Opaque Crystal Balls No, the title of this post (above) isn’t the real headline of a recent article forecasting what’s next for the U.S. housing market — or a send-up by The Onion. This is the article’s actual title, from The New York Times (4/22/2021): U.S. Home Sales Are Surging. When Does the Music Stop?” So, when...Read More
“What’s the Matter With Kansas Iowa?”** In modern English, a shibboleth can have a sociological meaning, referring to any in-group word or phrase that can distinguish members from outsiders – even when not used by a hostile other group. It is also sometimes used in a broader sense to mean jargon, the proper use of...Read More
Trusting Social Media, “Big Tech” to Police Itself. Not. Fran Lebowitz: I met [Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey], and I told him that [people were impersonating me on Twitter]. And I said, “you have to fix this because it’s not fair that someone pretends to be me, and people are talking to this person or tweeting...Read More
What Do You Call the Opposite of Online Sales? Amazon has marched into every arena of commerce, building moat after moat — logistical, financial, customer service — to keep its rivals from catching up. It expanded into selling its own wares, into physical retail, entertainment and into all manner of home monitoring devices. And it...Read More
Trump Impeached a Second Time [Note to Readers: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] Of all the desecrations committed by President Donald J. Trump or his followers the last 4+ years,...Read More
Total Cost = 94(!) Hurricane Katrina’s The coronavirus crisis has cost the United States at least $16 trillion in terms of lost lives, lost quality of life, and lost economic activity. –Amitabh Chandra, Harvard health economist; quoted in The New York Times (11/14/2020). Just how big a wallop is the pandemic? It may be years...Read More