Walmart thanks governors for economic leadership (satire)

Walmart Thanks Government For Completely Obliterating Their Small Business Competition | Babylon Bee:

November 23, 2020 - "In an open letter addressed to state officials, Walmart leadership expressed gratefulness to the government for inflating their sales and stock price while completely pulverizing their small business competition. 

"'Yeah, we know 2020 has been tough for the little people,' said one board member while shoveling piles of cash into his vault. 'But it's been super great for us! No longer do we have to worry about the baker down the street or the family-owned hardware store next door taking away some of our business. The government just blew them up! We didn't even ask them to! Can you believe it? What luck!'

"According to reports, Americans are really looking forward to giving all their business solely to giant mega-corporations like Walmart, Amazon, and McDonald's until all local culture has disappeared.

"'This is my dream come true!' said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. 'Within 10 years, everyone will be wearing the same identical futuristic grey jumpsuit and eating Amazon-issued food cubes, just like in the movies! That will be so cool.'

"Sources indicate most powerful corporations are advocating at least one more year of lockdowns to make sure small business competition stays dead. 'We have to make sure those uppity business owners never threaten us again,' said Bezos while sitting in a massive chair and stroking a white cat."

Read more: https://babylonbee.com/news/walmart-thanks-government-for-completely-obliterating-their-small-business-competition

Amazon budgets $4 billion to combat coronavirus

May 2, 2020 - "Amazon.com Inc. topped $75 billion in sales in the first quarter as COVID-19 swept across the globe, but profit declined and the company said Thursday that it might lose money in the current period.... For the second quarter, the company said it could report operating losses of up to $1.5 billion.... Analysts had expected more than $4 billion in operating profit in the second quarter, according to FactSet, but Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said he expects to spend that and possibly more.

"The jump in expenses will come from spending 'hundreds of millions of dollars' developing testing capabilities for all of its employees for COVID-19, starting with front-line workers; personal protective equipment for the company’s hundreds of thousands of employees; 'enhanced cleaning' of its facilities; and 'higher wages for hourly teams.'

"Amazon, for example, has procured 100 million face masks to be worn by 'all associates, drivers, and support staff in our operations network.' It has purchased more than 1,000 thermal cameras and 31,000 thermometers, which are being used to conduct mandatory daily temperature checks for employees and support staff throughout its operations sites and Whole Foods Market stores. And it has assembled a team including research scientists, program managers, procurement specialists and software engineers to build incremental testing capacity.....

"Bezos said in Thursday’s announcement.... 'we expect to spend the entirety of that $4 billion, and perhaps a bit more, on COVID-related expenses getting products to customers and keeping employees safe'....

"Underlying strong demand for Amazon’s operations in online shopping, cloud computing and streaming video, the company went on an unprecedented hiring binge since mid-March in seeking 175,000 additional workers — most of them at fulfillment centers and delivery services. Those positions have been filled, including 95,000 in April....

"'In this stay-at-home, social-distancing economy, Amazon is in a relatively good positioning with retail delivery, streaming and cloud services,' Christian Magoon, chief executive of Amplify ETFs and manager of the Amplify Online Retail ETF, told MarketWatch. 'If there is a downside, it’s a downturn in retail, companies attempting to renegotiate AWS contracts to save money, and political risk around the [federal government’s antitrust] investigation into Amazon, and ongoing friction between President Trump and [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos.'"

Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-says-it-may-lose-money-while-spending-on-covid-19-response-stock-sinks-in-late-trading-2020-04-30

Heinlein fans launch libertarianism into space

Forget Earth: In Space, Libertarian Ideas Are Thriving | WIRED -Sarah Scoles:

December 12, 2019 - "You may have heard the phrase 'There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch'.... Its acronym — TANSTAAFL — pops up in subreddits ... sweatshirts ... and as a nerdy economics rap on YouTube. Also: For the first eight years of the Libertarian Party’s existence, TANSTAAFL was its official slogan. So it may come as a surprise that this oh-so-political meal owes much of its popularity to a single book, about an anti-state revolution ... on the moon.

"Written by sci-fi luminary Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a libertarian manifesto baked into a novel. Heinlein infused his works with recurring sociopolitical themes, among them 'the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance,' as a sci-fi writers' society that anointed him its first Grand Master wrote. His interest in personal autonomy and private space exploration later seeped into the writing of other sci-fi authors, and into the minds of their readers—in particular, the leading figures in the commercial 'NewSpace' sector of private companies trying to escape Earth's surface.

“'The predominantly libertarian people who work in the free space movement almost universally cite Heinlein as their principal inspiration,' wrote engineer Robert G. Kennedy III.... Some of Heinlein's fans are, in fact, the biggest names in the commercial space industry. Take two of the (three total) people who've won the Heinlein Prize, a $500,000 award for accomplishments in the commercial space business: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Bezos, who has faced speculation about his hypothetical libertarianism and whose gargantuan store certainly ducks taxes and regulation, has said he spent his childhood summers reading Heinlein.

"Musk, meanwhile, has called himself both moderate and 'somewhat libertarian.' He wants his Mars outpost to have a direct democracy where it’s harder to make laws than delete them — a stance that leans libertarian. Musk too has labeled The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress one of his inspirations....

"For today's billionaire space set, though, ... NewSpace companies are pretty much regular old government contractors in new-brand clothing. They run on defense department and NASA contracts; they rely on federal perks. 'Taxpayer dollars often sustain these mythically self-made entrepreneurs,' says scholar Victor Shammas... 'The state,' he continues, 'is NewSpace’s biggest customer.”

"Yet assuming these companies succeed, their leaders may well place a philosophical stamp on any space outposts that emerge. One day, when your grandkids or friend's kids' kids are riding their hover-scooters around Mars Township B2, they could be living out aspects of Heinlein's libertarian dream."

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/forget-earth-in-space-libertarian-ideas-are-thriving/
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Volokh Conspiracy blog moves to Washington Post

Volokh Conspiracy moves to Washington Post | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government - Matthew DesOrmeaux:

January 22, 2014 - "The libertarian moment indeed. It was just announced Tuesday that the hugely popular legal blog, Volokh Conspiracy, has been picked up by the Washington Post. The Bezos-owned paper will now host Eugene Volokh’s legendary blog on its website, which is sure to boost both its exposure and prestige, while the authors retain full control of their content. For those unfamiliar with the 12-year old blog, its authors are mostly law professors with a libertarian bent, who cover everything from Supreme Court decisions to NFL policies, all with a dry but fascinating flourish.

"This move immediately follows the departure of Ezra Klein and two others from his hugely popular, but primarily liberal, WonkBlog at the Washington Post. And less than two weeks before, Radley Balko, the civil libertarian firebrand was picked up by the Post as well. This has led to some jests about a 'vast libertarian conspiracy” brewing at the Post. Though certainly no conspiracy, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and new owner of the Washington Post, has been rumored to have libertarian sympathies"

Read more: http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/16306-volokh-conspiracy-moves-to-washington-post
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Libertarian-leaning Bezos buys Washington Post

The politics of Jeff Bezos - Sean Sullivan, Washington Post:

August 7, 2013 - "The Washington Post will soon be coming under new ownership.... Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com will be taking the reins. Bezos, 49, has done most of his political talking with his checkbook, shelling out millions in support of gay marriage last year and thousands more over the years on behalf of mostly Democratic candidates. Those who know Bezos say he has libertarian leanings....

"Bezos’s most notable step into the political arena came in 2012, when he put a whopping $2.5 million into the campaign to defend gay marriage in the state of Washington. It was the largest donation of its kind, and came in response to to an appeal from a former Amazon employee, according to the Seattle Times. The former employee had asked Bezos to chip in less than a tenth of what he and his wife ended up giving....

"Early Amazon investor Nick Hanauer has described Bezos as a libertarian. And Bezos has donated to the nonprofit organization that publishes Reason.com, the Web site of the libertarian magazine with the same name. He also put $100,000 toward the defeat of a 2010 measure that would have imposed an income tax on top earners in the Evergreen State."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/08/07/the-politics-of-jeff-bezos/
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The top libertarians in business today

The Top Libertarians in Business Today | Benzinga - Alex Biles:

February 22, 2013 - : "Although the Libertarian Party never seems to climb out of the single digits in the polls, libertarians have a surprising influence in the business world and are well represented in a variety of sectors.... Benzinga took a look at the top libertarians in business today:...

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amaxzon ...

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com ...

Marc Faber, head of Marc Faber Limited ...

David and Charles Koch, Executive Vice President and CEO of Kock Industries ...

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Inc. ...

Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist ...

Erik Prince, CEO of Academi (formerly known as Xe, Blackwater ...

T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor ...

Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, Ltd. ...

Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital ...

Peter Thiel, PayPal founder ...

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/general/entrepreneurship/13/02/3358739/the-top-libertarians-in-business-today
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