The Economist (August 15)
“This is the year that the economic plan of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, should be taking wing…. Yet the economy’s performance has been underwhelming. The problems have been weak industrial production, thanks to a slowdown in exports to America and China, and anaemic household consumption.”
Tags: Abe, China, Consumption, Economy, Exports, Industrial production, Problems, Slowdown, U.S., Underwhelming
Financial Times (March 30)
“The real eurozone problems are hidden under the bonnet…. The most important adjustment that needs to take place is a convergence of prices and labour costs.”
Tags: Adjustment, Convergence, eurozone, Hidden, Labour costs, Prices, Problems
New York Times (October 19)
“The regulatory woes seem to be never ending for the newest wave of tech start-ups.” Start-ups like Uber and Airbnb are facing regulatory hurdles and legal battles in numerous jurisdictions. A naïve “belief that problems can be solved without involving people is probably why many of these companies did not meet with regulators and officials before starting services in new cities. And it has come back to haunt them.”
Tags: Airbnb, Officials, Problems, Regulators, Regulatory, Services, Start-ups, Tech, Uber
Los Angeles Times (June 12)
When the World Cup concludes, “the problems that plagued Brazil’s hosting effort will remain…. Brazil will face major challenges in its transformation from one of the world’s most unequal societies into a thriving democracy.”
Financial Times (April 8)
“Whatever the thundering herd of investors may think, it is too soon to declare that Mr Draghi has won the war for the euro. The eurozone still faces deep underlying economic and political problems that are beyond the control of the president of the ECB and his colleagues.”
Tags: Colleagues, Draghi, ECB, Economic, euro, eurozone, Herd, Investors, Political, President, Problems
MIT Technology Review (June 5)
Of late, companies have been embracing open innovation contests to pull off low-cost breakthroughs. This approach can succeed. “Open competitions can help find an optimal solution to a well-understood problem,” but typically these contests fail to deliver true innovation for a well-known reason. “Real innovation is always the outcome of ongoing discourse among a small group of innovators who truly understand the importance of what they’re working on. No matter where we look, from the American Revolution to the digital revolution, it’s always a small group of obsessed individuals who know and talk to each other that are responsible for big innovations. As John Stuart Mill observed: ‘Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority.’”
Tags: Breakthroughs, Genius, Innovation, Innovators, John Stuart Mill, Low-cost, Minority, Open contests, Problems, Solutions
