EconAir

  New Chinese Nuclear Power Plant   China’s development strategy is based on a division of labor between an authoritarian government and competitive private companies. The old idea that a Communist party protects workers from their capitalist exploiters seems quaint. The capitalists and the Party are now partners in exploiting workers without permanent residence permits.   China’s government identifies areas of the economy that it thinks will drive economic growth. Since 2015, those areas have been new or emerging technologies the government decides will drive economic growth and technological dominance in the global economy. The government backs its objectives with massive investment in infrastructure, education, and new companies in targeted industries.       China begins by building infrastructure, concentrating on transportation. The latest is a new high-speed rail network linking cities and ports in the Pearl River megapolis.  It also di...

 December 16, 2025. This post is a summary of articles I read, or read about, today. Ford takes a $19.5 billion write-off on its electric vehicle assets. It will take over a joint project it has with a South Korea battery company to only produce large-scale industrial batteries. Ford's electric F-150 pickup truck doesn't seem to have caught on with America's macho truck customers. Big surprise. (Personal comment. Assuming the U.S. continues to ban Chinese cars, probably the growth segment of the U.S. EV market will be hybrid SUVs and maybe hybrid sedans.) Ford has a "skunk works" operation in California that is redesigning and reengineering how internal combustion and electronic vehicles are designed and assembled. Volkswagen (VW) closes a German assembly plant. This is the first time this has happened in the company's history. The faculty will become a research and development center, probably working with VW's new R&D center in China. General Motors ...

FIND POSTS BY CATEGORY The Beginning of the Industrial Revolution The theme of the following four sections of the blog is that innovation, not price competition, is the basis for understanding economic growth, competition, and analysis. Basic Concepts and Theory Market Behavior and Structure Market Dynamics and Information:  How Markets Work Economic Theory and Markets Corporate Strategies There is beginning a historic change in future populations and their demographics. This will interact with other variables and have a serious, maybe profound, effect on future economic growth. Demographics and Economics China Geopolitics and the Global Economy American Economic History Management The world seems to be in the midst of radical political and social change. Where are we going? Can studying past periods and countries facing disrupting change help us navigate our times? Maybe. History American History World War I:  The Beginning of the 20th Century The Roman Republic and Amer...

  You need to know three things about management:   80/20 Rule Opportunity Cost Compound Growth   80/20 Rule (Also called Pareto’s Law)   This idea says that a relatively small percent of actions account for a relatively large percent of outcomes. Find and concentrate your efforts on the important influences on your business.   Some hypothetical examples.   20% of your customers account for 80% of your sales.   20% of your product line accounts for 80% of your sales and profits.   Often, companies with a large product line with many variations find that 50% of their products account for over 90% of sales. An even smaller percent usually accounts for most of the profits.   20% of your SKUs account for 80% of your stockouts (and lost sales).   20% of your programmers account for 80% of the bugs in new programs.   The percentages aren’t always 80/20. Some examples:   McDonald’s accidentally learned that 10% of its customers accoun...