It would interesting if sometime in the near future Ferrari’s merchandise division were to overtake its automotive as the brand’s primary product. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has referred to Ferrari as a “sacred brand”, and I think it would be fitting, and probably more profitable, if it became entirely focused on licensing. No factories, no engineers, no workers…
Just lawyers, contracts and currency transactions.
Of revolution, depression & robotics.
If for a moment we suspend disbelief and use Apple as a socio-economic nexus through which we can observe contemporary politics, these two tweets provide a glimpse of just how far Cupertino’s shadow has been cast.
1. Apple made the Arab spring possible by providing an essential tool to Egyptian activists, and the (pending) success of Tahrir Square inspired Americans to attempt a similar form of protest.
2. But Apple also made #Occupywallstreet necessary by outsourcing its manufacturing jobs, widening the US trade deficit, and promoting increased consumer debt among young Americans.
3. Due to word getting out that Foxconn employees were committing suicide en masse, labour prices at the Chinese factories that produce the iPhone have increased, and as a result, Foxconn plans to replace many of its workers with Japanese robots.
Meanwhile, Apple is sitting on $76 billion in cash reserves.
Chronicles of a Soviet Capitalist
Moscow in 1993 was not the glittery Babylon it is today. It was still the monolithic, gray Moscow of the Soviets, but the order that the Soviets had once kept was now replaced by a barely controlled chaos. Freedom had hit Russia like a great slap, and people were still reeling from the shock. Almost every day, somebody took to the streets—Communists, ultra-nationalists, unhappy miners, cavorting paratroopers. Pyramid schemes, faith healers, and nationalist movements, each stranger than the next, sprang up on a daily basis. Gangsters were everywhere, partying or dying like flies. Still, there was electricity and heat, the garbage was picked up regularly, and you usually didn’t get shot unless you deserved it.
