THE UNITED STATES NAVAL WAR COLLEGE JOINT MILITARY OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT On Operations: Operational Art and Military Disciplines Kindle Edition by Brett Friedman (Author) Link is a primer for the book. On Operations and Operational Art – military terms which roughly equates to method and approach for Operations and for conducting Operations. If that explanation is fuzzy, that is because it is fuzzy. I am just working through the book and there are different approaches in Germany/ Prussia versus more recent US and UK. This post is simply to capture the beginning of what I am learning and of course how … Continue reading Operations and Operational Art and applicability to other business

TikTok spied on me. Why?FT Cristina Criddle YESTERDAY in the FT Magazine writes and document at length her experience with Chinese intelligence. The story claimed ByteDance employees accessed two reporters’ data through their TikTok accounts. Personal information, including their physical locations, had been used as part of an attempt to find the writers’ sources, after a series of damaging stories about ByteDance. According to the report, two employees in China and two in the US left the company following an internal investigation. In a staff memo, ByteDance’s chief executive lamented the incident as the “misconduct of a few individuals” Selected summary … Continue reading ”TikTok spied on me. Why?”

John Authers of Bloomberg writes in an email note this morning. The number of Banks in America has come down to the 6,000 range which is a 100% reduction over the last 30 years. We can expect that number of Banks to continue to reduce as retrenchment becomes mandatory for survival. Despite the fire sale of First Republic over the weekend, confidence in regional banks grows ever weaker, with yet more selling of their shares Thursday. This is now getting to an extreme. Their valuation is almost back to the slough of despond in the Global Financial Crisis, while their … Continue reading The US regional bank crisis

Lant makes a wonky but strong argument for “people over robots” His argument in Foreign Affairs (link below) centres on productivity and he argues that resisting immigration by building out expensive technology rather than ease immigration controls is fundamentally an inefficient solution. I admit ti falling into the technology evangelist category however his economic arguments are a refreshing take on current economics that we have taken for granted, and possibly too easily. It is easier to build massively expense and difficult technology than deal with the political difficulties associated with “immigrants stealing my job”. In fact he argues that immigration … Continue reading The Global Economy Needs Immigration Before Automation – Lant Pritchett – further thoughts

UK Competition and Markets Authority effectively killed Microsofts acquisition of Activision Blizzard in an unclear yet decisive decision. I do not see how this decision helps anyone. Activision Blizzard blasts UK after regulator blocks $75bn Microsoft deal FT The UK competition regulator has blocked Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, drawing a furious response from the video games maker, which branded Britain “clearly closed for business”. The Competition and Markets Authority on Wednesday delivered a potentially fatal blow to Microsoft’s biggest deal by concluding the software giant could make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service. During the … Continue reading Activision Blizzard blasts UK after regulator blocks $75bn Microsoft deal