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Business and finance

All-you-can-fly membership models are slowly catching on

7 months ago adcity Comments Off on All-you-can-fly membership models are slowly catching on
LONDON’s Luton airport is not renowned for its quick boarding. But now it is possible to show up there and in 15 minutes be on a plane bound for Zurich. That is thanks to the recent expansion of Surf Air, a small carrier. Though its name may be unfamiliar, its business model is, in fits Read More

The Nobel in economics rewards a pioneer of “nudges”

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on The Nobel in economics rewards a pioneer of “nudges”
NOT long ago, the starting assumption of any economic theory was that humans are rational actors who maximise their utility. Economists summarily dismissed anyone insisting otherwise. But over the past few decades, behavioural economists like Richard Thaler have progressively chipped away at this notion. They combine economics with insights from psychology to show how heavily Read More

Can you afford to retire?

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on Can you afford to retire?
HOW much money do you need to retire? Depending on your age, it is a question you think about a lot (if retirement is imminent) or barely at all. For younger people, the subject is a combination of too far away, too complex and too boring, and too depressing. When you consider that you might Read More

How protectionism sank America’s entire merchant fleet

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on How protectionism sank America’s entire merchant fleet
IN APRIL 1956 the world’s first container ship—the Ideal X—set sail from New Jersey. A year later in Seattle the world’s first commercially successful airliner, Boeing’s 707, made its maiden flight. Both developments slashed the cost of moving cargo and people. Boeing still makes half the world’s airliners. But America’s shipping fleet, 17% of the Read More

Taxing fat and subsidising healthy eating widens inequality

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on Taxing fat and subsidising healthy eating widens inequality
IN RICH countries, people’s diets are getting worse and they are getting fatter. Hence the increasing popularity of a “fat tax”, to make unhealthy food cost more. Since Hungary led the charge in 2011 with a “chip tax” on fatty and sugary foods, other countries have followed. Britain is to join a long list next Read More

Manias, panics and Initial Coin Offerings

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on Manias, panics and Initial Coin Offerings
EVERY market mania reaches a point when pitches to would-be investors enter the realm of the surreal. So it goes for “initial coin offerings”, or ICOs. A new one by a firm called POW invites Facebook users to claim tokens for nothing; when they later become convertible into other tokens, the first to take advantage Read More

After a bite of Apple, Margrethe Vestager targets another tech giant

8 months ago adcity Comments Off on After a bite of Apple, Margrethe Vestager targets another tech giant
MARGRETHE VESTAGER’S assault on technology firms she deems to have improperly massaged down their tax bills continued this week with a tilt at Amazon. The internet retailer faces a bill of €250m ($293m) for back taxes over what the European Union’s competition commissioner considers to have been an illegal sweetheart deal with Luxembourg. The order Read More