New York Times (June 7)
“In a welcome development, businesses are asking world leaders to do more to address climate change. This week, the top executives of six large European oil and gas companies called for a tax on carbon emissions.” Implementation will face stiff resistance, but “world leaders, who will meet in Paris later this year to negotiate a climate change agreement, cannot give up in the face of this opposition. Carbon taxes are one of the best policies available to solve this global problem.”
Tags: Businesses, Carbon emissions, Carbon taxes, Climate change, Climate change agreement, Oil and gas, Resistance
Washington Post (April 8)
A recent study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “confirms that the investment bust is a global phenomenon. It’s not just the United States but also Europe, Japan and most advanced countries. As important, the main cause of the investment slump is clear-cut: Businesses aren’t expanding because they can already meet most demand with existing capacity.”
Tags: Businesses, Demand, Europe, Existing capacity, Expanding, IMF, Investment, Japan, Slump, U.S.
Washington Post (August 13)
“U.S. businesses are aging…and a sharp decline in start-up companies is a big reason. As the share of young firms shrinks, the surviving companies are naturally older — and this may have huge ramifications for the economy.” Nobody’s sure why this trend is occurring, but it suggests slower job creation and raises a troubling question. “Could it be that a society whose members are getting older is more risk-averse and less adventurous?”
Tags: Adventurous, Aging, Businesses, Decline, Economy, Job creation, Ramifications, Risk-averse, Society, Start-ups, U.S.
The Economist (March 1)
Businesses can never fully eliminate fraud, but directors and executives must “treat it like any other unavoidable risk, and manage it professionally.” This means listening carefully to whistleblowers. “Three times as many frauds are discovered by tip-offs than by any other method…. Firms with fraud hotlines, which staff can call anonymously, suffer smaller losses from fraud, and cut by seven months the ‘exposure gap’ between the start of an illicit scheme and its discovery.”
Tags: Anonymous, Businesses, Directors, Discovery, Executives, Exposure gap, Fraud, Hotlines, Losses, Risk, Staff, Tip-offs, Whistleblowers
Euromoney (August Issue)
In the U.S., it seems everyone is becoming an entrepreneur. “Some 6 million businesses were created in the U.S. in 2012. The country is experiencing a start-up boom…. Since the financial crisis, the number of businesses being started has rocked.”
Tags: Boom, Businesses, Entrepreneur, Financial Crisis, Start-ups, U.S.
The Economist (March 16)
America’s “debt is rising, its population is ageing in a budget-threatening way, its schools are mediocre by international standards, its infrastructure rickety, its regulations dense, its tax code byzantine, its immigration system hare-brained—and it has fallen from first position in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings to seventh in just four years.” But “dysfunction in Washington is only one side of America’s story…. There is also another America, where things work.” The successful side of America can be seen in the improving performance of the real economy where “businesses and politicians are not waiting for the federal government to ride to their rescue.”
Tags: Businesses, Debt, Dysfunction, Government, Population, Real economy, Regulations, U.S., WEF
Financial Times (April 10)
“Over a fifth of the world’s patent applications in 2011 came from Japan, eight times as many as from the UK. It is far better at turning basic research into commercial applications, with clear national priorities set by government and strong links between businesses and universities.” Japan has challenges, but knows how to face them. “The UK (and other countries) can learn a lot” from Japan.
“Over a fifth of the world’s patent applications in 2011 came from Japan, eight times as many as from the UK. It is far better at turning basic research into commercial applications, with clear national priorities set by government and strong links between businesses and universities.” Japan has challenges, but knows how to face them. “The UK (and other countries) can learn a lot” from Japan.
Tags: Businesses, Government, Japan, Patents, Research, UK
