Reuters (October 3)
“Boris Johnson has launched a long-shot Brexit plan with a very short timetable.” The new “blueprint for leaving the European Union has several major flaws…. Even if Brussels is willing to negotiate a deal in time for a summit due to be held in two weeks, it’s far from clear that the UK parliament would pass it.”
Tags: Blueprint, Brexit plan, Brussels, Deal, EU, Flaws, Johnson, Negotiate, Parliament, Summit, Timetable, UK
The Economist (May 11)
Companies are really bad at hiring. “Only a third of American companies check whether their recruitment process produces good employees” and obvious flaws in hiring practices are rampant. “Everyone should worry that companies are less rigorous about evaluating the performance of their staff than about the quality of the raw materials they put in their products.” This helps to explain why productivity has been so sluggish.
Tags: Companies, Employees, Evaluating, Flaws, Hiring, Performance, Productivity, Quality, Raw materials, Recruitment, Rigorous, Staff, U.S.
The Economist (November 11)
“For all its flaws, America has long been the greatest force for good in the world, upholding the liberal order and offering an example of how democracy works. All that is imperilled by a president who believes that strong nations look out only for themselves. By putting ‘America First’, he makes it weaker, and the world worse off.”
Tags: Democracy, Flaws, Force for good, Imperilled, Liberal order, U.S., Weaker, Worse off
The Economist (February 7)
“Despite their flaws and excesses, activists are a force for good.” These investors “are often loathed by public-company bosses for their belligerence and opportunism. But the bosses are wrong. Activists are in fact the public company’s unlikely saviours.” Activist investors “fill a governance void that afflicts today’s public companies,” which are increasingly held by passive investors. They wake “lazy investors” up with their activist complaints, making “it harder for investors to stay on the sidelines.”
Tags: Activists, Excesses, Flaws, Governance, Investors, Opportunism, Passive investors
