This is the non-Covid part of what would previously have been the weekly Covid post. About half of the content written for the post this week is being withheld for topic-level future posts, both with longer time horizons (e.g. policy roundups don’t need to be weekly and should benefit from more integration over time) and elevating worthy sub-topics to their own posts, which this week seems likely to include the colonoscopy study.
“If you keep hiking prices (no you cannot simply say ‘inflation!’) and cutting service and everyone hates you and they live in fear of you, you might be a monopoly.”
Well, no. A monopoly is a particular thing, and it is *not* simply ‘a business firm that does things I do not personally like.”
Re paypal, I've long had the policy to never link Paypal to a bank account with a meaningful balance. Lots of reports over the years of them pulling money out of the account with little transparency and no recourse.
I still use paypal for credit card processing, I think it's safer than having a wide variety of internet storefronts see your cc number. And if you don't mind some extra clicks, linking it to a low balance bank account that you move money into and out of just before/after Paypal transactions seems fine.
Argument from authority: I spent ~1995-1999 working on ecommerce credit card processing and fraud detection. The startup I worked at handled all of Paypal's credit card backends for years before Paypal in-housed it. (Which we knew they were going to do, it was too central to their business to have it outsourced permanently.)
If you sign up to play poker at The Hustler Casino, and you're not a hustler and someone else is, and you end up getting hustled, couldn't one say that you had it coming?
“If you keep hiking prices (no you cannot simply say ‘inflation!’) and cutting service and everyone hates you and they live in fear of you, you might be a monopoly.”
Well, no. A monopoly is a particular thing, and it is *not* simply ‘a business firm that does things I do not personally like.”
If you were to read the Reeves book, you would be disappointed.
Re paypal, I've long had the policy to never link Paypal to a bank account with a meaningful balance. Lots of reports over the years of them pulling money out of the account with little transparency and no recourse.
I still use paypal for credit card processing, I think it's safer than having a wide variety of internet storefronts see your cc number. And if you don't mind some extra clicks, linking it to a low balance bank account that you move money into and out of just before/after Paypal transactions seems fine.
Argument from authority: I spent ~1995-1999 working on ecommerce credit card processing and fraud detection. The startup I worked at handled all of Paypal's credit card backends for years before Paypal in-housed it. (Which we knew they were going to do, it was too central to their business to have it outsourced permanently.)
Are your claims about the uselessness of credentials backed by hard evidence?
If you sign up to play poker at The Hustler Casino, and you're not a hustler and someone else is, and you end up getting hustled, couldn't one say that you had it coming?