American - Journalist | April 30, 1967 -
Popular as Keynesian fiscal policy may be, many economists are skeptical that it works. They argue that fine-tuning the economy is a virtually impossible task, and that fiscal-stimulus programs are usually too small, and arrive too late, to make a difference.
James Surowiecki
SmallImpossibleMake A Difference
Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder, leaving us with fifty-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of mysterious features and book-length manuals, and cars with dashboard systems worthy of the space shuttle.
TechnologySpaceLeavingMysterious
Lower oil prices won't, by themselves, topple the mullahs in Iran. But it's significant that, historically, when oil prices have been low, Iranian reformers have been ascendant and radicals relatively subdued, and vice versa when prices have been high.
OilViceHighLowSignificantBeen
In terms of productivity - that is, how much a worker produces in an hour - there's little difference between the U.S., France, and Germany. But since more people work in America, and since they work so many more hours, Americans create more wealth.
WorkPeopleAmericaWealthCreate
Art collecting has traditionally been the domain of wealthy individuals in search of rewards beyond the purely financial.
ArtFinancialSearchBeyondBeen
Unlike fuel-economy standards, the most common method of reducing demand for oil over the past thirty years, a gas tax doesn't tell people what kind of car to drive. It simply raises the price of gasoline and lets people adjust their behavior accordingly.
CarPastPeopleDriveBehaviorKind
It may be that the very qualities that help people get ahead are the ones that make them ill-suited for managing crises. It's hard to prepare for the worst when you think you're the best.
BestPeopleThinkHelpYouAhead
Traditionally, tours were a means of promoting a record. Today, the record promotes the tour.
TodayTourMeansPromotingRecord
Companies often become victims of their own mythologies.
BecomeOwnVictimsOftenCompanies
Republicans like to indict Democrats as anti-corporate zealots.
DemocratsLikeRepublicans
Standards wars involve lots of variables, and understanding them often seems more an art than a science. They generally involve just two big players, and end in a winner-take-all situation.
ScienceArtEndUnderstandingMore
There are certainly valid reasons for taking a company private, and it's also possible that C.E.O.s perform better when monitored by a small number of owners in a private company rather than by the dispersed and often uninterested shareholders of a public corporation.
SmallBetterPossibleCompanyRather
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