In April 1956, a trucking executive named Malcom McLean loaded 58 metal boxes onto a converted tanker in Newark and sent it to Houston. Nobody threw confetti. The longshoremen hated it. But the math was hard to argue with. Loading a ship by hand cost...
In the mid-1990s, Procter & Gamble made a stunning claim. They said they’d invented a miracle in a bottle. A chemist working there found a compound that completely got rid of really bad smells instead of covering them up with a fancy perfume-y spray. Stinky...
AI Has a Frankenstein Dilemma Mary Shelley published Frankenstein in 1818. More than two hundred years later, it’s said to sell about 40,000 to 50,00 copies a year. It’s said that’s more than many best-selling releases. Most people who’ve read the book remember the monster....
Meet Tom and Elaine. (Our names, not theirs.) Both report household income between $65,000 and $70,000. Both are married, live in a city and say day-to-day spending is why they live paycheck to paycheck. For both, the next paycheck is critical to meeting their monthly...
September 08, 2026
John Ternus has been Apple’s CEO for all of eight days, counting weekends, which I’m sure he worked. This coming Wednesday he headlines his first keynote, an event Apple has titled “Surprise and shine.” The press has already told us most of what’s on the slides. I’ll be listening for what isn’t. I’ve spent the […]
January 13, 2026
AI-driven longevity is redefining aging, with longer, healthier lives fueling more spending later in life. The result: inheritance happens later and looks very different.
January 12, 2026
“Your margin is my opportunity” was Jeff Bezos’s way of describing Amazon’s hunger for bloated profit pools. In 2026, the real question isn’t whether margins get attacked, but who gets...
January 09, 2026
In 2026, online and digitally-influenced retail finally surpasses brick-and-mortar sales in the categories that matter most to modern retail. This moment has been years in the making, obscured less by...
December 06, 2021
When I announced the acquisition of the leading global media and content platform on antitrust and competition policy, Competition Policy International (CPI), six weeks ago, I hinted that it was the first of a series of dedicated efforts to expand our platform and content focus on the issues that would inform the future of the […]
June 21, 2021
Two weeks ago, Ferrari named its third CEO in as many years. That wasn’t the big news. This new CEO, Benedetto Vigna, isn’t a car guy but a tech guy,...
October 30, 2018
Investors have their anxious eyes on Facebook this Tuesday (October 30), as the social media operator plans to report third-quarter 2018 results after the market close. The company suffered its...
December 16, 2016
Though many financial institutions recognize the opportunity to help middle-market businesses automate their AP payments, they have not been able to fully capitalize on the opportunity. Here the elusive payments...
