The Role of Innovation in Establishing Monopolies

Number of words: 350 The airlines compete with each other, but Google stands alone. Economists use two simplified models to explain the difference: perfect competition and monopoly. “Perfect competition” is considered both the ideal and the default state in Economics 101. So called perfectly competitive markets achieve equilibrium when producer supply meets consumer demand. Every … Read more

What important truth do very few people agree with you on?

Number of words: 122 WHENEVER I INTERVIEW someone for a job, I like to ask this question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” This question sounds easy because it’s straightforward. Actually, it’s very hard to answer. It’s intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by … Read more

Every moment in business happens only once.

Number of words: 58 Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. Excerpted … Read more

Plug-In Hybrids

Number of words: 221 The event and the campaign it was designed to support were the brainchildren of Austin Energy, a power-generating utility owned by the city of Austin, Texas. Austin Energy’s campaign has already won the endorsement of dozens of cities and towns, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver, as well as Austin … Read more

The loophole that boosted SUV sales

Number of words: 227 The tragedy is that there is no greater symbol of Detroit’s malaise than this SUV on steroids. GM unveiled its first Hummer at just about the time it decided to pull the plug on its EVI, the sleek, all-electric car that was sold only in California and parts of the American … Read more

The Death of America’s first modern electric car

Number of words: 547 But the significance of the Hanssen hackers goes beyond Toyota, beyond the Prius. It has revived interest in battery-electric cars just as Tesla Motors and other electric carmakers are poking their noses out of the ground. A film called Who Killed the Electric Car? released in 2006 by Sony Pictures, made … Read more

Why Oil won the Oil Vs Electric battle

Number of words: 499 In 1894, Le Petit journal of Paris organized the world’s first endurance race for “vehicles without horses.” The race was held on the 80-mile route from Paris to Rouen, and the purse was a juicy 5,000 francs. The rivals used all manner of fuels, ranging from steam to electric batteries to … Read more

Petrodollars

Number of words: 302 Toward the end of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended a summit that changed the course of world history. No, net the famous meeting at Yalta, with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. Immediately after that gathering, Roosevelt traveled quietly to the USS Quincy, anchored in the Red Sea. The man … Read more