Bezos vs. Biden: Amazon founder calls out President Joe Biden over inflation

Biden vs. Bezos: The Amazon founder called out President Joe Biden over the holiday weekend for telling gas station owners to lower prices — saying the president’s statement was “either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.” The tweet by Bezos called inflation “far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this.” The salvo revives a debate that started between Bezos and Biden in May, and is the latest example of Bezos becoming increasingly vocal on Twitter. 

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, responded to Bezos with her own zinger, saying that “it’s not surprising that you think oil and gas companies using market power to reap record profits at the expense of the American people is the way our economy is supposed to work.”

But some came to Bezos’ defense, including venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who said “I totally agree with this,” adding that “whatever your politics is, we cannot ignore the past three hundred years of economic research and understanding.”

How Star Trek blazed new trails for space exploration: Ryan Britt, the author of “Phasers on Stun,” a new book chronicling the history of the Star Trek sci-fi franchise, spoke to GeekWire contributing editor Alan Boyle about how the TV show has changed the course of real-life space exploration. “I can’t imagine a version of the world where Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos exist, for better or worse, however you feel about them, without Star Trek,” said Britt. Read more.  

Benefits of bootstrapping: Startups that didn’t raise cash from venture capitalists in recent years might be in a better position to control their future with a potential recession looming. That’s the take from Brett Goodwin, a tech vet who has worked through previous economic disruption and is now leading a new Seattle startup called Virtual Value. Read more. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. — GeekWire Managing Editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.