WSJ on the new Tech Conglomerates: “Modern neo-conglomerates like Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon subsidize newer lines of business with the profits from more mature ones, but one reason they escape the “conglomerate discount” on their stock price is that they are doing so well overall. Amazon Web Services, the leader in cloud computing, may be many times more profitable than its e-commerce and retail businesses, for example, but investors are betting they will all continue to grow swiftly, regardless…The network effects the tech companies are enjoying create a whole new class of economies of scale, which were largely unavailable to industrial conglomerates. In today’s world, demand-side economies of scale, driven by every additional user, developer, marketplace seller, and advertiser added to a platform, mean that tech conglomerates are playing in markets that tend toward monopoly or at least oligopoly. That gives them tremendous power and, potentially, resilience for the long term.”
Business Standard: “The quarter, which covers the months between July and September 2021, saw GDP at constant prices rise 8.4 per cent as compared to the equivalent period in 2020. However, comparison with the year-ago quarter may not be completely appropriate, since that was when the economy was going through the painful unlocking process after the extensive national lockdown introduced to respond to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. When compared to the July-September quarter two years ago, the figures for the current fiscal year show a growth rate of only 0.3 per cent or so….It is clear that India is far from out of the woods yet as far as the pandemic macro-economic shock is concerned. At least two years’ worth of growth has been lost. But without swift and responsible policy action, it might be even more.”
Shane Parish: “The best decisions have little to no immediate payoff. The best choices compound. Most of the benefits come at the end, not the beginning. The more patient you are, the bigger the payoff.”
