A seasoned Silicon Valley businessman — an older man of the pre-dotcom generation who’s seen his fair share of booms and busts — once told me that he had discovered the fatal weakness of the technology industry. It is that semiconductors are the most capital-intensive and innovation-intensive industrial products in history, yet everyone wants to pretend that they are commodities. “People have no idea what it takes to make these things,” he told me. “They think they’re no different than potatoes. They want
Could Your Costco and Walmart Discounts Be Banned?
At issue is a case that the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission brought against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the nation’s largest alcohol distributor. The agency alleges that the company violated a 1930s law, the Robinson–Patman Act, by offering larger discounts to retailers that buy in bulk.
