June 2012
15 posts
It’s often said that Africa is too big to think about as a single place, and instead of ‘Africa’ we should talk about ‘the Africas’ or Les Afriques. I was reminded of this reading Decca Aitkenhead’s thoroughly enjoyable piece on Poor Economics co-author Abhijit Banerjee:Their overwhelming message is that there is no Big Idea or golden bullet, so we should stop...
Jason Pontin, editor of Technology Review, wrote an interesting piece a couple of months ago (you may have spotted that I’m having a clearout) on the relative failure of iPad-specific versions of magazines, arguing that the future still lies in web-based editions. It’s pretty convincing - TR sold just 353 iPad app subscriptions, while the Financial Times’ decision to shutter its...
The wit and wisdom of Jeff Bezos
Wired magazine’s profile of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, from last year is full of interesting nuggets. In a time when much the focus of the tech world is, thanks to Apple, on high-margin products, Bezos - now effectively a hardware vendor thanks to the Kindle, Kindle Fire and rumoured upcoming smartphone - is unapologetic about his company’s commitment to high-volume, low-margin...
The real Golden Rule of cultural nostalgia
Adam Gopnik floored me a couple of months ago with this piece arguing that the popularity of Mad Men is symptomatic of a general current obsession with the 60s:
It seems time to pronounce a rule about American popular culture: the Golden Forty-Year Rule. The prime site of nostalgia is always whatever happened, or is thought to have happened, in the decade between forty and fifty years past.
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Innovation & efficiency
McKinsey Global Institute:Some doubt whether productivity can really help return the United States back to economic health. Naysayers argue that the U.S. productivity engine is running out of steam anyway. Others yet worry that productivity is little more than business-speak for job cuts. They point to the period since 2000, during which sectors that saw the largest productivity gains —computers,...
The WikiLeaks myth
David Carr sounds characteristically sensible on the topic of WikiLeaks in a recent interview on the tech website The Verge:There’s never been a shortage of whistles; there’s always been a shortage of people willing to blow them. WikiLeaks was a new kind of whistle, but I think looking back the historic figure to emerge from all that will be the guy sitting deep inside a federal prison: Bradley...
Kenya's FDI mystery
Astonished by this chart, courtesy of CR Kenya. Why does FDI appear to have surged just as the country was mired in political crisis?
Microsoft just reversed 30 years of relationships...
TechCrunch’s Matt Burns: Will The Microsoft Surface Tablet Redefine Mobile Computing?Microsoft hasn’t been hip since Windows XP. Windows 7 barely makes up for Windows Vista. The fate of Windows Mobile rests on a struggling Finnish company. The Zune was never loved. Bing is a clone. No one uses Hotmail. I still don’t exactly know the benefit of Windows Live. The company’s lone shinning star...
The paradox of successful capitalism is that, one way or another, risk has to be socialised. The US uses its defence budget and an active fiscal and monetary policy to do the job; Germany its banking and welfare system. Britain in 2012 has to find ways of doing the same – but Osborne and the Treasury, supported by the governor of the Bank of England, remain implacably opposed.Will Hutton’s...
An automatic foot on the deficit-reduction brake
Ages ago I argued that the economic effect of the Coalition’s cuts would be so clear and immediate - and negative - that they’d be quickly forced to alter course. Officialy, of course, that hasn’t happened, and the Chancellor’s position is that ‘there is no Plan B’ - but for a few invest-for-growth schemes funded with money found down the back of the No. 11...
Austerity alternatives
From the Economist’s Free Exchange blog a couple of months back, an obvious-sounding but important clarification:One puzzling mistake Mr Rachman makes is in implying that the only fiscal alternative to austerity is stimulus; in fact, less austerity is also a decent option. Less austerity would be entirely appropriate in Spain, where gross debt levels remain low by rich world standards. It...
Secrets and Lies
Contains vague Mad Men Spoilers for up to last week’s episode. Discussing when he was told about the recent major plot development for his Mad Men character, Lane Pryce, actor Jared Harris reveals what sounds like a vaguely dysfunctional set in terms of who-knows-what-when.You’ve got to keep it secret. That was Episode 10, so it was probably a couple of weeks before anyone else would get the...
Five years old but still though-provoking and...
Recommending TED talks can be a bit of a mug’s game, as one man’s inspirational spiel is another’s bland California nonsense. But I urge you to find time for David Keith’s brilliantly persuasive talk, from five years ago, on geoengineering - specifically, the possibility of cooling the planet by inserting sulphates into the atmosphere to reflect more sunlight. The question...
Insert "Zuck" pun here
Mark Zuckerberg is such a divisive and interesting figure that it’s rare to find a decent profile of him, but this pre-IPO piece from New York Magazine makes a convincing case that he’s become an orthodox and highly effective CEO. And it’s full of little gems of stories that make me think David Kirkpatrick’s company bio The Facebook Effect might be worth a read. Such as:One...
“I never get emotional,” says Nguyen, who hasn’t spoken to his parents in six years. “I can have the biggest argument with someone, and five minutes later, I won’t even remember that it happened.”Fast Company pretty much lets Silicon Valley crazy-person Bill Nguyen hang himself in this fun profile.
