Libertarians Salute Trump for Keeping His Promise to Pardon Free Trade Innovator Ross Ulbricht

Libertarians believe that governments should stay out of voluntary exchanges between consenting adults. So when Ross Urlbricht set up Silk Road as a platform for exchange that excluded governments, he became a libertarian hero. (For an extensive account see Bilton 2017.) When Ulbricht was given a disproportionately severe sentence, he became a martyred libertarian hero.

Libertarians are conflicted about Donald Trump. They like his courage and perseverance, but don’t like his name-calling and bullying. They like his deregulation and downsized bureaucracies, but don’t like his tariffs and industrial policy.

Trump promised that if elected, he would pardon Ross Ulbricht. On the first full day of his second term, The Donald kept his promise. Libertarians like that–a lot!

Michael Milken was an entrepreneurial finance innovator whose RICO conviction, instigated by Rudy Giuliani in his New York City prosecutor days, was a travesty of justice. (See: Kornbluth 1992; (an aside in) Milken 2023, and Sandler 2023.) The second Bush could and should have pardoned Milken, but did not. Trump late in his first term did, putting justice ahead of political correctness.

Not many people care about Ulbricht and Milken, but those who do care, care–inclining them to keep open minds on Donald Trump.

For The New York Times‘s snidely dismissive view of the Ulbricht pardon see:

David Yaffe-Bellany and Ryan Mac. “Pardon Is Won By Leveraging Trump’s Needs.” The New York Times (Fri., January 24, 2025): A1 & A15.

(Note: the online version of the article has the date January 22, 2025, and has the title “How Trump Was Persuaded to Pardon an Online Drug Kingpin.”)

The best known account of Ulbricht’s Silk Road is:

Bilton, Nick. American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road. New York: Portfolio, 2017.

The books on Milken mentioned in my comments are:

Kornbluth, Jesse. Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1992.

Milken, Michael. Faster Cures: Accelerating the Future of Health. New York: William Morrow, 2023.

Sandler, Richard V. Witness to a Prosecution: The Myth of Michael Milken. ForbesBooks: Charleston, South Carolina, 2023.

Warren Buffett Said Obamacare Is “Two Thousand Pages of Nonsense”

Our health system is a mess. The latest major effort to “fix” it was Obamacare (the so-called “Affordable Health Act”)–two thousand pages cobbled together by lobbyists, deep state staffers, and legislative log-rolling that resulted in high costs, opaque rules, perverse incentives, and unintended consequences.

(p. A15) Medicare doles out reimbursements for services that may or may not be real, helpful to the recipient, or reasonably priced. It’s very hard to know. Congress doesn’t want doctors and hospitals back home closely policed. Result: Medicare controls spending, perversely, with blanket low reimbursement rates for necessary and unnecessary services alike.

. . .

. . . government programs are born in chaos—with congressional horse trading and payoffs to appease interest groups. That’s why government programs make so little organizational sense. Remember when we had to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it? (“Two thousand pages of nonsense,” said Warren Buffett at the time. “The problem is incentives.”)

For the full commentary see:

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. “Business World; Elon Musk’s Useful Experiment.” The Wall Street Journal (Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025): A15.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the commentary has the date February 11, 2025, and has the title “Business World; DOGE Is Elon Musk’s Useful Experiment.” In both the online and print versions, the phrase “born in chaos” appears in italics for emphasis.)

“Stand for Health Freedom”

I believe that respecting each other’s freedom is what makes America exceptional. It is the right thing to do. But what a wonderful miracle, that on balance respecting freedom results in much else that is good, including better health and more happiness.

I believe that vaccines sometimes have bad side effects, but that on balance some vaccines are among the greatest contributions to human health.

But we should convince, not mandate. We should respect freedom because that is what is moral to do. And if we do, there will be more medical innovation; more and faster cures.

(p. A11) Ms. Wilson’s organization, Stand for Health Freedom, has become part of a grassroots push . . . .  . . .  To Ms. Wilson, those involved have coalesced around one idea: “There’s roles for government, and telling us how to care for our bodies is not one of them.”

. . .

Stand for Health Freedom is a young organization, but the wider movement “goes to the very roots of America,” said Lewis A. Grossman, a professor at American University’s law school who has studied the history of libertarianism.

“There’s always been a robust portion of Americans who embrace these values,” Mr. Grossman said. As early as 1902, organizations like the American Medical Liberty League were pushing for freedom from vaccine mandates. In the 1950s, the John Birch Society and National Health Federation took up the cause. In 1975, a group opposed to water fluoridation in Rockland County, N.Y., called itself the Citizens for Health Freedom.

But by and large, these groups and others like them existed outside the mainstream. Starting in the 1960s, however, American trust in institutions began to wane.

. . .

Then, Covid struck and cities were locked down. Public health officials also fumbled critical early messaging, painting the vaccines as a “miracle” that would provide permanent immunity, said Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

“We really lost credibility, because that’s not what happened,” Dr. Osterholm said.

Suddenly, medical freedom became a salient issue to many more Americans, and resistance to Covid restrictions became their unifying principle.  . . .

Much of that growth occurred online, as people lost faith in traditional medical institutions and searched for like-minded thinkers, Dr. Osterholm said. New supporters flocked to Ms. Wilson’s organization as it took on all sorts of causes.

. . .

As it grew, Ms Wilson’s organization gained support from a politically diverse group of advocates. Roughly 40 percent of the people who have taken action on the platform are Democrats, she claimed. Ms. Wilson saw this as evidence that “there are plenty of people who care about being the one who makes the ultimate health decisions for their children,” she said.

“This is common sense,” she added, “not strange or rare.”

For the full story see:

Kate Morgan. “Vaccine Protesters Find Winning Slogan: ‘Health Freedom’.” The New York Times (Wednesday, January 1, 2025): A11.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the story was updated Dec. 31, 2024, and has the title “How ‘Health Freedom’ Became a Winning Rallying Cry.”)

Obamacare (the So-Called “Affordable Care Act”) Has “A Complex, Often Byzantine, Eligibility and Enrollment System”

Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid are supposed to help the least-well-off. But the least-well-off are exactly those who are least able to navigate the red-tape of the bureaucracy. Signing up for Amazon Prime was far simpler than signing up for Medicare. (My source is personal experience.)

(p. A18) The Trump administration on Friday said that it would drastically cut annual spending on so-called navigator groups that help Americans enroll in Obamacare health insurance plans, from around $100 million to just $10 million.

. . .

The Trump administration on Friday [Feb. 14, 2025] noted that health insurance navigators enrolled only 92,000 people on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces last year, or less than 1 percent of plan participants, amounting to more than $1,000 per enrollment. During Mr. Trump’s first term, with funding levels similar to the one announced Friday, navigators enrolled people at “a far more efficient $211 per enrollment,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in its announcement.

. . .

“They are primarily there to help people navigate a complex, often byzantine, eligibility and enrollment system,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

For the full story see:

Noah Weiland. “Administration Will Cut Funds For Navigators Of Obamacare.” The New York Times (Saturday, February 15, 2025): A18.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed date, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date Feb. 14, 2025, and has the title “Trump Shrinks Funds for Navigators Who Help Americans Enroll in Obamacare.”)

Medical Oversight Boards Jeopardize Patient Safety by Ignoring or Forgiving the “Egregious Misconduct” of Healthcare Providers

(p. C7) In her excellent book, “The Licensing Racket,” the Vanderbilt law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth presents plenty of cases of hair braiders, barbers and interior decorators who have been prevented from working by license restrictions that inflate prices without improving safety or quality. But Ms. Allensworth has bigger targets in mind.

Most people will concede that licensing for hair braiders and interior decorators is excessive while licensing for doctors, nurses and lawyers is essential. Hair braiders pose little to no threat to public safety, but subpar doctors, nurses and lawyers can ruin lives. To Ms. Allensworth’s credit, she asks for evidence. Does occupational licensing protect consumers? The author focuses on the professional board, the forgotten institution of occupational licensing.

. . .

(p. C8) You might hope that boards that oversee nurses and doctors would prioritize patient safety, but Ms. Allensworth’s findings show otherwise. She documents a disturbing pattern of boards that have ignored or forgiven egregious misconduct, including nurses and physicians extorting sex for prescriptions, running pill mills, assaulting patients under anesthesia and operating while intoxicated.

In one horrifying case, a surgeon breaks the white-coat code and reports a fellow doctor for performing a surgery so catastrophically botched that he assumes the practitioner must be an imposter. Others also report “Dr. Death” to the board. But Ms. Allensworth notes, “at the time of the complaints to the medical board, [Dr. Death] was only one third of the way through the thirty-seven spinal surgeries he would perform, thirty-three of which left the patients maimed or dead.” The board system seems incapable of acting decisively and Dr. Death’s rampage is only ended definitively when he is indicted—the initial charges include “assault with a deadly weapon,” the scalpel—and eventually imprisoned.

No system is perfect, but Ms. Allensworth’s point is that the board system is not designed to protect patients or consumers. She has a lot of circumstantial evidence that signals the same conclusion. The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), for example, collects data on physician misconduct and potential misconduct as evidenced by medical-malpractice lawsuits. But “when Congress tried to open the database to the public, the [American Medical Association] ‘crushed it like a bug.’”

One of the most infuriating aspects of the system is that the AMA and the boards limit the number of physicians with occupational licensing, artificially scarce residency slots and barriers preventing foreign physicians from practicing in the U.S. Yet when a physician is brought before a board for egregious misconduct, the AMA cites physician shortage as a reason for leniency. When it comes to disciplining bad actors, the mantra seems to be that “any physician is better than no physician,” but when it comes to allowing foreign-trained doctors to practice in the U.S., the claim suddenly becomes something like “patient safety requires American training.”

. . .

I agree that licensing boards have failed to effectively discipline their members, but I think we should eliminate restrictions on supply. The adage “any physician is better than no physician” should not be a shield for negligent doctors, but it underscores an essential truth. The real harm lies in the scarcity created by licensing.

. . .

Voluntary certification can effectively replace many occupational licenses. Consider computer security, one of the most critical fields for consumer safety. Instead of requiring occupational licenses, professionals in this field rely on certifications such as the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) to demonstrate expertise and competence.

. . .

The medical profession is unlikely to be delicensed, but as Ms. Allensworth’s book shows, we shouldn’t let the AMA dictate the terms of medical education. Many European countries offer combined undergraduate and medical degree programs that take only six years, compared to the eight or more years required in the U.S.

Advances in artificial intelligence, which Ms. Allensworth doesn’t explore, may also catalyze reform. AI is already transforming fields such as legal research and medical diagnostics, automating tasks once reserved for licensed professionals. As these technologies advance, they can reduce reliance on rigid licensing systems by ensuring quality and safety through innovative tools.

For the full review see:

Alex Tabarrok. “Permission To Join The Field.” The Wall Street Journal (Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025): C7-C8.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the review has the date February 7, 2025, and has the title “‘The Licensing Racket’: There’s a Board for That.”)

The book under review is:

Allensworth, Rebecca Haw. The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2025.

Land Use Regulations Slow Home Building

Productivity in manufacturing in the U.S. between 1930 and 2020 has increased, with stagnation for the last 10 years. In contrast, residential construction productivity increased, with more variability, from 1930 until the 1970s, and then stagnated or decreased. Starting in the 1970s an increase in land use and environmental regulations caused the stagnation.

So if we want more and better and cheaper housing, the key is less government regulation.

The study I summarize above is:

D’Amico, Leonardo, Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko, William R. Kerr, and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto. “Why Has Construction Productivity Stagnated? The Role of Land-Use Regulation.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 33188, Nov. 2024.

Feds Set Up Perverse Incentives in Healthcare; Health Insurance Companies Do Not Rise Above the Incentives

Vertical integration is admirable when it results in efficiencies of production that in the end benefit the consumer. But the federal government has set up an opaque healthcare system with unintended perverse incentives for health insurance firms to vertically integrate–where the firms own pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers (P.B.M.s), hospitals, and doctors practices. Reimbursement rates for drugs are set by P.B.M.s. So the insurance company’s in-house P.B.M. reimburses its in-house pharmacy generously, but reimburses outside independent pharmacies stingily–often so stingily that the outside independent pharmacies go bankrupt, increasing the customer flow to the insurance company’s in-house pharmacy. Consumers do not benefit.

I mainly blame the government. But I do not praise the insurance firms. Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick in Anarchy, State, and Utopia argued that profit maximization was ethical and served the common good, as long as it was done subject to ethical side-constraints. The three big health insurance firms, and especially United Health, have NOT set a conspicuous example of following Nozick’s advice.

What a pitiful, frustrating, inefficient, unfair mess.

(p. D3) The small-town drugstore closed for the last time on a clear and chilly afternoon in February. Jon Jacobs, who owned Yough Valley Pharmacy, hugged his employees goodbye. He cleared the shelves and packed pill bottles into plastic bins.

Mr. Jacobs, a 70-year-old pharmacist, had spent more than half his life building his drugstore into a bedrock of Confluence, Pa., a rural community of roughly 1,000 people. Now the town was losing its only health care provider.

Obscure but powerful health care middlemen — companies known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s — had destroyed his business.

This has been happening all over the country, a New York Times investigation found. P.B.M.s, which employers and government programs hire to oversee prescription drug benefits, have been systematically underpaying small pharmacies, helping to drive hundreds out of business.

The pattern is benefiting the largest P.B.M.s, whose parent companies run their own competing pharmacies. When local drugstores fold, the benefit managers often scoop up their customers, according to dozens of patients and pharmacists.

The benefit managers’ power comes from two main sources. First, the three biggest players — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx — collectively process roughly 80 percent of prescriptions in the United States. Second, they determine how much drugstores are reimbursed for medications that they provide to patients.

Pharmacies buy those drugs from wholesalers, in the hope that P.B.M.s will reimburse them at a profit when the medications are provided to patients. But the largest benefit managers have strong incentives to set those rates as low as possible. A key reason: They make money in part by charging employers more for certain drugs than what the P.B.M.s pay pharmacies for them.

P.B.M.s frequently pay the pharmacies at rates that do not cover the costs of the drugs, according to more than 100 pharmacists around the country and dozens of examples of insurance paperwork and legal documents.

To take just one example: For a month’s supply of the blood thinner Eliquis, several pharmacists in different states said, the big three P.B.M.s routinely paid them as much as $100 less than what it cost the pharmacies to buy the medication from a wholesaler.

By contrast, the P.B.M.s sometimes pay their own pharmacies more than what they pay local drugstores for the same medications.

Independent pharmacies are powerless to fight back. As the unprofitable transactions pile up, some are unable to stay afloat.

. . .

(p. 26) The evidence that P.B.M.s pay their own pharmacies more than independent drugstores for the same medications is not just anecdotal. One study, paid for by a pharmacy association, found that the markup that P.B.M.s were charging on brand-name drugs was 35 times higher when the drugs were sold through their own mail-order pharmacies than when the drugs were sold by independent drugstores.

Government studies have identified a similar phenomenon.

Those extra costs are borne by taxpayers or employers and can be passed on to patients in the form of higher premiums — at odds with the benefit managers’ mandate of lowering drug costs.

. . .

(p. 27) In Mississippi, . . ., the state board that regulates pharmacies said this month that Optum Rx paid independent pharmacies less than it paid itself to dispense generic drugs. On a single day in 2022, Optum Rx paid itself 22 times what it paid six independent drugstores to fill generic Prilosec, a heartburn medication. Optum Rx declined to comment on the audit.

For the full story see:

Reed Abelson and Rebecca Robbins. “Powerful Firms Driving Out Local Pharmacies.” The New York Times, First Section (Sunday, October 20, 2024): 1 & 26-27.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed date, added.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date Oct. 19, 2024, and has the title “The Powerful Companies Driving Local Drugstores Out of Business.” Where the wording of the two versions differs (sometimes considerably), the quotes above follow the online version.)

The academic article co-authored by Evans is:

Wu, Lingfei, Dashun Wang, and James A. Evans. “Large Teams Develop and Small Teams Disrupt Science and Technology.” Nature 566, no. 7744 (Feb. 2019): 378-82.

Davos Worries Innovative European Firms Will Relocate to U.S. for Fewer Regs and “Kinder” Trump

Many of those with the passion to persevere in overcoming the necessary and unnecessary (regulatory) obstacles to medical innovation, do so because they have a sense of urgency due to skin in the game–they or a relative is directly affected by the disease they are passionate to cure. Dr. Edward Scolnick whose story I quote below, is a great example. In the story, we find another example, Ted Stanley, who donated $100 million to Scolnick because Stanley’s son is also suffering mental illness. And perhaps an indirect example? Rienhoff does not directly have skin in the game, but he is playing a key role because of Scolnick’s passion, and Scolnick’s passion is due to his skin in the game.

If we want more cures we will reduce the unnecessary (regulatory) obstacles so that those with less skin in the game (and so less passion to persevere) will also innovate.

[“Skin in the game” has been emphasized by Taleb in his book with that title.]

(p. A2) The U.S. was outperforming much of the world before Trump was elected.

His agenda could extend that outperformance by making the U.S. the preferred destination for foreign investment via lower taxes and regulation and even cheaper energy, while his promised tariffs hurt others’ exports.

. . .

Many at Davos blamed Europe’s dismal outlook on the failures of its own leaders, not on Trump.

European scientists are making progress on technologies that use genetically engineered microbes to solve any number of problems, said Kasim Kutay, the chief executive of Novo Holdings, which manages the assets and wealth of the foundation that controls Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.

It takes seven to eight years, however, to get such a product approved by European regulators, compared with two to three in the U.S., he said: “A lot of that innovation is happening in Europe, but the companies ultimately seek funding in the U.S.”

One particular source of anxiety in Europe is that its top companies will move to the U.S. in search of higher stock valuations, less regulation and kinder treatment by Trump.

Rich Nuzum, global chief investment strategist for investment consultants Mercer, said Trump’s deregulatory drive might jolt Europe into action.

“If the U.S. economy continues to power ahead, if every company wants to be headquartered in the U.S. and traded in the U.S. because of a lighter regulatory burden…European C-suites will say to European policymakers, ‘Do something, or we’re going to move overseas.’”

The U.S. accounted for 44% of Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson’s net sales in the third quarter of 2024, up from 31% a year earlier. Chief Executive Börje Ekholm has criticized excessive regulation for discouraging the upgrading of Europe’s networks. Asked if Ericsson would move its head office to the U.S., Ekholm said: “We are Swedish based. But I think every company in Europe will need to think about this going forward.”

Like Europe, China faces headwinds; tariffs would be just one more.

China’s problem “is not Trump,” said Keyu Jin, a British-based economist specializing in the Chinese economy. “It’s the unemployment numbers. So many companies going under. So much debt the government owes to the private sector. The problems with young people. The ‘lying flat’ problem.”

For the full story see:

Greg Ip. “Davos Dissects Risks, Rewards of Trump.” The Wall Street Journal (Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025): A2.

(Note: ellipsis between paragraphs, added; ellipsis internal to a paragraph, in original.)

(Note: the online version of the story has the date January 22, 2025, and has the title “Trump’s Arrival Brightens U.S. Outlook, Darkens Everyone Else’s.”)

Those Who Criticize the Powerful “Are Seldom Seen Distinctly by the Age in Which They Live”

Founding Father Benjamin Rush was apparently willing to take the ill-will that comes to those who challenge the lazy, incompetent, or corrupt.

The importance of being willing to be the target of ill-will was well-described by Charlie Munger.

(p. C7) During the spring of 1813, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were united in grief at the death of a mutual friend who had recently persuaded them to forget their bitter rivalries. Like the two celebrated statesmen, the eminent physician and social reformer Benjamin Rush had been a Founding Father, one of 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

. . .

. . ., after George Washington’s beaten army was pushed back across the Delaware River and Philadelphia’s militia marched to his assistance, Rush volunteered his medical skills. He helped tend the wounded from the Second Battle of Trenton, on Jan. 2, 1777, and the next day witnessed the bloody aftermath of Washington’s victory at Princeton.

Months later, Rush was appointed surgeon-general of the Continental Army’s so-called Middle Department—a key geographical sector that included Pennsylvania. He had ambitious plans for reform and outlined them in a pamphlet titled “Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers.” In a statement true for future American wars, he observed: “A greater proportion of men have perished with sickness in our armies than have fallen by the sword.” To curb that toll, Rush urged radical changes in food, clothing and hygiene. In his improving zeal, he unleashed a barrage of unrestrained letters to his friends in Congress that swiftly kindled a feud with his superior, Dr. William Shippen.

Rush accused Shippen of neglect, incompetence and corruption but underestimated his antagonist’s political clout.

. . .

(p. C8) . . ., Rush himself had always suspected that his outspoken views would affect his reputation, observing: “The most acceptable men in practical society, have been those who have never shocked their contemporaries, by opposing popular or common opinions.” He added, with considerable prescience: “Men of opposite characters, like objects placed too near the eye, are seldom seen distinctly by the age in which they live.” Through the efforts of Mr. Fried and Mr. Unger, what Benjamin Rush characterized as “the distant and more enlightened generations” are now better placed to judge him.

For the full review see:

Stephen Brumwell. “American Hippocrates.” The Wall Street Journal (Saturday, May 20, 2017 [sic]): C7-C8.

(Note: ellipses added.)

(Note: the online version of the review has the date Sept. 20, 2018 [sic], and has the title “‘Rush’ and ‘Dr. Benjamin Rush’ Review: American Hippocrates.”)

The books under review are:

Fried, Stephen. Rush: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father. New York: Crown, 2018.

Unger, Harlow Giles. Dr. Benjamin Rush: The Founding Father Who Healed a Wounded Nation. New York: Da Capo Press, 2018.

Musk’s Defense of Free Speech Leads an E.V. Hater to Become a Tesla Cybertruck Lover

I admire Elon Musk’s energy, his ability to focus his mind in spite of distractions, and his ambitious entrepreneurship. The kid in me who got up early to watch Apollo space launches admires his ambition to take us to Mars. But what I admire most is his willingness to put that ambition at risk by spending $44 billion to buy Twitter (now X) in order to defend free speech. Too often entrepreneurs will put their dream above everything else. Musk put free speech above his dream.

And it’s not just the $44 billion. Many of his actual and potential Tesla customers are left-wing environmentalists who criticize his purchase of Twitter, and later his leading D.O.G.E. If that dislike leads to lower sales and profits at Tesla, then Musk will have even fewer funds to take us to Mars.

But the outcome is not certain. Maybe a society with free speech is one that is more likely to allow Musk the freedom to take trial-and-error risks to get us to Mars. And there is a small chance that Tesla will sell more cars because of his principled stand.

Tesla owners who supported Harris for President are buying bumper stickers to slap on their Teslas that read “I Bought This Before We Knew Elon Was Crazy” (Peyser 2024, p. D4).

But consider Berkeley Professor Morgan Ames who bought a Tesla in 2013. Even though she did not like Elon Musk’s views she later bought a second Tesla “because she couldn’t find other electric cars that matched Tesla’s capabilities” (Peyser 2024, p. D4).

And there is Oklahoman Sean Ziese who said to his wife: “If Elon is going to start supporting conservatives and free speech, I’m going to start supporting Elon, even though I hate E.V.s” (Ziese as quoted in Peyser 2024, p. D4). Then Ziese went out and bought himself a Tesla Cybertruck.

Ziese now concludes that his driving a Tesla Cybertruck is “a really neat experience. It never would have happened if Elon never would have bought X, and, you know, got free speech going again” (Ziese as quoted in Peyser 2024, p. D4).

The source article quoted above is:

Eve Peyser. “Tesla Owners Don’t Drive Away Quietly.” The New York Times (Thurs., December 19, 2024): D4.

(Note: the online version of the Eve Peyser article has the date Dec. 11, 2024, and has the title “For Tesla Owners, a Referendum Through Bumper Stickers.”)

Once You Experience Entrepreneurship “Everything Else Is Boring”

(p. B12) C. Richard Kramlich, an early investor in Silicon Valley who co-founded the investment giant New Enterprise Associates, helping to fuel the booming tech industry, died on Saturday [Feb. 1, 2025] at his home in Oakville, Calif., in the Napa Valley. He was 89.

. . .

He co-founded his own firm, New Enterprise Associates, or NEA, building it from an initial $16 million fund in the 1970s to one that now oversees investments of nearly $26 billion.

But he stood out among Silicon Valley’s sea of swashbuckling financiers because of his grace and kindness, said Scott Sandell, the chief investment officer and executive chairman of NEA.

. . .

When he was 13, Dick followed in his father’s entrepreneurial footsteps, starting his own “little lightbulb company,” he said in a 2015 interview with the Computer History Museum. “My father encouraged me to do it if I used my own money, and so I bought half a train car worth of lightbulbs from Sylvania Corporation” and resold them from his bedroom.

He added: “I come from three generations of entrepreneurs, and once you get it in your DNA, everything else is boring.”

. . .

. . . Mr. Kramlich met a pair of entrepreneurs who were both named Steve (Jobs and Wozniak). Their company, Apple Computer, was not as good as two other personal computer companies in the market, Mr. Kramlich said in 2015. But their sense of design and entrepreneurial spark were impressive. “They had pizazz,” he said, “where the other two companies were more engineering oriented.”

. . .

Venture capital investing is designed to absorb many losses in pursuit of one home-run deal, leaving a graveyard of failed start-ups along the way. But Mr. Kramlich was known for sticking with struggling investments long after others had abandoned them.

“He used to say, ‘Never say die,’” Mr. Sandell said.

In the early 1980s, Forethought, the start-up behind PowerPoint software, was about to run out of money, and NEA’s partners refused to pony up more. So Mr. Kramlich convinced his wife that they should pause work on the house they were building on Stinson Beach and use the cash to keep the company alive instead. The gamble paid off: In 1987, Microsoft bought Forethought for $14 million, and PowerPoint went on to become one of the world’s best-known software programs.

For the full obituary see:

Erin Griffith. “Richard Kramlich, 89, A Silicon Valley Investor Revered for Humaneness.” The New York Times (Wednesday, February 8, 2025): B12.

(Note: ellipses, and bracketed date, added.)

(Note: the online version of the obituary has the date Feb. 6, 2025, and has the title “C. Richard Kramlich, Early Investor in Silicon Valley, Dies at 89.”)