Interesting stuff

  1. Read: Dutch businesses jump at the chance to keep employing refugees (a court ruled they can work for more than 24 weeks). Let them work — that will reduce local opposition to “needy” refugees.
  2. Read: Internet businesses are trying every type of price discrimination (a way of charging each customer as much as that individual is willing to pay). This bit was not shocking, but it is worrying: Why do you think every brand suddenly has an app? Because if you download the Starbucks app, say, the company can access your address book, financial information, browsing history, purchase history, location—not just where you live, but everywhere you go—and “audio information” (if you use their voice-ordering function). All those data points can be fed into machine-learning algorithms to generate a portrait of you and your willingness to pay. In return, you get occasional discounts and a free drink on your birthday.
  3. Molly White on the parallels of use(lessness) between blockchain and AIs: they do a poor job of much of what people try to do with them, they can’t do the things their creators claim they one day might, and many of the things they are well suited to do may not be altogether that beneficial.
  4. Listen to David McWilliams (again!) on how economists went wrong.
  5. Read: China continues to deny freedom of religion in Xinjiang — so no improvement on its 0 for 10 denial of the “Bill of Rights”
  6. Italy’s government says it will pay for 110% of the cost of home insulation. What could possibly go wrong?!? Read on.
  7. Good advice to follow on How to Be Less Busy and More Happy
  8. Read: AI-spam is choking the web with garbage.
  9. Listen: AOC makes a guest appearance [from minute 103] to discuss (a) how Robert Moses destroyed neighborhoods in her (Queens) district and (b) how Congress works.
  10. Read: China’s quest for donkey skins (!) exposes its actual (extractive) attitude towards its “little brothers” in Africa. Related: Chinese money launderers are moving #billions of criminal money.

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Author: David Zetland

I'm a political-economist from California who now lives in Amsterdam.

3 thoughts on “Interesting stuff”

  1. Gr8 list, thanks Favid! David!

    FYI, for me, the internet price discrimination link didn’t work.

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