I think that's the key. We attribute to them special qualities because we like to think in terms of cause and effect. But they all seem to have just been there at the right time with the right people and the right thing.
They show us there is nothing special about them every time they try to do something new and miserably fail. Think the money Meta spent on VR, or the way Musk alienated users and advertisers on Twitter.
We are basically beholden to lottery winners.
Million, not billion. But the 20% deductible probably means that insurers can't get that money, because the way it's stated they'd have to pay out more than 20% of their (total) premiums for coverage to begin.
Reminds me somewhat of when Paul Bremer, Bush Jr's "vice-roy" in Iraq, decided to disband the Iraqi Army overnight, leaving tens of thousands of heavily armed Iraqis stranded without a job or source of income. IIRC, that's how the Iraqi insurgency started.
The amount of trade between EU countries forces them to have an equalized exchange rate. That has been true since long before the Euro was even implemented, and the constant pressure on a particular currency that had a hard time keeping the fixed exchange rate frequently brought turmoil. If you don't believe me, just look up Black Wednesday 1992.
The Euro is just the financial manifestation of that forced equalization. A manifestation that gives consumers greater price transparency in cross border dealings. If it really had had a major role in the rise of the far right, countries that use the Euro would have seen a greater rise than those that do not, and that really doesn't seem to be the case.
2025 feels like a completely different century than 2016. Whatever reasoning there was for the UK to do its own thing then, it's obsoleted by the new realization that the biggest partner and ally of both the EU and the UK seems to have lost interest in both.
Please, consider donating to archive.org. They are under assault right now, and they are the only outfit that records everything that might get lost otherwise.
It certainly worked during COVID. Republicans said they'd rather die than give up their unmasked freedom. Hard to ask their graves if they regret that, though.
Sort of. A unilateral tariff generates a trade imbalance in favor of the economy imposing the tariff. By applying commensurate tariffs in the other direction, you keep the trade balance you had before the tariff was imposed.
Look at that: just when the politicians of the world are fighting wars over limited lithium resources, a cheaper, better solution that uses one of the most abundantly available elements on the planet.