Money Articles
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Economist
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From Economist
Time to dump 007?
AN ADDICTION to short-term financial results was one of the flaws in American capitalism that Sony?s co-founder, Akio Morita, used to bewail. (That was back in the 1980s, when the Sony Walkman, a portable music-player, was trampling its rivals underfoot.) So Mr Morita must have turned in his grave this week as Daniel Loeb, an American hedge-fund boss, announced that he had built a 6.5% stake in the firm, worth ?115 billion ($1.1 billion), and presented his plan for its ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
WHEN a power cut interrupted this year?s Super Bowl, advertisers lit up. ?Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now,? tweeted Audi, swiftly plugging its own LED-accented car while taking a dig at its rival Mercedes, sponsor of the New Orleans Superdome. Tide, a detergent, came up with: ?We can?t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out.? But by general consent Oreo won the tweet-off with ?Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.? The biscuit baker?s reward: ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
Side-effects: a craving for human flesh
DILBERT, a cartoon character, once strapped a barrel-sized mug of coffee to his back to keep himself alert. Americans who dislike coffee have other options. ?Wired Waffles? come with caffeinated maple syrup. Übermonster Energy Brew can wash down Cracker Jack?d, a caffeinated snack.But are such foods safe? This month America?s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would scrutinise caffeinated products. San Francisco has sued Monster Beverage, a ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
SAINT GORAN?S hospital is one of the glories of the Swedish welfare state. It is also a laboratory for applying business principles to the public sector. The hospital is run by a private company, Capio, which in turn is run by a consortium of private-equity funds, including Nordic Capital and Apax Partners. The doctors and nurses are Capio employees, answerable to a boss and a board. Doctors talk enthusiastically about ?the Toyota model of production? and ?harnessing innovation? to cut ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
The drill from Ipanema
AFTER five dry years, Brazil?s oil-and-gas concession pipeline is flowing once more. On May 14th the national regulator, ANP, successfully auctioned 142 blocks in 11 fields, both onshore and offshore, thought to hold as much as 35 billion barrels of oil between them. Another 147 found no takers or failed to reach the reserve price. But those in the north-eastern Parnaíba basin, close to recent gas discoveries, and offshore blocks near the mouth of the Amazon river ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
AFTER a Soviet missile shot down a South Korean airliner that strayed into Russian airspace in 1983, President Ronald Reagan made America?s military satellite-navigation system, GPS, available to the world. Entrepreneurs pounced. Car-navigation, precision farming and 3m American jobs now depend on GPS. Official weather data are also public and avidly used by everyone from insurers to ice-cream sellers.But this is not enough. On May 9th Barack Obama ordered that all data created or collected by ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
WRITE-OFFS of goodwill are confusing. When they happen, companies insist they do not matter. Goodwill is the excess paid for an asset over its book value. Writing it down is a mere accounting adjustment, bosses tend to say. Yet those same bosses go to inordinate lengths to delay recognising such supposedly irrelevant, non-cash losses. On May 13th Tata Steel, an Indian firm, announced a $1.6 billion impairment, mainly of its takeover of Corus, a British steelmaker. The deal happened six years ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
In a table last week ("To the brainy, the spoils", May 11th) we said that the Boston Consulting Group has 6,200 employees. In fact it has around 9,000 employees, of whom 6,200 are consultants. Sorry. ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
HUAWEI, a Chinese maker of telecoms equipment, has found Europe, by and large, a welcoming sort of place. Gartner, a research firm, estimates that last year it doubled its share of the western European market for mobile operators? infrastructure, to 19%. Its share in eastern Europe is even higher. But in America, where Chinese kit is seen as a security threat, Huawei cannot get a sniff. In Australia it was blocked on similar grounds from bidding for a broadband project last year.Now Huawei and ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
If you think breaking rocks is hard, try fighting corruption
THE business climate in Congo ?is disgusting?, says an adviser to the government in Kinshasa. Any casual visitor has probably noticed. Traffic police stop cars for no reason, force their way in and refuse to leave until paid off. Tax agents arrive at company offices with seven- and eight-figure demands that?of course?can be negotiated down.Small wonder this central African nation?s biggest business?digging in the dirt to extract ... Quick Read |
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