Beth has done it again...check out her curated list of reads and you will be well-equipped to enrich others with your knowledge of monopsony (don't worry I had to look it up too!), melt-ups, physics of electric car batteries, "going gray" and the supply/demand situation for donated clothes. Enjoy your weekend!

--------------

Technology/CES

• Parenting in the age of smart phones is extremely challenging--and at times, downright frightening.  If it makes you feel any better, High Tech execs struggle with this as much as you do.  Check out this article if you want to hear their suggestions for handling your teens and tweens:

The routes tech-savvy executives choose to protect their tweens and teens online vary, from close monitoring to guiding them in managing the hazards themselves.

• Ready for a car with no steering wheel or pedals? You might be interested in learning more about  GM’s latest plans for self-driving cars.
• The Consumer Electronics Show: The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is techie heaven. Are you ready for a toilet that flushes on your voice command, or a shower that adjusts the temperature?  A high tech existence leaves us all dependent of batteries.  It’s all about the batteries, making them better, easier to charge, used more efficiently, etc. Want a glimpse of the excitement? Take two minutes to watch the video embedded in this article to “experience” the show.
  • Want to read more about CES?  Here are reports on CES by USAToday, Newsweek and Time.

• Credit cards: No longer need to sign – even with a smiley face.  Overseas, use of the chip/PIN combo eliminated the need for a signature.  We have the chips here, but no PINs necessary.  Personally, I’d feel safer with PINs.  What do you think?

The companies say improved security features, in particular the chips that in recent years have been embedded in most Americans’ debit and credit cards, outweigh the security provided by signatures. Some say a written name scrawled on a slip of paper or electronic pad fails to provide much protection these days. Removing the signature will also speed up in-store checkout for many consumers, they add.

Lifestyle/Wellness

• Is there a perfect age for everything? Researchers are providing some interesting findings. PS – 18-19 years old is prime time for information processing!  
• A new SNAP pilot program enables families to buy more fresh produce, hoping to improve their health.  

"We know food insecurity and, unfortunately, chronic disease go hand in hand," says Joe Prickitt, a UCSD dietitian who is senior director of Más Fresco. "For SNAP participants, there's a real cost barrier to buying fruits and vegetables. They say they're just too expensive." For every dollar's worth of food stamps enrollees spend on fresh produce in a given month, they receive a one-to-one match — up to $10, $20 or $40 — that they can spend only on more fruits and vegetables. The UC-San Diego researchers who are studying the program varied the maximum reward amounts and assigned them randomly to participants to help determine the optimal dollar level that changes people's dietary habits.

• If you are trying to break your screen habit, try going gray.  It might be easier than you think.
• New Year’s Resolutions already abandoned? Looking for a motivating talk about managing money?  Here is a list from Business Insider of six TED talks that deal with handling your finances.

Investing

• Spotify, among other new tech firms, is known for its disruptive role in the music industry.  Now it seems to be at the heart of a disruption to Investment Banking’s IPO business.  The company has cash and holding a public offering to make a market for its share, not to raise cash.  They therefore are insisting on a streamlined (and cheaper) set of services.  Given the drop in IPOs over the last two years, the investment banks are going with it.

“If a company can raise the majority of its growth equity capital privately and float their shares in a broker-free offering, it would be scary for the underwriting business,” said Michael Sobel, co-founder of Scenic Advisement, an investment bank serving private tech companies. “The IPO is a cornerstone of the banking business.”

• The crazy market: The Dow passes 26,000—is it FOMO or “Melt-up?” (greed over concern).   People uncertain about the market’s rise for the last nine years decide they better get in the game before they miss out.  Meanwhile – Bitcoin drops below $10000 – is anyone surprised?  Learn about Asia’s role in Bitcoin’s crash.  

Economics- Monopoly and Monopsony- Supply and Demand

• You think Monopoly and you think of prices behind help higher by the monopolist.  But when you talk about technology, prices are dropping steadily.  So do we need to break up these big tech companies?

“A growing number of critics think these tech giants need to be broken up or regulated as Standard Oil and AT&T once were. Their alleged sins run the gamut from disseminating fake news and fostering addiction to laying waste to small towns’ shopping districts. But antitrust regulators have a narrow test: Does their size leave consumers worse off?”

• Unemployment is at a record low, yet wages aren’t rising rapidly.  Why aren’t employers offering more money to fill jobs? Slate reports on research by a group of economists who argue that the concentration of employers (monopsony firms) has held wages down.  They choose to leave jobs unfilled rather than risk raising wages for all, and if no one else is bidding their employees away, they don’t need to. 

In the years following the Great Recession, the U.S. labor market was incredibly concentrated, with a relatively small number of businesses posting help-wanted ads across different industries and cities. That appeared to put downward pressure on wages; the more concentrated the local market, the lower pay tended to be, the study’s authors found. This, the study’s authors argued, was a sign that U.S. employers had an enormous amount of monopsony power—meaning they were essentially free to set low wages, because few other businesses were around or hiring. 

• Those clothes you put in the Goodwill bin?  Nobody wants to wear them….and recycling them, while an ecologically sound option, may no longer make economic sense either.

------------

INFOGRAPHIC: Amazon versus Google - who is winning the voice battle?

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/smart-speaker-market-share/

About the Author