Money Articles
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Economist
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From Economist
IT IS always fun to watch the mighty fall. It is even better when they try to break their fall with corporate waffle. This week Microsoft said it was rethinking ?key aspects? of its new operating system, Windows 8. But then it began to obfuscate. A Microsoft executive insisted that ?customer satisfaction? with the new offering ?is strong? while also conceding that ?the learning curve is definitely real?. (Translation: customers are tearing out their hair and scattering it on the ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
ONE in six Americans is Hispanic. In politics, ignoring the Latino vote is suicidal, which is why the Republican Party is at last getting serious about immigration reform. In business, ignoring Latino tastes is equally daft, which is why American firms are at last getting serious about pursuing the Hispanic dollar.
Between 2000 and 2010 Latino buying power more than doubled (see chart), says the Selig Centre for Economic Growth. Mitt Romney?s drubbing by Hispanic voters last year was a ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
A YOUNG consultant?s life is gruelling. A typical week starts before dawn on Monday, with a rush to the airport and a flight to wherever the client is based. A typical brain-for-hire can expect to stay in hotels at least three nights a week, gorging on minibar peanuts and glumly texting a distant lover. ?It?s quite normal to spend a year living out of a suitcase,? sighs one London-based consultant. An ex-McKinseyite in New York adds that 15- to 18-hour weekdays are normal and six- to ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
ELITE management consultancies shun the spotlight. They hardly advertise: everyone who might hire them already knows their names. The Manhattan office that houses McKinsey & Company does not trumpet the fact in its lobby. At Bain & Company?s recent partner meeting at a Maryland hotel, signs and name-tags carried a discreet logo, but no mention of Bain. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which announced growing revenues in a quiet press release in April, counts as the braggart of the bunch.
... Quick Read |
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From Economist
PEOPLE thinking of buying or selling a house used to have to rely on slippery estate agents to get an idea of what the property was worth. Now, in some countries, websites like Zillow (in America) and Zoopla (in Britain) offer instant online valuations, using algorithms to combine data from sales of nearby properties with current market trends. Like houses, cargo ships often change hands or get refinanced, and buyers, sellers and bankers have in the past had to depend on the opinions of ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
Do I wear this in bed, too?
WILL future historians ever understand how dull and pointless life was in the 21st century? Yes, if a new wearable camera catches on. Memoto, a Swedish start-up, is selling a stamp-sized camera that you can pin on your shirt (see picture). It takes photographs every 30 seconds, ensuring that no experience?however mundane?will go undocumented. The device also has an app and cloud-storage, so your pictorial record of commuting, shopping and preparing pot noodles can ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
ONE of the most popular videos this month on YouTube, an online video site, is a commercial by a bottled-water firm, Evian. In it, adults walking by a shop window see their baby lookalikes reflected, and start dancing with their former selves. The grown-up YouTube, however, looks nothing like it did in its infancy. Once a warehouse for pirated clips and amateur footage of cats, YouTube has been trying to transform itself into a sleeker, more sophisticated site that can compete with ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
FOR years French governments have promised to permit class-action lawsuits. But French businesses hate the idea and besides, who wants to copy the Americans? Now, however, François Hollande and his Socialists may allow such suits, if a bill on consumer rights presented to the Council of Ministers on May 2nd is adopted in anything like its present form.This has upset people who fear that ambulance-chasing and colossal damages are invading Europe. But that is not what Mr Hollande has in mind. ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
IN THE entertainment world spin-offs are the offspring of hit shows. You take popular characters and give them their own programmes, or mature franchises and give them a new twist. Thus ?Friends? gave birth to ?Joey? and ?Are You Being Served? to ?Grace and Favour?. Such spin-offs usually flop.In business, spin-offs are the offspring of established companies. You take a division and turn it into a free-standing firm. Thus Bristol-Myers Squibb, a drug firm, spawned Zimmer, a maker of ... Quick Read |
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From Economist
IN MEL BROOKS?S film ?The Producers?, two men plot to make a fortune from a flop. They raise more money than they need to stage a musical, by selling all the shares in it several times over. Then they try to make the worst show ever: ?Springtime for Hitler?. They assume it will close in a night and they will be able to abscond with the cash, since no investor will demand a cut of non-existent profits. To their horror, the audience loves it.Musicals are risky in real life, too. So when David ... Quick Read |
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