A world of robber barons: The relationship between business and government is becoming increasingly antagonistic, says Philip Coggan. But the two sides should not overdo it: they need each other

Companies and the state

A world of robber barons: The relationship between business and government is becoming increasingly antagonistic, says Philip Coggan. But the two sides should not overdo it: they need each other

Feb 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

IN THE MIDDLE AGES the Rhine was Europe’s most important commercial waterway. Like many modern highways, it was a toll route. Toll points were meant to be approved by the Holy Roman Emperor, but local landowners often charged river traffic for passing through. These “robber barons”, as they became known, were a serious impediment to trade, and imperial forces had to take costly punitive action to remove them. Read more of this post

Plucking the geese: Traditional ways of raising tax do not work well in a globalised world

Plucking the geese: Traditional ways of raising tax do not work well in a globalised world

Feb 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

LOUIS XIV’S FINANCE minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, famously declared that “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” When it comes to taxing companies, a modern finance minister might rephrase this as “the largest possible amount of revenue with the smallest possible amount of economic and political damage.” Read more of this post

Entrepreneurs: Delegate now, before it’s too late

Entrepreneurs: Delegate now, before it’s too late

BY SOPHIA SOLANKI 
ON FEBRUARY 22, 2014

A business’s growth is hinged on an entrepreneur’s ability to delegate effectively. You may have the brightest ideas, the best offering in the market — but without getting the work done, these will mean nothing. It’s no secret how the day-to-day management and running of a business soon becomes the only thing you do, and the business growth takes a backseat. The result — stagnation, de-motivation and in the worst scenario, an end to your dreams. Read more of this post

Can God Make It in Hollywood?

Can God Make It in Hollywood?

By MICHAEL CIEPLYFEB. 22, 2014

LOS ANGELES — SOME years ago, when I was producing films at Columbia Pictures, I learned up close how hard it was to make Hollywood get religion. It was in the mid-1990s, and a good writer, earlier nominated for an Oscar, had an earnest modern-day Christ story about a damaged man in Los Angeles who might or might not be the Messiah. “The Greatest Story Ever Told” meets “Falling Down,” more or less. Read more of this post

Your Ancestors, Your Fate: Surnames reveal that social mobility is much slower than we think

FEBRUARY 21, 2014, 6:19 AM

Your Ancestors, Your Fate

By GREGORY CLARK

Inequality of income and wealth has risen in America since the 1970s, yet a large-scale research study recently found that social mobility hadn’t changed much during that time. How can that be?

The study, by researchers at Harvard and Berkeley, tells only part of the story. It may be true that mobility hasn’t slowed — but, more to the point, mobility has always been slow. Read more of this post

How to Get a Job at Google; Google attracts so much talent it can afford to look beyond traditional metrics, like G.P.A.

How to Get a Job at Google

FEB. 22, 2014

Thomas L. Friedman

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — LAST June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google — i.e., the guy in charge of hiring for one of the world’s most successful companies — noted that Google had determined that “G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless. … We found that they don’t predict anything.” He also noted that the “proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time” — now as high as 14 percent on some teams. At a time when many people are asking, “How’s my kid gonna get a job?” I thought it would be useful to visit Google and hear how Bock would answer. Read more of this post

We are surprisingly terrible at divining what’s going on in someone else’s mind.

Book Review: ‘Mindwise’ by Nicholas Epley

We are surprisingly terrible at divining what’s going on in someone else’s mind.

DANIEL J. LEVITIN

Feb. 21, 2014 3:38 p.m. ET

Socrates said “know thyself.” Sun Tzu said “know your enemy.” Nietzsche asked: “How can man know himself? He is a dark and hidden thing.” If Nietzsche is right, how can we do what Socrates and Sun Tzu advise? How can we possibly know, and trust, one another? Read more of this post

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters

The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters

“We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut famously wrote, “so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” But givenhow much our minds mislead us, what if we don’t realize when we’re pretending – who are we then? That’s precisely what David McRaney explores in You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself (public library) – a “book about self-delusion, but also a celebration of it,” a fascinating and pleasantly uncomfortable-making look at why “self-delusion is as much a part of the human condition as fingers and toes,” and the follow-up to McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart, one of the best psychology books of 2011. McRaney, with his signature fusion of intelligent irreverence and irreverent intelligence, writes in the introduction: Read more of this post

11 Inspiring Quotes From WhatsApp’s Billionaire Co-Founders

11 Inspiring Quotes From WhatsApp’s Billionaire Co-Founders

JILLIAN D’ONFRO TECH  FEB. 22, 2014, 1:49 AM

Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp in 2009 and became filthy rich fewer than five years later when they sold the company to Facebook for $19 billion.  Read more of this post

Mother’s love helped actress overcome war, poverty and bullying to find fame in Japan

Mother’s love helped actress overcome war, poverty and bullying to find fame in Japan

BY MAGDALENA OSUMI

FEB 22, 2014

Survivor: Rescued from the rubble of a war zone as a young girl in Iran, 28-year-old Sahel Rosa has succeeded in carving out a career in Japan as a model, TV personality and actress.  | YOSHIAKI MIURA

Orphaned at the age of 4, Sahel Rosa celebrates her birthday every Oct. 21 and Oct. 23, although she will never know for sure on what date she came into this world. The sole survivor of an Iraqi air raid that leveled her small town in western Iran in 1989, there are no blood relatives left to ask. Read more of this post

Disney didn’t ignore its animators: here’s why you need to develop the non-manager ‘leaders’ in your business

Disney didn’t ignore its animators: here’s why you need to develop the non-manager ‘leaders’ in your business

Published 20 February 2014 17:18, Updated 21 February 2014 10:24

Jack Zenger

Talented individuals are more inclined to stay with organisations when they feel they are progressing. 

When they hear the word “leader”, most people immediately think of someone with business cards that say “manager”, “director” or another such lofty title. That is, someone who holds a position of stature within a company’s hierarchy, and to whom several other employees report. Read more of this post