Writing Worth Reading
Reinsurance made fascinating. How Munich Re researches, prices global risk, including climate change. "What is the probability that Cologne's historic Old Town will be flooded a second time within the next year? Ten percent"
Date of publication online: 2 September 2010History of Saatchi & Saatchi. Founded 1970. Pioneered high-concept advertising. Bravura style. Built world's biggest agency, strongest brand. Over-reached by trying to buy Midland Bank
Date of publication online: 3 September 2010Profile of Ryan Air boss, "shabby, crappy, cheap", and enjoyable as always. Passengers as cattle. "O'Leary will call you a cow, lick his chops, and explain how he plans to carve you up for dinner"
Date of publication online: 2 September 2010Interview with Andrew Pettegree, historian, on cultural, commercial upheavals produced by first printed books. New market, new commodity. People had to get used to buying and selling them
Date of publication online: 29 August 2010Why is customer service so bad? Because it's a cost centre. Its effects are hard to measure. And companies care more about attracting new customers, than pleasing those they have
Date of publication online: 30 August 2010
Guaranteed to be the most interesting article about potash you will read this year. Surge in price of key fertiliser mineral signals rising Chinese demand for food, fear of world food shortage
Date of publication online: 27 August 2010First-class review-essay covering big new books on finance from Mallaby, Roubini, Reich, Quiggin. Tour d'horizon of current thinking on meltdown. Conclusion: we need to update Keynes, but we don't know how
Date of publication online: 24 August 2010When market demand for mortgage-backed securities ebbed, banks sold them to each other instead, booked profits, paid bonuses, issued more securities. Until bubble burst
Date of publication online: 26 August 2010How scientific are the social sciences? They're getting more so, thanks to the advance of randomised testing, which works well in business, quite well in criminology. That said, they're still mostly informed guesswork
Date of publication online: 2 August 2010City economist's fine, critical review of Niall Ferguson's biography of Sigmund Warburg. Says Ferguson overstates Warburg's achievements. Full of insights about how financial institutions operate
Date of publication online: 28 July 2010Story of epic struggle to lay first transatlantic cable. Finally completed in 1866 after years of problems, many avoidable. Narrator enjoys setbacks too much to be entirely reliable, but a good read
Date of publication online: 28 July 2010Wry reflection on desire and consumer goods. "One has only to observe a street of shoppers on a Saturday afternoon to understand the futility of consumption as a path to happiness"
Date of publication online: 1 June 2010Short and sweet blogpost in which Harvard professor offers anti-rules for business leaders, based on Tony Hayward's disastrous stewardship of BP. Case will be studied by business students for years to come
Date of publication online: 26 July 2010Reverse of 'does money make you happy' research. Experiments suggest being happy makes people more productive in terms of volume, but not quality, of output
Date of publication online: 26 July 2010Obama administration took over economy in crisis. Had to act quickly. But we can see now that stimulus didn't produce intended results, especially on employment. Time to rethink fiscal policy
Date of publication online: 23 July 2010Scrupulous analysis of rich/poor divide in America, much of it charted. Starts with knock-out graphic that seems to tell the whole story, nuances it using other scales, breakdowns
Date of publication online: 22 July 2010Fascinating, I-never-knew-that report on French food company's drive to make products attractive to African families living on $1 a day—and turn a profit. One success: ten-cent, 50-gram tube of drinkable yogurt
Date of publication online: 25 June 2010Economist attacks Brad DeLong, Paul Krugman view of economics as "simple enterprise with clear conclusions", accessible to anyone of reasonable intelligence. No, it's complicated science for professionals
Date of publication online: 23 June 2010Forget building roads and dams, just give money straight to the poor. Oxfam tried it in Vietnam and the money was spent sensibly on food, fertiliser, seeds. Poverty dropped through the floor
Date of publication online: 29 June 2010"Road to Serfdom" best-seller again, helped by Glen Beck and rap video. Main argument: economic freedom and political freedom are indivisible. Big government corrupts both
Date of publication online: 28 June 2010Credit crunch ended cycle of rising global debt. Now comes time for repayment—or, more likely, default, and/or inflation. So concludes this long, pessimistic survey of debt, all of it worth reading
Date of publication online: 24 June 2010German-backed deflationary policies push eurozone into long stagnation. Germans don't feel it, they're doing fine, but others are desperate. Germany should push for growth, then reform
Date of publication online: 24 June 2010Crisis of 2007-09 has exposed need for revolution in economic thought. Old models broke down, assumptions of efficient, self-stabilising markets discredited. What will take their place?
Date of publication online: 19 June 2010Interview with Victor Niederhoffer, massively intelligent hedge fund manager, who still managed to blow up two funds in ten years. His main lesson: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered"
Date of publication online: 21 June 2010
The man and the memoirs: a collection of essays, diaries and polemics portraying Britain's former...
Scrupulous analysis of rich/poor divide in America, much of it charted. Starts with knock-out graphic that seems to tell the whole story, nuances it using other scales, breakdowns
Six notes on diverse topics from much-respected investment strategist. All good, but "Everything You Need To Know About Gobal Warming In 5 Minutes", is the one to read first (Scribd)
If you want a quick primer on the subject, here it is, from an expert. What behavioural economics means, why it doesn't place much hope in market forces, and how it can bring practical gains
Sobering thoughts on the end of retirement as we know it. You won't be retiring at 65. Even if you have a cosseted pension, you're at extraordinary risk. Start preparing for the future now