Welcome, friends, to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic

dimensions of our lives and those of our children. I'm your host, Richard Wolfe.

Today's show is going to be talking about many topics.

We're going to have to get right to it.

But the topics include Twitter, the claim that profits are justified by the risks investors

take, the wave of strikes across Europe against inflation,

the poor countries that are now in deepening economic trouble, the embargo against Cuba,

and the collapse of the crypto currency economy. So let's get right to it, since we have a lot to do. The scandal around

Twitter and its purchase by Elon Musk raises a number of important questions that are not

getting the attention in the media, and that's why we're going to talk about it now.

The first and the biggest problem is this. Twitter is a social institution. It's the way

millions of people communicate with one another, all kinds of important information.

As a social institution upon which our society another, all kinds of important information.

As a social institution upon which our society relies, it is a very serious challenge to

democracy if one individual is controlling it, deciding it, deciding what we can and cannot communicate.

How, when, where, and at what expense.

And when you realize that Mr. Musk has absolutely no particular qualifications to do any of that,

having made money developing an electric automobile, you realize what a strange

society we live in.

But in case you haven't thought about it, let me remind you, lots of inventions over time,

made by particular individuals came to be understood as social institutions, and

therefore taken over by society and run by governments or other kinds of social arrangements,

...