free market

Save Thousands With 3-D Printing Technology

"The typical family can already save a great deal of money by making things with a 3-D printer, instead of buying them off the shelf. In the study, Pearce and his team chose 20 common household items listed on Thingiverse. Then they used Google Shopping to determine the maximum and minimum cost of buying those 20 items online, shipping charges not included. Next, they calculated the cost of making them with 3-D printers. The conclusion: It would cost the typical consumer from $312-1,944 to buy those 20 things, compared with $18 to make them in a weekend." Continue reading →

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It is capitalism, not democracy, that the Arab world needs most

"Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist, travelled to Egypt to investigate the causes of the Arab Spring. His team of researchers found that Bouazizi had inspired 60 similar cases of self-immolation, including five in Egypt, almost all of which had been overlooked by the press. The narrative of a 1989-style revolution in hope of regime change seemed so compelling to foreigners that there was little appetite for further explanation. But de Soto’s team tracked down those who survived their suicide attempts, and the bereaved families. Time and again, they found the same story: this was a protest for the basic freedom to own and acquire ras el mel, or capital." Continue reading →

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The Cloud Belongs to the NSA

"The market is already providing some safer alternatives. SpiderOak, a secure cloud storage company, has seen its rate of sign-ups nearly triple over the past month. SpiderOak says even its engineers are unable to decrypt your personal data, so it is stored safely, according to CSO Online. Many of these are startups or crowdfunded experiments and may be worth keeping an eye on. Apple is expected to announce improvements to its iCloud service soon. How larger companies deal with this may affect markets in interesting ways." Continue reading →

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Three Telling Stories, One Disruptive Company

"FreedomPop is different. It’s aimed at providing wireless Internet access for free. More specifically, its so-called Freemium service gives consumers the first 500 MB free. Once you have the physical product, there are no contracts and no bills. It’s just free. You can use it to turn your iPod into an iPhone or facetime by setting up an internet hot spot… for free. All you need to sign up is get a 4G USB stick, or a variety of other hardware pieces, and you can set up your own hotspot wherever you go. No more Comcast… or hammers. Within the next few months, FreedomPop will begin selling refurbished phones." Continue reading →

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A Western Alternative to the West

"Investors in Dubai needed patience. Even in 2011, stocks dropped another 20% before hitting rock bottom. The recovery started only last year, with shares up 20%. But the rally this year has been truly spectacular at 63% on the Dubai Financial Market. That’s against a falling trend in other emerging markets. The market has also massively outperformed the S&P 500. Indeed, it ranks among the best stock market performances in the world this year. It’s trounced the S&P 500. House prices have also recovered very strongly, though we are still a little shy of the peak valuations of 2008. For rental increases, Dubai is ranked No. 1 in the world this year." Continue reading →

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Mondragon Corporation (Wikipedia)

"Currently it is the seventh-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2012, it employed 83,321 people in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The determining factor in the creation of the Mondragon system was the arrival in 1941 of a young Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000. In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college that became a training ground for generations of managers, engineers and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: How America’s Working Stiffs Got Stiffed

"The Party leadership is not infallible. Neither in China nor in the US. In both countries, the feds – looking out for themselves – make policy decisions that are disastrous for others. We have no idea what calamity the central planners will cause in China. But we can take a fair guess of what they will do to America. Broadly, China’s feds build too many factories, malls and apartments. America’s feds encouraged the opposite error – borrowing and spending too much for consumption purposes. China’s real wages doubled in the last 10 years… after doubling in the previous 10 years. That is why the Chinese feel so much better off. They ARE much better off." Continue reading →

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Heart Surgery in India for $1,583 Costs $106,385 in U.S.

"Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi. Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He’s a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs with such measures as buying cheaper scrubs and spurning air-conditioning, he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: How the Internet Saved Civilization

"The new world transcends states, borders, charts, and plans. It is a spontaneous order, extended constantly by people’s desire to know and connect. It is the most poignant and beautiful example in our midst of the capacity of people to organize their lives on their own, with the assistance of merchants, coders, promoters, entrepreneurs, and property holders. The CEO of Google recently summed it up in this profound statement: 'The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.'" Continue reading →

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Amazon Hiring 5,000 in Warehouses to Meet Customer Demand

"Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is boosting staff in 17 U.S. warehouses, adding more than 5,000 full-time jobs to meet brisk demand for products sold by the world’s biggest Web retailer. The new hires will join more than 20,000 employees working at Amazon’s more than three dozen U.S. fulfillment centers, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today. Amazon is also hiring 2,000 customer-service staff, including part-time and seasonal workers. The retailer plans to open five more facilities this year, after adding 20 last year. Median pay is 30 percent higher than 'people who work in traditional retail stores,' the company said." Continue reading →

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