding the wave of this new trend to actually stepping firmly on the global markets. Now they're actively targeting the countries from the New Silk Road project.

( Read more... )

asthfghl

Hundreds of truck drivers blocked roads across Bulgaria on Thursday (17 May) as European Union leaders met in Sofia, protesting against proposed EU rules they say would cost them their jobs and put their firms out of business.

See, when people argue that the EU is something like the USSR, where the strong of the day drop down decisions upon the small and weak and prey on them, I tend to take that with some skepticism. But I'm beginning to see their point when guys like Macron try to sell their plans to defend the interests of the French transport companies at the expense of the East European ones, as if it's some kind of effort in favor of "law and order". It certainly isn't helping Europe as a whole, because, well, didn't you say you don't want all those migrants coming to your shores? So why take measures that would ultimately force thousands of truck drivers to relocate to French companies, then? Doesn't make sense.

Mind you, this proposed regulation would also significantly affect river transport on the Danube, and force dozens of East European companies to sail under non-EU flags (to avoid the regulation). Some non-EU countries like Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova have already taken advantage of the situation, taking the business out of Romanian, Bulgarian and other EU-member-state counterparts who would fall under the regulation. So now we're ending up in a situation where valuable tax resource is being drained off the EU budget - and for what? Because some guy called Macron wanted to take a populist measure and polish his image back home in the wake of the socially unpopular reforms he's been undertaking.

This is how Euroskepticism gets fueled. And I assure you it doesn't take a lot of effort to achieve that particularly in East Europe - just look at what's happening in Poland and Hungary! And Italy too.

( The situation in a nutshell )

mahnmut

War is an extension of politics, but with different means, Gen, Carl von Clausewitz once said. Today, however, the situation is a bit different. Today, war is an extension of economics, but with different means.

War has become cynical. It has no political legitimacy any more. It lacks a historical meaning. Now we don't conquer territory, we don't conquer peoples, we don't make Crusades. All we do is pursue profit. Everything boils down to this arrogant economic objective of the "free market", profit. Every bomb, every explosion must generate profit. War is a huge investment that is supposed to bring revenue, economic results, including the blood and death of some people that stand in the way of profit.

( Who is to blame? )

abomvubuso

Take a look around. The world may seem like a static, implacable... well, place. But it really isn't. Even the slightest push, when applied to the right spot at the right time, could topple it.

That's what Malcolm Gladwell argues in his book The Tipping Point. Basically, he says, it's hard to pinpoint the right moment, where scattered events blend into a single coherent action, where gradual evolution becomes revolution. Only in hindsight would such a moment look obvious: "Oh wow, how didn't we think of that at the time?" This shows that humankind still hasn't passed through the new industrial wave, which will fundamentally change the way everything functions. But we might be at the starting point already.

A factory run by robots; a 3D printer that produces shoes by personal parameters; a machine that can order its own repairs; home appliances that send feedback to the producer in order to help improve their processes; a decentralised intel in every aspect, from medicine to batteries - all of that is part of the incoming change that's about to sweep modern society. But exactly how fast this change is, is what few have been prepared for. It's not the world of tomorrow any more - it's the world of today.

( Read more... )

fridi

"It's like a battlefield here in summer" and "This isn't tourism, this is an invasion!" Those are just some of the reactions of angry people from Barcelona, Venice and Dubrovnik. The three cities have led a rebellion against mass tourism. For them, it means unending crowds, noise, garbage, and skyrocketing prices. With protest signs reading "Tourists go home", mass rallies, and even physical clashes, some of Europe's most popular tourist destinations started meeting the enthusiastic newcomers who are flocking from planes, buses and cruise ships. The politicians have promised that flourishing tourism would bring economic prosperity, granted, but all that is now of secondary importance to the harmonious life of the locals.

Tourism in South Europe has grown incredibly for the last couple of years, because tourists prefer that region to places like Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey due to safety concerns. But an increasing number of local people are complaining that the growing tourist pressure is making their life unbearable. Last month there was a protest in Venice against uncontrolled tourism, the slogan was "My future if Venice". The protesters called for ending the practice of turning every available building into a hotel. Various solutions were proposed, including the quota system.

( Read more... )

dreamville-bg.livejournal.com

Changes in Cuba policy could adversely impact Trump's hotel competitors

( Details )

...So is Trump using his office to target competitors, or are the competitors just impacted by a decision that was not intended to target competitors, but increase sanctions in general?

The first would be criminal, but the second would only be political, if Trump's order was against Cuba alone and not intended to harm competition to his own business. I'm sure there will be plenty of answers for both reasons, depending on which side of the aisle you are on.

I'd say it smells more like a political move, but of course he'd have no hesitation to hurt his competitors in the meantime, either. I mean, Trump needs a win. He's been doing poorly lately and needs something. And what's better for him than to undo some stuff Obama did? Hoorah! Making America great again! His base eats that up. So this is something he can easily accomplish, move some headlines (and tweets) around, get people talking of something other than Russia. And hey, the fact that it hurts his competitors is a bonus.

So objectively I'd say he likely wasn't motivated to do this because it hurt his competitors, but he likely also just thinks of it as two birds one stone sort of thing. What say you?

dreamville-bg.livejournal.com

Okay, I get it, Trump is basking in his glory from scoring an early win on his promise to keep US jobs at home. He has talked Carrier into staying in Indiana rather than running off to Mexico for profit - which has earned him applause by locals. And some raised eyebrows from both libertarians and the business itself. The issue with such individual ad hoc "solutions" is simple: it could incentivize other companies to blackmail the government into giving concessions (tax cuts for individual companies) by threatening to leave the country.

It's also a problem for the libertarian wing among the GOP base, which is a considerable force in right-wing politics. They hate statism, and Trump's potential interventions on the market, if they happen along the same pattern like with Carrier, could cost him a lot of support among his base. Which spells trouble, as far as support from Congress is concerned. We don't want another lame-duck president, do we?

( Same about foreign policy )

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

"Clinton is candidate for president, they're airing Tarzan in the theatres, and everyone's playing Pokemon. Welcome to 2001". That's the caption below a cartoon that's been circulating the webs lately. And all three of these statements are still valid today, in 2016. Just like 15 years ago, the Pokemons are again the latest fad - this time through Pokemon Go.

Most of us must have noticed by now that some folks tend to wander around, looking into their cellphones while they walk. Not all of them are texting or Facebooking (sic?) Many are actually hunting for pokemons. You know, those fabled creatures - water, fire, electric little thingies that look like foxes, turtles, kittens, little dwaggins or just weird-shaped clouds. They came to life back in the 90s, but the new smartphone version is now re-conquering the world once more. Last month Pokemon Go beat the previous record with 21 million active subscribers daily, and it was installed on 5% of all Android devices in the US just within the first 2 days of its existence. Fierce ink-spilling and spittle-spewing ensue on the matter. The debates are still raging in places as far away apart as Oz, NZ, Asia and the Euros. After this terrific start though, the question arises, is this going to be another huge success, or the umpteenth balloon that is sure to go bust pretty soon?

( Pokemon here, pokemon there... )

nairiporter.livejournal.com

If you have the chance to fly from an exotic place like Casablanca to a strange place like Mogadishu in war-torn Somalia for example, you would probably be on board the Turkish Airlines (they serve amazing food, by the way). The reason is that the company has 45 African destinations in its portfolio, which makes it the largest carrier on this continent. But what is Turkey doing in Africa, you may ask? Simple: it's making money. It is accumulating influence in a place that others consider too risky, or too early to go to.

Turkey's trade with Africa rose up to 23.4 billion dollars last year. More than half of that is Turkish exports. This means that nearly one dollar in 10 out of the 157 billion Turkish total exports had come from Africa. Such are the benefits that a single country could draw out of trade with the world's 18th largest economy that is Africa. Indeed, Africa has vast untapped potential, and it often remains underrated and overlooked. But Turkey has recognised the perspectives, and is now scrambling to assert more solid positions here. Just like another emerging economy has done lately: China.

( Read more... )

dreamville-bg.livejournal.com

I was reading through this and this the other day, as I was licking some wounds from having been pretty upset at the time with some really obnoxious customers that my colleagues and myself had been compelled to be dealing with for days. So I was thinking, I'm sure many of us who've directly worked face-to-face with customers at some point, must have wanted to just throw the tables at them, jump across the desk or whatever, and smack them right in the face. So... care to share a story? I mean, I understand going back to those recollections might be a bit traumatizing, and yet...

Maybe if you told me a truly terrible story about Teh Ebil Klient, I'd figure life is just equally terrible everywhere around the world, and I wouldn't be as willing to get myself drunk to death as I am now? (But then again, what's so bad about being drunk? At least you can forget things - for a while...)

So, ehm... stories?

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

"Iran is a wonderful country with a fantastic resource base", the Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said last month at the Vienna negotiations. "As soon as there is legitimate opportunity, we will be looking at Iran". Another oil CEO, Patrick Pouyanne of Total was even shorter: "We love Iran".

And how wouldn't they? Iran's oil reserves are estimated at 158 bn barrels of crude, or 1/10 of the world's total reserves. The normalisation that Van Beurden speaks of is an agreement between Iran and the six global powers about Tehran's nuclear program. It's bound to act like a turn-on not just to the top oil management but also to businessfolk from all around the world. Because it'll lead to the gradual lifting of a full array of sanctions that the US, EU and UN imposed 30 years ago. This would open the road to one of the last remaining inaccessible markets that's consistently been ranked in the top 20 in the world, and which many are describing in terms of a 1001 Nights tale: frightening and enticing at the same time.

( Read more... )

prog-expat.livejournal.com

An article in Salon reveals what's really behind that weird presentation from hedge fund Starboard Value about how to "fix" Olive Garden.

( As is no surprise, considering it's a hedge fund, it's all about the Benjamins. )

Cross-posted to talk_politics

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Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with business

Another case of a good engineering and manufacturing company being destroyed by bean-counters

The impact of DeSantis' anti-woke bills in Florida

Tesla is tanking

Friday WTF. Musk vs Bezos

Repairing what they broke

Brexit: One month later

2021, another Space Odyssey

Thanks a lot, Mr Bezos!

The Chinese AI expansion

That's how Euroskepticism gets fueled

Not war; just business

In the eye of revolution

Don't need no tourists

What!!?? Trump doing shady business dealings!? No...never.

A couple of questions on ad hoc policy

Catching Pikachu

One more player in Africa

Friday quest for bad experience with clients

The second Iranian revolution

Olive Garden as Illustrative Case

Credits & Style Info

Links

May 2025

Summary