What the investment community does like is short-term measures designed to boost share prices. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In confusing stock options with ownership, corporations confuse trappings with substance. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Wall Street has come a long way from the insider-dominated world that was blown apart by the Great Depression. — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The stock market has an insidious effect on C.E.O.s' moods, because of its impact not just on their companies but on their… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The fundamental problem with banks is what it's always been: they're in the business of banking, and banking, whether plain vanilla or… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company.… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Speculators get a bad rap. In the popular imagination they're greedy, heedless, and amoral, adept at price manipulations and dirty tricks. In… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Of course, looking tough on inflation is part of any central banker's job description: if investors believe that inflation is going to… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
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… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Businesses that have gone through an episode of hyperinflation become understandably alert to the threat of it: at the first hint of… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In industries where a lot of competitors are selling the same product - mangoes, gasoline, DVD players - price is the easiest… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Markets work best when there's lots of information available and a historical track record to go on; they excel at predicting things… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
In a world where companies increasingly know about their business in real time, it makes no sense that public reporting mostly follows… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Lack of confidence, sometimes alternating with unrealistic dreams of heroic success, often leads to procrastination, and many studies suggest that procrastinators are self-handicappers: rather… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Downsizing itself is an inevitable part of any creatively destructive economy. — James Surowiecki Copy Share
In the business world, bad news is usually good news - for somebody else. — James Surowiecki Copy Share
You might think of consumption as a fairly passive activity, but buying new products and services is actually pretty risky, at least if you… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Instead of mindlessly tossing billions at or taking billions from the Net as such, investors should be spending their time making sure that it's… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
If you thought the advent of the Internet, the spread of cheap and efficient information technology, and the growing fragmentation of the consumer market… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
The financial crisis of 2008 was not caused by investment banks betting against the housing market in 2007. It was caused by the fact… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
A consumer-finance agency is a good thing, but it would do well to teach consumers a simple lesson: if you don't understand the deal… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
What corporations fear is the phenomenon now known, rather inelegantly, as 'commoditization.' What the term means is simply the conversion of the market for… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Making loans and fighting poverty are normally two of the least glamorous pursuits around, but put the two together and you have an economic… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Unfortunately, there is something of a flaw in this idealized picture of the way the scientific community discovers truth. And the flaw is that… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
Markets work best when there's lots of information available and a historical track record to go on; they excel at predicting things like horse… — James Surowiecki Copy Share
The profit motive, indecorous though it may seem, may represent the best chance the poor have to reap some of globalization's benefits. — James Surowiecki Copy Share
