INVESTMENT banking faces a leaner, humbler future, says Jonathan Rosenthal, though a select few banks will emerge from the financial crisis even larger and more powerful
DESPITE rising production costs and the economic downturn, hit musicals continue to make big bucks. They are conquering new markets too
COMPUTERS will die, predicts a character in Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel “Cosmopolis”, because they are “melting into the texture of everyday life.” Even the word computer, she concludes, “sounds backward and dumb”. A decade later, as the components of "the computer” become ever more ubiquitous and embedded into so many different products, smartphones have fulfilled much of this prophecy, extending technology deep into the weave of daily life.
Another gadget that is possibly about to weave its way into our lives is a stamp-sized camera that can be worn on any garment and take pictures at 30-second intervals, creating a record of a life that can be searched and shared. Developed by Memoto, a Swedish start-up, the device has an app and cloud-storage platform to ensure that no experience—no matter how mundane—will go undocumented.
IN THIS week's programme our correspondents discuss the ECB's latest efforts to revive the European economy and Google's investment in a peer-to-peer lender
IT’S all change at the top of two of the world’s leading semiconductor companies. On May 2nd Intel, the world’s largest chip-maker, announced that Brian Krzanich (pictured above), the firm’s current chief operating officer, will become the sixth chief executive in the firm’s history. Mr Krzanich, who will take over as boss on May 16th, replaces Paul Otellini, who unexpectedly announced last November that he would be resigning as Intel’s boss.
DESPITE the stereotype of slack-jawed farmers bumbling around fields, farming is and always has been rooted in careful analysis of data. From deducing the best conditions to achieve bumper crop yields to keeping track of the bounty from their hectares of arable land, farmers have to deal with as much information as some City traders.
TWITTER is blocked in China. And yet, the Chinese are probably the most active tweeters in the world. They share their banalities (and, on occasion, profundities) using Weibo, a microblogging service run by Sina, a Chinese internet firm. Although the majority of Weibo’s more than 500m user accounts are inactive, many millions use the service every day.
OUR correspondents discuss unburnable carbon reserves, the proliferation of European low-cost airlines and tourism in Egypt
IT IS not easy to have a quiet word with Lucas von Cranach. At least not when one of his favourite football clubs is playing a match. Every few minutes his smartphone interrupts him with a loud cheer, the kind you hear in stadiums. This alerts him to the fact that someone in England, Spain, Germany or Italy has scored. He picks up the phone, quickly looks at the screen and puts the device down again—until the next goal.
“BAD risk manager faces two years in jail.” That might be the headline if Germany’s draft law on ring-fencing financial risks ever hits the statute books in its present form. Among other things, the proposal would not only allow punishing those who endanger their financial institution by breaking legal banking limits, but risk managers whose negligence led to such breaches in the first place.
RUSSELL GOLDEN will become perhaps the world's most important accountant on July 1st. As the incoming chairman of the 7-person Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), he will lead rulemaking for America's beancounters.
"WE ARE not interested in the US market any more." So declared Eric Xu, a senior Huawei executive, on April 23rd at the company's annual analyst conference. That seems to be a striking and definitive U-turn for the Chinese telecoms giant, which has tried arduously to sell its networking kit to American telecoms operators.
THERE was no firm timetable for an iWatch or for a revolutionary iTV. Nor was there a concrete plan for releasing a low-cost iPhone. There was, however, the promise of what is reportedly the biggest share buyback in American corporate history.
THIS week our correspondents discuss disappointing news for America's economy, controversy over the impact of government debt and why policymakers are rethinking austerity
THE motor industry’s fortunes are increasingly divided, says Peter Collins. But in the right markets and with the right technologies, theylook surprisingly bright
Our Schumpeter columnist and his colleagues consider business, finance and management, in a blog named after the economist Joseph Schumpeter
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