Uber revolutionized passenger transportation by providing a third-party platform where consumers “compete” with each other for rides. Now, platforms that enable companies to “compete” for supply chain assets have emerged as a way to lower costs and increase efficiency through Amazon-like economies of scale. It is an intriguing development, but…

Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine intensifies the product shortage and price rise issues we have come to associate with Covid-19. — The good news — if anything about the conflict can be characterized as good — is that these issues may ease sooner than is generally expected. The not-so-good news is that the war in Europe could trigger the recession that many observers — including myself — have predicted owing to…

In these Covid-ravaged times, the last thing companies need is more bad news, but like it or not, the storm clouds of a global economic recession are gathering on the horizon. — Even though companies have their hands full dealing with today’s uncertainties, they are well-advised to start thinking about how to prepare for a downturn that could compare to the 2008 financial crisis. Outlook remains uncertain

The new normal is already here, and we need to take measures that enable us to live with it. — Regardless of the Omicron Covid-19 variant’s impact on our fight against the pandemic, its arrival reaffirms that the new normal is already here, and we need to take measures that enable us to live with it. Central to the task are government responses that support and even reinforce the defense…

The furor over a whistleblower’s accusations that Facebook profits from allowing its platform to spread disinformation has spotlighted the role of social media in propagating falsehoods online. A prime example is how such untruths hamper the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. However, adversity can be a rich source of opportunity…

A potent reminder of the insecurities associated with Covid-19 is the hoarding of toilet paper by consumers during the early days of the pandemic. We are now witnessing a corporate version of this practice, as supermarkets build inventories in anticipation of product shortages. The motivations are different, but the outcome…

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, governments shifted their economies into critical care and put them on life support. While the US economy is still traumatized, it is time the government stopped treating it like a critical care patient in order to allow self-healing market forces to continue rehabilitating the patient. …

Inflation is one of the headwinds facing the US economy and consumers, and inflation is fueled, to some extent, by the national shortage of truck drivers. This shortage raises truck transportation prices, which show up in higher prices for every product. It’s not a new problem. For example, over the…

After the Swedish retailer H&M announced recently that it was concerned about the use of forced labor to produce cotton in China’s western region of Xinjiang, the company faced a boycott in the country. H&M was pulled from a major e-commerce site and blocked by leading search engines. Similarly, Nike…