Economic Agenda: Sunday Telegraph 10th September 2000
French fuel blockades, the new economy and the relative weakness of the euro.
Knowing versus guessing
As markets develop, gamblers seem to increase in numbers relative to insurers. We need to emphasise the distinction.
Downfall of an economic experiment
According to conventional wisdom, New Zealand has done everything right in its economic policies: rolling back the slate in industry and welfare, establishing an independent central bank, repaying its public debt. Yet over the fifteen years of reform its economic performance has been dismal. New Zealand is the new Argentina, a once-rich state.
Clusters, connectivity and Kevin Bacon
Building a monopoly on the back of network externalities is possible, but only by ignoring the complex reality of human relations.
Competing under the same old rules
The dynamics of the new economy are not so far removed from those of the traditional business world. Network externalities and compatibility standards do not have the significance people think.
The recipe for a mutual success
Mutuality seems to be dying as Equitable and Bradford and Bingley relinquish it and the water regulator rejects Kelda's proposition. Perhaps not surprisingly - mutuals suffer from the problems of too little capital - or too much. Is there a possibility of a sustainable constitution for a mutual business?
How Measurement in Organisations has Changed (Cambridge)
John Kay speaks about the need for seamless integration between the three roles of measurement, which he identifies as external reporting, internal control and internal analysis. His major theme is that the requirements for external reporting should be derived from the measures used for internal control which in turn should be based upon the measures used to complete internal analysis. Hence the seamless link between these three roles of measurement.
Water companies not built to float
Water companies are unloved by their customers and by the market. The privatisation settlement was essentially flawed. Kelda's initial proposals have now been abandoned, but a version of them deserves to succeed.
Beauty and the bidder
Should scarce assets be allocated by auction to the highest bidder or by a beauty contest of suitable applicants? From FIFA's decision on where to hold the World Cup to the ways in which European governments assign mobile phone licences, the choice of process is the economic issue of the moment.
Boundary business
Traditional boundaries around companies and industries are dissolving. But this does not mean that we live in a world without boundaries.