Intelligent Life, “Think Similar”

Lane — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:56:57 +0000

"Believe in better." "In search of incredible." The advertising craze of making nouns out of adjectives has become overdone

"Grammar play is like free verse, splatter painting or low-fi music. The first to get to the idea grabs attention just by virtue of daring. But the hordes who follow have to have something to say, some real content, not to mention a real product to sell. Just playing around with the medium won’t do. It takes more than unconventional to generate memorable…" (Read the whole article.)

The Economist, “English atop the Eurovision pile”

Lane — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:12:24 +0000

Language, of course, plays a role at Eurovision. "Ethnicity" in Europe is often linguistic: an ethnic Russian is not apparent on the streets of Riga until he opens his mouth. Linguistic neighbors will tend to be generous to one another. Finland and Estonia are friendly not only because they are nearby but because their Finno-Ugric languages resemble each other, while being utterly unrelated to their neigbours’. (Hungarian is also Finno-Ugric.) Each country can give 12 points to only one other country, and this year Denmark and Sweden gave their 12′s to Norway, Norway its 12 to Sweden, as befits the Scandinavian language continuum.

But the Scandinavians share something else besides apple-cheeked blondes and North Germanic languages: their tendency to sing in English. In that, they are like most countries nowadays. But some interesting variation clouds the picture… (Read the whole article.)

The Economist, “To the brainy, the spoils”

Lane — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:05:19 +0000

As the world grows more confusing, demand for clever consultants is booming

ELITE management consultancies shun the spotlight. They hardly advertise: everyone who might hire them already knows their names. The Manhattan office that houses McKinsey & Company does not trumpet the fact in its lobby. At Bain & Company’s recent partner meeting at a Maryland hotel, signs and name-tags carried a discreet logo, but no mention of Bain. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which announced growing revenues in a quiet press release in April, counts as the braggart of the bunch.

Consultants have a lot to smile about… (Read the whole article.)

The Economist, “Second-hand suits”

Lane — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:21:45 +0000

COMPANIES need to make the best returns on the assets they have in hand. But what if a company does not know that it has them, or whether it can use them? In some cases a lawsuit could be a valuable earner. A technology company in liquidation might have a patent-infringement suit that the bankruptcy’s administrators lack the time to pursue. There may be money to be made by suing a joint-venture partner, but the prospect of a costly case dissuades managers from going to court.

Enter “third-party funders”. These outside investors offer to pay for a lawsuit, in exchange for a share of the payout: from 30% to 60%. Some lawyers work on contingency (“no win, no fee”) arrangements, but others cannot shoulder the risk. So third-party funders may get involved. Returns are impressive enough to have drawn in both hedge funds and traditional financial companies… (Read the whole article.)

Auf Wiedersehen, Brooklyn, Hallo, Berlin

Lane — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:22:24 +0000

A bit of news that has kept me busy enough not to post much here recently: in July, I’ll be moving to Berlin to take up a new posting as The Economist‘s Central Europe business and finance correspondent.

The Economist, “Astropholypse now”

Lane — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:10:36 +0000

MID DEVON District Council, which governs local affairs in a small bit of southwestern England, recently took Britain by storm. How?

Outrage at local authority plans to abolish apostrophe [Guardian]

Council ‘murders’ apostrophe in street-sign row [Scotsman]

End of the road for the misunderstood apostrophe [Times]

Residents’ fury as council bans APOSTROPHES from street signs ‘to avoid confusion’ [Mail]

Outrage! Murder! Disgusting! Fury! End of the road! What fresh hell is this?

Read the whole post.

Liberalizing the legal profession

Lane — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 20:36:52 +0000

The Economist this week published a package on liberalizing America’s lawyers: a leader on why more variety and choice would help both lawyers and their clients, my report on Jacoby & Myers’ fight for the right to take non-lawyer investors, and a look at one idea for making law school more affordable: letting students take the bar after two years.

Interviewing Steven Pinker, World in 2013

Lane — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 02:53:32 +0000

My conversation with the psychologist and researcher on language, violence and other parts of human nature can be seen here.

Interviewing Gael García Bernal

Lane — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:09:36 +0000

At The Economist‘s Ideas Economy conference in Mexico City, November 2012.

The Economist, “Judging the judges”

Lane — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:42:41 +0000

Money and back-room politicking are contaminating the selection of judges

PETER COOK, a British comedian, once portrayed a slow-witted miner musing that he would have become a judge, “but I never ’ad the Latin.” Alas, in America, he might have done better: digging in the dirt for donations and political support sometimes seems more important to becoming a judge than any intellectual skill… (Read the whole article.)