by Joel Charalambakis | Dec 28, 2024 | Commentaries
The invitation for this end-of-year trip came in early December in a unique envelope. It was sent by Isabella Baumfree, a.k.a. Sojourner Truth. While not revealing the other co-passengers, it described the subject: The pursuit of narcissistic power and the potential...
by Joel Charalambakis | Dec 3, 2024 | Commentaries
In the first part of our assessment for 2025, our emphasis was ontroubling spots that could generate turmoil in the markets (such as oligopolistic and oligarchic structures that cancel market forces, inflationary built-in structures, unrestrained/unfounded optimism,...
by Joel Charalambakis | Nov 26, 2024 | Commentaries
The US government recently won its case of alleged monopolization against Google. Probably the government’s argument can be better understood as a case of a monopoly within an oligopoly (given that only 3-4 search engines dominate web searches). Should we expect the...
by Joel Charalambakis | Nov 4, 2024 | Commentaries
I was about to fill out my ballot at an early voting station last Friday when Homer nudged me: “Do you recall the island of Ismarus?” “Of course, I do”, I replied. It was after leaving Troy. “Didn’t the troops sack the city in Ismarus and take the spoils for...
by Joel Charalambakis | Oct 22, 2024 | Commentaries
In 1632, Galileo got permission from the Florentine censors (of the infamous Inquisition era) to publish his findings under the pretense of a hypothesis. The form of the book was a three-way dialogue among Salviati (a disguised Galileo), Sagredo (an open-minded...
by Joel Charalambakis | Oct 1, 2024 | Commentaries
Vienna in the 1920s became the center of logical empiricism, which crowned rational knowledge and scientific discoveries as the primary sources of discovering truths and advancing progress. Just in the last four weeks, the market has experimented with new highs in...