I heard the audiobook at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgSvKzl7L3Q&t=6565s.
Ludvig Von Mises was scholar rooted in Austrian School of Economics. The book compared the socialism with capitalism, and concluded that bureaucracy in socialism became a dominant economic phenomenon and choke the vitality from the society
Some quotes from the book:
Miss Maudie stopped rocking, and her voice hardened. "You are too young to understand it," she said, "but sometimes the bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of -oh, of your father."
"... There are just some kind of men who-who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results."
".. The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets -- "
The key question is who will benefit from Didi's death?
CCP? The death of a Chinese public company listed in western exchange at the hands of CCP will send a shudder to all the companies (domestic and foreign) around the world and greatly diminish the likelihood of any future capital raising and listing from world market. CCP will not benefit from Didi's death, as a matter of fact, it will lose big if it ever happens. CCP wants to regulate the big tech companies so that there will be a healthy competition in Chinese market and there will be more companies able to raise capital and thrive in open market. Many analysts compare Didi to Luckin, but it seems to me CCP regulating Didi just to avoid another Luckin incident. Luckin and Didi are not comparables, rather they are cause and consequence. Because of Luckin there comes Didi.
And so far CCP has been logical throughout its ruling in China, and I highly doubt CCP will kill Didi.
I would think CCP may actually go out of its way to help Didi succeed once Didi finds a way to satisfy CCP's cyber security review and prove its compliance.
The movie is adapted from a play of the same name written by Reginald Rose, directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Henry Fonda.
Two words I came out after watching the movie is reasonable doubt. At the beginning of the play, 12 jurors polled at 11 guilty to 1 not guilty, and as the play progressed, juror 8 (the sole dissenter) played by Henry Fonda threw questions on the facts that seemed non-refutable, and as the other jurors who want to get done with verdict and get out of hot room argued with him, we as audience started to have doubts on those facts, just the same as the other 11 jurors.
The movie showed American judicial system and how the system encouraged reasonable doubt through jurors.
" This book is the story of the rise and fall of the European-dominated empire of cotton. But because of the centrality of cotton, its story is also the story of the making and remaking of global capitalism and with it of the modern world".
On European-dominated empire of cotton, "Why was it that the part of the world that had the least to do with cotton-Europe-created and came to dominate the empire of cotton" and "why, after many millennia of slow economic growth, a few strands of humanity in the late 18th century suddenly got much richer" ? "Scholars now refer to these few decades as the 'great divergence'"?
"A focus on cotton and its very concrete and often brutal development casts doubt" on traditional explanations on Europe's explosive economic development : "more rational religious beliefs, their Enlightenment traditions, the climate in which they live, the continent's geography, or benign institutions such as the Bank of England or the rule of laws". "The first industrial nation, Great Britain, was hardly a liberal, lean state with dependable but impartial institutions as it is often portrayed. Instead it was an imperial nation characterized by enormous military expenditures, a nearly constant state of war, a powerful and interventionist bureaucracy, high taxes, skyrocketing government debt, and protectionist tariffs- and it was certainly not democratic." What really drove Europe's dominance is "Europeans united power of capital and the power of state to forge, often violently, a global production complex, and then used the capital, skills, networks, and institutions of cotton to embark upon the upswing in technology and wealth that defines the modern world". The time between 16th century and late 18th century is the phase of capitalism what author termed "war capitalism", not in the factory but in the fields, not mechanized but land- and labor-intensive, "resting on the violent expropriation of land and labor in Africa and the Americas. From these expropriations came great wealth and new knowledge, and these in turn strengthened European institutions and states - all crucial preconditions for Europe's extraordinary economic development by the 19th century and beyond".
The book was recommended by Bill Gates and I listened it on Audible.
It explored the downfall of General Electric under CEO Jeff Immelt. The fall of GE is set in stone by former CEO Jack Welch, who turned GE into a conglomerate of diverse components, ranging from industrial manufacturing(GE Aviation, GE Power and GE appliances) to media (NBC) and even finance (GE Capital). Jack Welch leveraged GE Capital (a bank in reality but valued as a industrial company which gave it a higher P/E) to smooth out the revenue and earning and created an illusion of superior management and innovation, satisfying Wall Street and hiking up the GE share price, enriching himself along the way. In truth, Jack Welch is more a shrewd Ponzi schemer and financial engineer than an entrepreneur. To a large extent, Jack Welch is a Bernie Madoff with a better timing.
It is a sobering read on how crooks like Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt can fool the world and make General Electric an American icon.
The books is a youtube audiobook .
I didn't finish it, just couldn't relate to it and had a hard time to follow it.
Rate 1 out of 5. Maybe later retry
5 stars and page turner. Compassionate writing and well researched on schizophrenia.
