Another great newsletter, Matt. Since you ask about tips - I am going to share one here based on our experience. We publish an app called "The Ready Games." For some time we have wanted to distribute the app directly from our sever onto Android phones- in fact, we do do this- we've been doing it since January 2019 when Google Play refused to let us distribute on their store because we deigned to offer "cash prizes" in our game tournaments (Apple has no issue with this aspect, and so we distribute through their store on iOS). Anyway- here's the issue: even though Android is supposedly an "open operating system"- Google and phone carriers have embedded into the O/S super scary "permissions warnings" that tell someone installing an app from outside the Play Store that it is an "unknown app" from an "unknown developer" that could "harm your device." Consequently we see about an 80% 'drop off' from people starting the install and completing the install- the event that happens between those two steps is the super creepy warnings. So to the solution... on Mac and PC this is resolved by purchasing a "Code Singing Certificate" from places like GoDaddy. The result on a mac or PC is that instead of seeing a creepy warning about "unknown developer" it says "Do you want to install XYZ app from XYZ developer." Getting the certificate does require some exchange of legal docs- it essentially creates a bonafide trail of accountability back to the publisher. Anhoo- this works for desktop. So why not mobile? So we tried to purchase a "code signing certificate" for Android devices. Turns out it is NOT FOR SALE. It appears that they may have been for sale up to 2017, for a whopping $50,000 a certificate. But that's just breadcrumbs I cannot confirm. The reason you cannot purchase a code signing certificate for Android is....? And here we are- a subtle example of monopoly power- from a technical standing, offering Code Signing Certificates for Android is currently gate kept by Google (via Google Play- they effective code sign the Android app for you) or the carrier if they have a store (e.g Huwawei does this if you go into their Store in Asia.). This is party why Epic Games has been unable to develop an Android Store - but has been able to develop an Epic Store for desktop Mac and PCs. The question of "Why can't you buy a code signing certificate for Android"? Is one of those anti-trust "small questions" that starts of open up a bevy of nasty monopolist doors that get to the technical "wall" that stops the distribution of Android apps- on a nominally "open system." Anyway- that is my tip: you could explore why/how Google and the carriers successfully colluded- and I use "colluded" explicitly as intended- to block any market for Android code signing certificates.
Buffet also owns the main insurance companies for private aircraft. They require you to receive yearly training in a flight simulator for most business jets. FlightSafety is by far the largest training company for business jets. And who owns FlightSafety? That’s right, Buffet. He also owns the largest charter company for business jets NetJets. Buffet May famously not invest in airlines but he sure owns a lot of aviation.
Great Subject and Piece Matt. New to you but I've been twitting regularly since joining about 3 months ago on this very subject. As young Page-Boy Candidate for late HON Wright Patman, the Congressman cautioned me for my gen to protect two things or we would revisit the Greater Depression for same reasons his generation was forced to deal with the last such, eg, Glass-Stegall and USCC Sec 15.
The Rethugs killed Glass-Stegall decade or so ago and now have now placed Kavanaugh the COMMIE onto USSC JustUS for phinal act Kav campaigned upon: "To PUT THE BRAKES on USCC SEC 15" where 100% of USSA AntiTrust Legislation resides!
I'm now engaged in my 3rd Common Purchaser Act Civil Prosecution due to Texas Monopoly Rethuglicans who claim our Oil & NG Monopolies are okie dokie cuz we have laws allwoing unelected "regulators" to enforce Public Protections. Only prob, they've NEVER pursued a single violation nor complaint and after succcessfully prosecuting private civil violations myself, I am forced to pursue a 3rd very expensive civil prosecution where legal fees are unrecoverable thru the "agency" which serves to intentionally delay the relief (prospectively only) and justice which last time the agency turned a 2-3 day hearing into almost a 3 Yr hearing and over $100k in legal expenses that while I prevailed in my case, was denied by statute: 1) recovery of legal fees and 2) injunctive relief prospectively only!
BIG CUDGEL to discourage pursuits personally violations to TX Statutes regulating Monopolies when regulatory agencies refuse!
Road from FASCISM to COMMIEISM is Texas has been short and brutal since Rethuglicans captured the state but 35 Yrs ago!
Matt, love the blog and as a denizen of Main Street (and the co-founder of a small independent soccer team in Chattanooga) I suffer under the wheel of monopoly in various ways every day. (btw, you really ought to do a piece on the American soccer market, because it's a terrible and flagrant case of the use of monopoly power to punish innovation and stifle competition). But I'm writing today with this thought on the Dayan interview: why should it surprise him, you, or anyone else that Buffett acts like a monopolist?
I went back to graduate business school late in life (I was 43, having been in small business until then), full of righteous indignation about various abuses of corporate and monopoly power I'd suffered as a small businessman from a mid-size American city. But one of my Strategy professors straightened me out very quickly on this: EVERY business aspires, almost reflexively, to monopoly power, and anyone that has been in business for very long understands this. We are always trying to crush our competition, erect barriers to entry, and roll up market share. Of course, he was right. It was just the frustration at (and envy of) that power that kept me from seeing it.
It's not Buffett we should be mad at; he's just playing the game from sideline-to-sideline, as well as anyone ever has. It's our government's job to regulate markets well and properly, to set the rules and measure those sidelines, and THAT is what is wrong here. There is a dynamic tension that must be maintained in order to make modern capitalism work, and of course it's just way out of balance these days. As you well know, there are structural problems, regulatory problems, and enforcement problems, ALL of which need to be addressed to contain the lust for monopoly power that flow through the veins of every good capitalist. It's the balance that's missing.
Matt, you should investigate California's banning natural gas appliances in their plumbing code. This certainly favors nuclear power hucksters and allows PG&E, our northern Calif monopoly, to further rape us on skyrocketing electricity charges. PG&E has announced rolling programmed blackouts. With an all electric house, or restaurant, you will be forced to go without heat and to eat cold, and non-covid sterile meals.[ Gas stoves, lit with a match, work in blackouts.] Plus, all the food in your refrigerator and freezer spoils and PG&E will not pay or credit you for it.
Here's a "coincidence"
"California Attorney General Kamala Harris had all the evidence she needed from a search warrant executed at former PUC President Michael Peevey's home in September 2015. That's where a California Justice Department criminal investigator working on her behalf turned up damning evidence of an under-the-table deal to put $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion needed to close the defective nuclear plant onto ratepayers." "She had plenty of time, three years, to file criminal charges before the statute of limitations ran out on obstruction of justice--the easiest charge to prove." But she didn't. https://capitolwatchdog.org/tag/kamala-harris
Like Mnuchin's foreclosure mill, one more of her donor industries that Kamala Harris let slide criminally, in collusion with ongoing state political party legislation that continues to enrich them.
I have a problem with the Dayan interview regarding Buffett.
A reference to Buffett can mean a number of things:
Berkshire ownership of a company;
A Berkshire investment; and
A Buffett personal investment.
In regard to the last, maybe he has a controlling interest, maybe he doesn’t, maybe he’s completely hands off.
Investing in a “moat”, it should be obvious, is a pretty good idea. And if the investor’s engaged in creating that moat and the moat exists because it’s doing something well that attracts business, then what’s the problem? If there’s a monopoly because the market gives it, what’s the problem? If Buffett or Berkshire are hands off investors, what’s the problem? (Obviously, any and all alternatives involved in creating a harmful monopoly are problems.)
I don’t mean to defend Buffett but the interview is so agitprop that it uses shorthand and fails to make a case, at least for me. I’d like to know what Buffett and Berkshire has done that is actually bad as opposed to being passive investors.
My younger self was on to WB 15 years ago, when he very much was an idol of Successful Businessmanship: I figured out that he must have inside lines on corporate news that made him know which companies to invest in, which ones to disinvest from, and when to do so.
Where does Dayen draw the line between “competition” and “anti-competitive”? I don’t think Berkshire using Geico premiums as float for other investments can be called “anti-competitive” under almost any definition.
Another great newsletter, Matt. Since you ask about tips - I am going to share one here based on our experience. We publish an app called "The Ready Games." For some time we have wanted to distribute the app directly from our sever onto Android phones- in fact, we do do this- we've been doing it since January 2019 when Google Play refused to let us distribute on their store because we deigned to offer "cash prizes" in our game tournaments (Apple has no issue with this aspect, and so we distribute through their store on iOS). Anyway- here's the issue: even though Android is supposedly an "open operating system"- Google and phone carriers have embedded into the O/S super scary "permissions warnings" that tell someone installing an app from outside the Play Store that it is an "unknown app" from an "unknown developer" that could "harm your device." Consequently we see about an 80% 'drop off' from people starting the install and completing the install- the event that happens between those two steps is the super creepy warnings. So to the solution... on Mac and PC this is resolved by purchasing a "Code Singing Certificate" from places like GoDaddy. The result on a mac or PC is that instead of seeing a creepy warning about "unknown developer" it says "Do you want to install XYZ app from XYZ developer." Getting the certificate does require some exchange of legal docs- it essentially creates a bonafide trail of accountability back to the publisher. Anhoo- this works for desktop. So why not mobile? So we tried to purchase a "code signing certificate" for Android devices. Turns out it is NOT FOR SALE. It appears that they may have been for sale up to 2017, for a whopping $50,000 a certificate. But that's just breadcrumbs I cannot confirm. The reason you cannot purchase a code signing certificate for Android is....? And here we are- a subtle example of monopoly power- from a technical standing, offering Code Signing Certificates for Android is currently gate kept by Google (via Google Play- they effective code sign the Android app for you) or the carrier if they have a store (e.g Huwawei does this if you go into their Store in Asia.). This is party why Epic Games has been unable to develop an Android Store - but has been able to develop an Epic Store for desktop Mac and PCs. The question of "Why can't you buy a code signing certificate for Android"? Is one of those anti-trust "small questions" that starts of open up a bevy of nasty monopolist doors that get to the technical "wall" that stops the distribution of Android apps- on a nominally "open system." Anyway- that is my tip: you could explore why/how Google and the carriers successfully colluded- and I use "colluded" explicitly as intended- to block any market for Android code signing certificates.
Buffet also owns the main insurance companies for private aircraft. They require you to receive yearly training in a flight simulator for most business jets. FlightSafety is by far the largest training company for business jets. And who owns FlightSafety? That’s right, Buffet. He also owns the largest charter company for business jets NetJets. Buffet May famously not invest in airlines but he sure owns a lot of aviation.
Matt, Plantronics forcing distributor exclusivity is exactly what Coke and Pepsi have been doing for 30 years. Am I wrong?
Great Subject and Piece Matt. New to you but I've been twitting regularly since joining about 3 months ago on this very subject. As young Page-Boy Candidate for late HON Wright Patman, the Congressman cautioned me for my gen to protect two things or we would revisit the Greater Depression for same reasons his generation was forced to deal with the last such, eg, Glass-Stegall and USCC Sec 15.
The Rethugs killed Glass-Stegall decade or so ago and now have now placed Kavanaugh the COMMIE onto USSC JustUS for phinal act Kav campaigned upon: "To PUT THE BRAKES on USCC SEC 15" where 100% of USSA AntiTrust Legislation resides!
I'm now engaged in my 3rd Common Purchaser Act Civil Prosecution due to Texas Monopoly Rethuglicans who claim our Oil & NG Monopolies are okie dokie cuz we have laws allwoing unelected "regulators" to enforce Public Protections. Only prob, they've NEVER pursued a single violation nor complaint and after succcessfully prosecuting private civil violations myself, I am forced to pursue a 3rd very expensive civil prosecution where legal fees are unrecoverable thru the "agency" which serves to intentionally delay the relief (prospectively only) and justice which last time the agency turned a 2-3 day hearing into almost a 3 Yr hearing and over $100k in legal expenses that while I prevailed in my case, was denied by statute: 1) recovery of legal fees and 2) injunctive relief prospectively only!
BIG CUDGEL to discourage pursuits personally violations to TX Statutes regulating Monopolies when regulatory agencies refuse!
Road from FASCISM to COMMIEISM is Texas has been short and brutal since Rethuglicans captured the state but 35 Yrs ago!
The link to your book, Goliath, at the bottom of this page goes to Amazon. Why?
Matt, love the blog and as a denizen of Main Street (and the co-founder of a small independent soccer team in Chattanooga) I suffer under the wheel of monopoly in various ways every day. (btw, you really ought to do a piece on the American soccer market, because it's a terrible and flagrant case of the use of monopoly power to punish innovation and stifle competition). But I'm writing today with this thought on the Dayan interview: why should it surprise him, you, or anyone else that Buffett acts like a monopolist?
I went back to graduate business school late in life (I was 43, having been in small business until then), full of righteous indignation about various abuses of corporate and monopoly power I'd suffered as a small businessman from a mid-size American city. But one of my Strategy professors straightened me out very quickly on this: EVERY business aspires, almost reflexively, to monopoly power, and anyone that has been in business for very long understands this. We are always trying to crush our competition, erect barriers to entry, and roll up market share. Of course, he was right. It was just the frustration at (and envy of) that power that kept me from seeing it.
It's not Buffett we should be mad at; he's just playing the game from sideline-to-sideline, as well as anyone ever has. It's our government's job to regulate markets well and properly, to set the rules and measure those sidelines, and THAT is what is wrong here. There is a dynamic tension that must be maintained in order to make modern capitalism work, and of course it's just way out of balance these days. As you well know, there are structural problems, regulatory problems, and enforcement problems, ALL of which need to be addressed to contain the lust for monopoly power that flow through the veins of every good capitalist. It's the balance that's missing.
My message to you about Google was lost on my Android courtesy Google and Boost Mobile. There's more If you get this and reply.
Matt, you should investigate California's banning natural gas appliances in their plumbing code. This certainly favors nuclear power hucksters and allows PG&E, our northern Calif monopoly, to further rape us on skyrocketing electricity charges. PG&E has announced rolling programmed blackouts. With an all electric house, or restaurant, you will be forced to go without heat and to eat cold, and non-covid sterile meals.[ Gas stoves, lit with a match, work in blackouts.] Plus, all the food in your refrigerator and freezer spoils and PG&E will not pay or credit you for it.
Here's a "coincidence"
"California Attorney General Kamala Harris had all the evidence she needed from a search warrant executed at former PUC President Michael Peevey's home in September 2015. That's where a California Justice Department criminal investigator working on her behalf turned up damning evidence of an under-the-table deal to put $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion needed to close the defective nuclear plant onto ratepayers." "She had plenty of time, three years, to file criminal charges before the statute of limitations ran out on obstruction of justice--the easiest charge to prove." But she didn't. https://capitolwatchdog.org/tag/kamala-harris
Like Mnuchin's foreclosure mill, one more of her donor industries that Kamala Harris let slide criminally, in collusion with ongoing state political party legislation that continues to enrich them.
I have a problem with the Dayan interview regarding Buffett.
A reference to Buffett can mean a number of things:
Berkshire ownership of a company;
A Berkshire investment; and
A Buffett personal investment.
In regard to the last, maybe he has a controlling interest, maybe he doesn’t, maybe he’s completely hands off.
Investing in a “moat”, it should be obvious, is a pretty good idea. And if the investor’s engaged in creating that moat and the moat exists because it’s doing something well that attracts business, then what’s the problem? If there’s a monopoly because the market gives it, what’s the problem? If Buffett or Berkshire are hands off investors, what’s the problem? (Obviously, any and all alternatives involved in creating a harmful monopoly are problems.)
I don’t mean to defend Buffett but the interview is so agitprop that it uses shorthand and fails to make a case, at least for me. I’d like to know what Buffett and Berkshire has done that is actually bad as opposed to being passive investors.
My younger self was on to WB 15 years ago, when he very much was an idol of Successful Businessmanship: I figured out that he must have inside lines on corporate news that made him know which companies to invest in, which ones to disinvest from, and when to do so.
And now ... wow. Just wow.
Where does Dayen draw the line between “competition” and “anti-competitive”? I don’t think Berkshire using Geico premiums as float for other investments can be called “anti-competitive” under almost any definition.
Who is the competition?
Is Geico a monopoly?