It’s funny how the magic trick actually works: you force companies to affix information to a product, the consumer reads and reacts to the information, and the company has to create products that satisfy the informed demand.
Looking at you, Apple and Samsung, removing features from your products simply to force your customers into an ever more closed ecosystem.
Honestly, everything you said may be true, but the only thing that matters is the last sentence :-)
After using Metro and Vanilla for ages, I switched to Gramophone. Looks pretty and I find it intuitive. Also has great support for media change detection and does m3u playlists (that I rely on heavily) very well.
I fully agree with you on the current liquidity issues, and certainly on the loss of manufacturing competitiveness that comes with having reserve currency status.
My main economic concern with Trump’s policies is simply that “advanced” economies will never really be able to compete in the manufacturing field again. Trump should know - he is surrounded by the richest men in the world, and the only one that does any manufacturing at all, and only as a side gig is Musk. All the other ones only do digital and finance/investment.
I agree that Europe probably doesn’t want to get into that space at the moment. I am afraid Europe is pushed into doing a lot of things right now it didn’t and doesn’t want to do. The decision point would probably come if Trump’s tariffs are really just paused and start being enacted. Then Europe will have to massively increase its trade with other nations, which will also have to do the same thing, and then using USD becomes incredibly impractical, especially with the wild swings it is going to have if tariffs are re-enacted.
And, again, totally agreed. This will require a lot of changes, and they will be painful. It just feels like there aren’t a whole lot of alternatives.
I am confused by the article’s insistence that the Euro is not a viable alternative because it’s “one currency, 20 countries”. If anything, the sheer number of countries make sure that a single election is not going to affect financial and economic policies all that much - which is the main reason for the USD’s fall from grace right now.
As someone else pointed out years ago (about Eric Trump, not known for his supermodel looks), there is an amount of wealth and influence where you don’t have to look good, because everybody will treat you anyway as if you were the hottest person on the planet. Basically, you want to look ugly because it’s a bizarre proof of wealth.
“Look at me, I am so rich, I can have all the supermodels, porn stars, and Hollywood actresses I want, and I don’t even have to get plastic surgery or a personal trainer like a poor millionaire (ewww) on a budget.”
I think that’s what the Cybertruck is for, to appeal to Conservatives. I live on the edge between blue and red counties, and down in red territory the Cybertrucks are everywhere. (Meaning I saw at least four different ones.)
Technically it’s only regular pentagons that don’t tile the plane.
I know everything about planes because I am shorter than my brothers. When we were young, they called me Tattoo and if I pointed at something with my finger, they screamed in unison, “Da plane! Da plane!”