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Vehicle telemetry: Calling all cars

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Nov. 19 (Special Report) - One way or another, a quarter of the world’s new cars will be equipped with some form of remote monitoring and control system by 2016, predicts Egil Juliussen, an analyst with iSuppli, a Californian company that monitors technology trends. The result will be cars that are not only impossible to steal, but can also call the emergency services if the airbags go off in an accident, make themselves more comfortable to drive before their owners get in, and even admit an owner who has mislaid his keys. (Every month more than 60,000 OnStar subscribers ask for the doors of their cars to be unlocked remotely, because they have locked themselves out.)

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Lexington: Farmers v greens

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Nov. 15 (Special Report) - In the Senate, however, every state gets exactly two votes. Sparsely-populated states are thus hugely over-represented: senators representing a mere 11% of America’s population can block any bill, since 60 votes out of 100 are needed to guarantee passage. And many of these states depend on coal, the dirtiest commonly-used fuel.

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Drugs: Virtually legal

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Nov. 13 (Special Report) - From heroin “shooting galleries” in Vancouver to Mexico’s decriminalisation of personal possession of drugs, the Americas are suddenly looking more permissive. Meanwhile in Europe, where drugs policy is generally less stringent, seven countries have decriminalised drug possession, and the rest are increasingly ignoring their supposedly harsh regimes. Is the “war on drugs” becoming a fiction?

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CIT files for bankruptcy: A prepackaged pratfall

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Economist - Nov. 02 (News Analysis) - THE most gut-wrenching failures may be over, but the financial crisis continues to claim the occasional big victim. CIT, a lender to small and medium-sized businesses, from clothing retailers to Dunkin’ Donuts franchisees, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday November 1st after failing to garner enough support for a debt-restructuring plan. With $71 billion in assets, the century-old firm is only one-ninth the size of Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in September 2008. Nevertheless, its Chapter 11 filing augurs ill for America’s corporate minnows, whose financing options have narrowed dramatically over the past year.

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Debates: Executive pay

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 28 (Other) - Debate statement: "This house believes that on the whole, senior executives are worth what they are paid."

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American bank failures: An uncelebrated century

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Partners Bank of Naples, Florida, earned a dubious distinction on Friday October 23rd. It became the 100th American bank failure of the year. On the same day six other lenders—two more in Florida and banks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Georgia—joined the rollcall of failure in the aftermath of the credit crisis.

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Iran's nuclear programme: Deadline missed

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 24 (Editorial) - Iran has again failed to do deadlines. It has been evading them in the seven years since an opposition group first outed its extensive covert nuclear programme, despite five UN Security Council resolutions that have told it to halt its suspect nuclear work. After talks that ended in Vienna on October 21st, Iran and the three countries trying to strike a side-deal over new fuel for a Tehran-based nuclear reactor were told by Mohamed ElBaradei, outgoing chief of the UN’s nuclear guardian, that they had just two days to take his draft agreement or leave it.

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The European Union after Ireland's vote: Wake up Europe!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:09:22 -0700

Economist - Oct. 18 -

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Smart grids: Clever, but unprincipled

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 08 (News Analysis) - The technology is not inherently frugal or green. It can be used to deliver not just clean renewable energy more efficiently, but also the grubby coal-fired sort. By reducing the need for expensive backup capacity, it may actually reduce the cost of electricity, and so encourage consumption. The very fact that utilities and their customers, tree-huggers and industrialists alike are all keen on it hints at the many different ends to which it can be turned.

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Errors of omission

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 05 (Opinion) - Bumblebees cannot fly—or so physical models are said to have shown. That the insects routinely become airborne demonstrates the shortcomings of some theoretical accounts of the world. But one of the strengths of the scientific method is that, when presented with evidence that discredits their theories, scientists are forced to concede that their models are wrong and endeavour to learn from the failure. In science, observation always trumps theory, no matter how elegant the theory might be. The same is true of theoretical models of climate change. Over the past decade there have been large variations in the projected increase in global temperatures and sea levels over the coming years. ...

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The G20 summit: Regaining their balance

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 26 (News Analysis) - The last time the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) met, in London in April, their unenviable task was to steer the world economy away from a 1930s-style depression. They succeeded, thanks to an unprecedented fiscal and monetary gusher and a raft of measures to prop up teetering financial giants. But while stability has returned, much more needs to be done to put economies, and particularly their banking sectors, on a sounder footing. The group’s aim this week in Pittsburgh was to “turn a page on the era of irresponsibility” by adopting reforms to “meet the needs of the 21st century economy.” But writing a new chapter will require agreement on precisely what those needs are, and the final communiqué gave sceptics plenty to chew on.

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Climate change and the UN: Nice words

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 23 (News Analysis) - Just over 70 days to go and there is miserably little progress yet. The outlook for the global summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December is uncertain. The current version of the draft outcome document for the meeting is hundreds of pages long, with thousands of passages in brackets representing points of disagreement. Climate-watchers are steadily lowering their expectations. They had hoped that activities this week in New York, scheduled around the UN General Assembly, might move things forward. So far there is little to cheer.

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Barack Obama and free trade: Economic vandalism

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 19 (News Analysis) - You can be fairly sure that when a government slips an announcement out at nine o’clock on a Friday night, it is not proud of what it is doing. That is one of the only things that makes sense about Barack Obama’s decision to break a commitment he, along with other G20 leaders, reaffirmed last April: to avoid protectionist measures at a time of great economic peril. In every other way the president’s decision to slap a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tyres looks like a colossal blunder, confirming his critics’ worst fears about the president’s inability to stand up to his party’s special interests and stick to the centre ground he promised to occupy in office. This newspaper endorsed Mr Obama at last year’s election (see article) in part because he had surrounded himself with enough intelligent centrists. We also said that the eventual success of his presidency would be based on two things: resuscitating the world economy; and bringing the new emerging powers into the Western order. He has now hurt both objectives.

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Missile defence in Europe: Pie in the sky

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 18 (News Analysis) - Maybe some jam tomorrow, but none today. That is the American message to its most stalwart allies in the ex-communist world as Barack Obama’s administration shelves plans to deploy ten interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic.

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Barack Obama and free trade: Economic vandalism

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 17 (News Analysis) - YOU can be fairly sure that when a government slips an announcement out at nine o’clock on a Friday night, it is not proud of what it is doing. That is one of the only things that makes sense about Barack Obama’s decision to break a commitment he, along with other G20 leaders, reaffirmed last April: to avoid protectionist measures at a time of great economic peril. In every other way the president’s decision to slap a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tyres looks like a colossal blunder, confirming his critics’ worst fears about the president’s inability to stand up to his party’s special interests and stick to the centre ground he promised to occupy in office.

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A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed: The promised bland

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 15 (Editorial) - “THIS sucker could go down.” George Bush’s verdict during the worst of the financial crisis a year ago was crude but penetrating. Barack Obama, delivering a speech in New York on September 14th to mark the anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ failure, managed the opposite trick. He produced plenty of elegant phrases but little that was new, and quite a bit that was confusing.

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Green policies: Sacre vert!

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - WHAT is small, French and green? President Nicolas Sarkozy, who proposed on Thursday September 10th a tax on carbon-emitting sources of fuel. If it goes ahead, 17 euros ($25) will be levied, initially, per tonne of carbon dioxide. Although France would not be the first country with a general carbon tax—Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway already have them—it would be the largest economy yet.

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Free speech for me, but not for thee

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 11 (Editorial) - HILLARY: THE MOVIE” is unwatchable. From the first frame, it presents a dreary caricature of Hillary Clinton as a power-crazed harpy with no redeeming qualities. She is cynical, manipulative, dishonest and ruthless—and so on for 90 excruciating minutes. Wasn’t there at least a dog she once omitted to kick, or a child whose lollipop she didn’t steal?

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Wall Street's new shape: Rearranging the towers of gold

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 11 (News Analysis) - Economists continue to debate the ultimate causes of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Wall Street’s fourth-biggest firm, a year ago on September 15th, and of the havoc that followed. The public and most politicians, however, are clear: the blame lies with bankers, venal and incompetent in equal measure. “It’s like pre-Thatcher Britain out there,” sighs the head of a New York bank. At a hearing in February a congressman addressed JPMorgan Chase’s boss, Jamie Dimon, as “Mr Demon”. Deliberate or not, it captured the mood.

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Israel and the West Bank: Prepare to freeze

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 10 (News Analysis) - THE Israeli government’s approval this week of 455 new housing units in the West Bank settlements was announced with a wink and a nod, and seems to have elicited winks and nods all round. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is expected soon to agree, reluctantly and under American pressure, to a temporary freeze on settlement building, and the new homes are widely seen as an act of face-saving political expediency on his part.

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The voice of business

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - ... the word “corporation” appears nowhere in the constitution or Bill of Rights. “It is scarcely conceivable that the drafters of the constitution had anything resembling corporate entities in mind when they drafted the Bill of Rights,” argue Robert Monks, a veteran corporate-governance activist, and Peter Murray, in a recent essay. All the individuals with a stake in a company have the right to express their views freely, the argument goes, so there is no need for the legal fiction of the corporate person to have such rights.

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The vote that changed Japan

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 05 (News Analysis) - JAPAN is a decent, consensual and egalitarian country. Much of it is still prosperous, despite a dismal period for the economy. The beliefs of its two main political parties are often hard to tell apart. Both their leaders are grandsons of (rival) prime ministers. There were no loud celebrations when the results of the general election were announced on August 30th. It is tempting therefore to write it off as no earth-shattering event.

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The electrification of motoring: The electric-fuel-trade acid test

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 03 (Special Report) - Internal-combustion engines have dominated mechanised road transport for a century, but the past year or so has seen the arrival of a dribble of vehicles driven by electric motors. That these are the products of small, new firms, or of established non-carmaking companies, supports the Bower-Christensen thesis. But next year the big boys, encouraged by legislative pressure to produce low-emission vehicles, will leap out of the boiling water and join in. Their progress towards greenery will be an important theme of the Frankfurt motor show this month.

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What should newspapers have done?

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 02 (Comment) - The CEO's job is to maximise shareholder returns, but the CEO's incentives tell him to protect the CEO's job and increase his pay. That would tend to militate against an effort to wind down the company as profitably as possible. Even if that weren't the case, I suspect it's probably quite difficult to convince ownership that death with profitable dignity is the smart route to take.

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Company size: Big is back

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Aug. 27 (Special Report) - Many of today’s most dynamic industries are much more friendly to big companies than the IT industry. Research in biotechnology is costly and often does not bear fruit for years. Natural-resource companies, whose importance grows as competition for resources intensifies, need to be big—hence the mining industry’s consolidation.

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