Systems in Need of Reform:
Patents and Litigation
Sebastian Mallaby has an interesting take on the
malfunctioning US Patent system
Media analyst, Michael Wolff, captures the insecurities
underlying Apple’s litigiousness:
“This fierce
defensiveness might be rightly understood in a psychological sense: Apple
itself is based on stolen iconography. There was first the Beatle's Apple and
there was Xerox PARC's desktop design. Apple's self-righteousness masks its
guilt. (It may be sheepish, too, about being more of a marketing organization
than a technology company.) What's more, it knows better than anybody that if
you relax your vigilance, somebody can easily walk off with what you've done –
and improve it.”
Regarding the dysfunctional patent system, Wolff notes:
“Patents are,
arguably, no longer a system of protection; they are a system of litigation.
Great numbers of patents are now filed, in an over-burdened system, to protect
not innovations but the right to litigate over innovations. Indeed, any patent
of value will ultimately be litigated.”
US Corporate Tax System – In Desperate Need of Reform
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On the Consequences of Fed’s Monetary Policies:
QE 3 Debate
Arguing for a shift to a single mandate for the US central bank, Bob Corker makes an interesting point regarding the Fed in his FT op-ed:
“We need a Federal
Reserve that will help, not hinder, our country’s vital transformation to an
economy comprised of savers, and not wholly reliant on over-leveraged
consumers.”
Meanwhile, Asian policymakers are already worried about the consequences of another (potential) round of QE