Copyright law has a duty to creativity
We are often told that the best way to protect artistic innovation and creativity is to extend copyright. But it is not usually the budding novelist or musician that pushes the argument.
On John Kay’s Bookshelf – Archive page
Books that John has reviewed in the past...
Buyers must master art of the particular
If stock-picking fails to beat the index, why should picking companies? It won’t, unless mergers carefully match the firms involved.
Mechanics of the market
Efficient markets make money for market participants, but not for market makers. That is something the enthusiastic promoters of B2B exchanges have yet to understand.
Downside of regulation
There are many things wrong with British banks, but contrary to the Cruickshank Report, the fact that they make profits is not one of them.
Spanner in the works
The proposal to extend the Droit de Suite amounts to a subsidy of successful artists by unsuccessful ones.
Tracking the net effect of innovation
A network industry which fundamentally changed the way we live, followed by a speculative bubble: but how much would you have made if you’d got in right at the start with Great Western Railways?
Beating the west at its own game
Commercial success with innovation depends less on the innovations themselves than on the other qualities of a firm. Sony’s use of Bell Labs technology is the classic example.
The myth of excellence
In the black-and-white world of business opinion, Marks and Spencer is now firmly out of fashion. But corporate success depends on establishing and defining one’s own self.
Where size is not everything
Concentration in the car industry is increasing as the market goes global: a common story, and an untrue one.