Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

James Harr, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Government. He was then banned by Instagram, Tiktok, Paypal, Shopify, and Apple Pay.

The big energy firms have largely stopped denying the scientific consensus about climate change. But behind their rhetoric about “net zero emissions,” there’s an unflinching determination to keep profiting from oil and gas, whatever the cost.

Business decisions made in the interest of “maximising shareholder value” have caused mass layoffs, environmental catastrophes, an endless list of corporate frauds, and record inequality in the workplace. The very same CEO who made millions of dollars by being the first champion of “maximising shareholder value” in the 60’s called it the dumbest idea in the world, and something that could rot capitalism to its core.

In This Video We’ll Discuss Recent Trends In Thrifting And Why It’s On The Decline

Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff wrote a monumental book about the new economic order that is alarming. "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," reveals how the biggest tech companies deal with our data. How do we regain control of our data? What is surveillance capitalism?

Captalism is a cancer for humanity's excistence in general.

Back in 2019 we noted how the streaming sector risked driving consumers back to piracy if they didn’t heed the lessons of the past. We explored how the rush to raise rates, nickel-and-dime us…

In this documentary, Dr. Michael Parenti defines fascism, describes its characteristics, and explains the role fascism plays in serving the rational interests of capitalists while suppressing communism and other organized worker movements.

Retailers large and small say they’re struggling to contain an escalation in store crimes — petty shoplifting to organized sprees of large-scale theft that clear entire shelves of products. Target last week said it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars this year because of rising theft. Nordstrom, Whole Foods and some other big chains said they were abandoning San Francisco because of changing economic conditions or employee safety. Many other retailers have blamed crime for closing stores.

We’ve noted repeatedly that as the streaming sector grows and consolidates, it’s revealing many of the same problems we saw inherent in traditional, shitty, cable TV. As in the need to …

Some CEOs are even cutting their salaries down to zero as a result of a slump in venture capital funding this year, Kruze Consulting told the WSJ.

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IBM's CEO, Arvind Krishna, says employees' careers could suffer if they work from home. Krishna told Bloomberg during a Monday interview that although he wasn't forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions.

Some Apple staff are not happy about CEO Tim Cook's back-to-the-office drive, which he's previously said was essential for the company. The iPhone maker emailed employees in March threatening to take action against those not going in at least three days a week.

There’s something about the phrase “price controls” that drives some people — mainly economists — around the bend. But history shows that market economies rarely go very long without needing some form of price control — especially in a crisis.

AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE captures the public imagination, while also exhibiting missteps and failures, enthusiasts continue to tout future productivity gains as justification for a lenient approach to its governance. For example, venture fund ARK Invest predicts that “during the next eight years AI software could boost the productivity of the average knowledge worker by nearly 140%, adding approximately $50,000 in value per worker, or $56 trillion globally.”

On March 14, 2023, Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff posted a tweet about Bitcoin that sparked a debate within the crypto community. Schiff tweeted that Bitcoin had surged by 20% after a long-awaited change in direction from the Federal Reserve, but he also pointed out that gold had only risen by 2.5%. Schiff went on to suggest that the fact that Bitcoin had experienced a larger increase did not mean that it was a better anti-inflation tool than gold.

will lay off 10,000 more workers and incur restructuring costs ranging from $3 billion to $5 billion, the company announced Tuesday, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg warning economic instability could continue for “many years.”

The Chief Executive of the twelfth largest oil producer – Sultan Al Jaber of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) – has been appointed as president of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) COP28, the biggest climate change conference that will take place in November, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).