The tariff pung ping games have driven investment out of the US. VW for example has reduced investment here and diverted it to China, because at least in China they know what the investment environment will be like a week from now.

No, that was Walmart, Target and Kroger in the 70s and 80s, Amazon didn't even start selling books online until 1996.

Wonder what spurious justification they use to not crack down on Farcebook. "They feed our intel agencies more data than they know what to do with" maybe?

And all the physics and mathematics PHDs who grab the big money working as "quants" for Wall Street and the commodities houses? No different.

That's the same guy who complained that even though he was the leading computer expert in his IT department for some reason they were wasting his amazing talents by relegating him to backup tape duty. He's almost certainly never learned anything at a conference because he's incapable of learning.

Way to stay up to date in the industry, guys.

They're probably also trying to avoid getting laughed at.

"Capitalist systems" have only existed for a couple of centuries, "thrive in the long term" isn't going to apply to them for a very long time. Centrally controlled social systems like China and Pharaonic Egypt have lasted thousands of years in comparison, and for most of that time they were the centers of civilization. The "rule of law, freedom of speech, association, religion, etc." seems to be reaching its end now, and the ruling parties and media conglomerates are undermining the "devolved governmental structures and strong civil society" faster than I would have believed possible.

Jack Ma broke the law, I'm not clear where that is supposed to be "inspirational", unless maybe you're a fan of Michael Milkin and Jamie Dimon.

Worst coffee I ever had was at the Starbucks in the airport in Atlanta. That's saying something, since I've traveled in almost 40 states and a dozen foreign countries. Generally fast food places can serve a reliable, if mediocre, product. I don't know what they did but it was foul.

Holy carp. And yet here at /. there are still scads of posters convinced that the Chinese can only copy what we 'superior intellects' in the West do.

Dirt's the better bet, even if the market for it crashes you can still live on a piece of property. And as my dad said, "They're not making any more land, except in Hawaii and Holland."

I'm waiting for some of Satoshi Nakamoto's coins to be sold, the market will shit itself.

Thousands of people are sex slaves or trapped in sweatshops in Western countries. Slavery is alive and well here, we just pretend it isn't.

That was incredibly brave, I'm glad it worked.