On several occasions, I’ve blogged about technological advances in robotics and how androids could disrupt our society. What I hadn’t considered was the way large tech companies could become a threat in themselves.  I’m talking about monopolies.  Not the traditional kind, like

Ingrham’s, a large publishing and distribution company for  writers’ works, sent me an email yesterday.  They were raising rates for their services.  The attachment was a long, single spaced document with several pages of contract changes.  I am careful about material like thi

As I wrote in an earlier blog, (Blog 5/26/16) the world is awash in personal savings accounts, what Ben Bernanke calls a “global savings glut.” (“Private Desires, by Geoff Colvin, Fortune, June, 2016, pg. 54.)  In a recent essay, Geoff Colvin points out this sea of cash is chan

A friend visited the other day and as she settled down with a cup of tea, she peered round the room, admiring my new apartment which is larger than my last.  I’m probably one of the few retired people who has upsized her space rather than downsized.  My friend must have wondered h

One defense people make for big government is that it serves as a counterweight to big business.  Unfortunately, the last tax-payer bailout of the automobile and bank industries gives little support to that argument.  What’s more, recent revelations in Luke Harding’s new book, T

I have seen the future and it’s scary. Not only is NSA monitoring us but so are electronic gadgets. If we let them, they’ll control our lives, telling us it’s time for our valium, nagging us to exercise more or alerting us to some advertising special we might have missed. (“El