George Will: “The Peter Principle is: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” The Federal Reserve’s behavior illustrates an analogous principle: Institutions that are flummoxed by their primary responsibility will fail upward by embracing more urgent and noble purposes. The Fed’s primary purpose is to preserve the currency as a store of value: to prevent inflation. The Fed’s newest self-proclaimed purpose is to identify — through guesswork dignified as “scenario analysis” — and mitigate the threat that climate change supposedly poses to the “financial system.” Having failed at its first responsibility, the Fed now adopts a function at which it cannot fail: Whatever it says will be unfalsifiable because “systemic” climate risk cannot, as a matter of common sense or science, be identified.”
Ray Dalio: “I believe that reviewing how the typical Big Cycle works, what stage we are in, and what typically comes next is now especially important. That is because the evidence points to us being on the brink of civil and/or international war (in my book Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, I describe this as late Stage 5, on the brink of Stage 6) and because without understanding how these cycles transpire, we will simply observe events in the news without being adequately prepared for them or able to prevent them.”
Thomas Sowell: “Government is a blunt instrument. Its policies should be limited to what blunt instruments can do. We gain nothing by pretending to know what we cannot know and to be able to do what we cannot do.” [via CafeHayek]
David Perell: “The Spreadsheet-ification of the world shows up [everywhere]. You see it in Spreadsheet Architecture, where efficiency is prized over beauty and ornamentation. You see it at Spreadsheet Hotels, where the people at the front desk are practically asleep, and nearly all the food at the continental breakfast is processed junk. Look at Apple, too. They’ve gone from innovative products to innovative payment plans and pricing strategies. It seems like the MBAs are in charge there now.”
D/D Advisors on the Android-ification of cars: “What is clear is that as much of the world moves towards electric vehicles (EV) the supply chain is changing significantly. The design of EV cars is much simpler than those of cars using internal combustion engines. The skills required for this work very much favor the electronics supply chain and without a doubt this opens up the door to significant disruption of traditional methods. And then we get to the question of software. Buyers today, especially the crucial demographic of young buyers, care much more about electronics and the interior experience of their cars than previous, older groups who prioritized performance and speed. This falls neatly into the realm of User Experience which the electronics industry now does very well. Ultimately, this is a software question.”
