Progress and its discontents

"ο παγκόσμιος καπιταλισμός σημαίνει λιγότερη φτώχεια από ποτέ"
Ακολουθούν σκέψεις. Στο τέλος του άρθρου είναι το κείμενο με την αντίθετη άποψη.

China Reshapes Landscape for Firms From Alibaba to GM

By Jasmine Wang - Nov 19, 2013

Bloomberg

China’s planned economic reforms are poised to reshape the competitive landscape, allowing private companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to compete with state-owned banks and easing the one-child policy to bolster demand for products from Nestle SA (NESN) to General Motors Co. (GM)

Plans to change the nation’s financial sector include a new registration system for initial public offerings and allowing qualified private investors to set up small-to-medium sized banks. Tencent Holdings Ltd. (700), Asia’s biggest Internet company, is part of a group applying for a banking license in China.

China: The Next Phase Of Reform

Forbes

The commitment and ability of China’s leaders to follow through on new policies and to meet rising expectations will be tested as they strive to balance competing social, economic, political and security challenges. Three decades ago, China embarked on a new path, creating a framework that encouraged the country’s rapid economic rise. The successes of those policies have transformed China, and the country’s leadership now faces another set of strategic choices to address China’s new economic and international position.

Working hours: Get a life

Sep 24th 2013, 12:19 by C.W. and A.J.K.D. | LONDON

The Econimist

BERTRAND RUSSELL, the English philosopher, was not a fan of work. In his 1932 essay, “In Praise of Idleness”, he reckoned that if society were better managed the average person would only need to work four hours a day. Such a small working day would “entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life.” The rest of the day could be devoted to the pursuit of science, painting and writing.

The Excel Depression

April 18, 2013

The New York Times

By PAUL KRUGMAN

 In this age of information, math errors can lead to disaster. NASA’s Mars Orbiter crashed because engineers forgot to convert to metric measurements; JPMorgan Chase’s “London Whale” venture went bad in part because modelers divided by a sum instead of an average. So, did an Excel coding error destroy the economies of the Western world?

Can we fight poverty by ending extreme wealth?

Posted by Olga Khazan on January 20, 2013 at 8:00 am

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/20/oxfam-poverty-income-inequality/

In a sign that the “Occupy” and “99 percent” movements that swept the United States in recent years have taken on increased global relevance, Oxfam International this week called for “a new global goal to end extreme wealth by 2025,” as a way to stem income inequality and continue the fight against poverty.

Are state-led economies better?

By Ian Bremmer JULY 3, 2012

This piece originally appeared in Reuters Magazine.

As Europe’s leaders struggle to restore confidence in the single currency and America’s economy limps ahead at a painfully slow pace, China’s economy continues to power forward at its now characteristically strong clip.

Hard times, lean firms

How much longer can America keep increasing productivity?

Dec 31st 2011 | NEW YORK

The Economist

… it was a productivity boost that has continued in defiance of expert predictions that workers can only be squeezed so hard for a short while…

…. Unless the economy picks up, he predicts that productivity growth will slow in 2012…

… workers are terrified of losing their jobs…

… tough times are forcing firms to strain every brain cell to become more efficient…

… there are signs that leading industrial firms are starting to increase their capital spending…

… all such advantages are temporary…

Occupy Wall Street

The bloom is fading

Nov 7th 2011, 22:08 by W.W. | IOWA CITY

The Economist

LAST week, Steve Kornacki of Salon tried to reconcile two seemingly contradictory polls tracking public support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A Quinnipiac University poll shows a public swiftly souring on OWS: "By a 39 - 30 percent margin, American voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Occupy Wall Street movement, with 30 percent who don't know enough about it for an opinion." OWS remains for now less unliked than the tea-party movement, though one should keep in mind that it took the tea partiers a good while to achieve this sort of unpopularity.

Capitalism and its critics

Rage against the machine

The Economist

People are right to be angry. But it is also right to be worried about where populism could take politicsFROM Seattle to Sydney, protesters have taken to the streets. Whether they are inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York or by the indignados in Madrid, they burn with dissatisfaction about the state of the economy, about the unfair way that the poor are paying for the sins of rich bankers, and in some cases about capitalism itself.