介绍： On companies, political parties, fiscal policy, geology, lords, happiness: Letters to the editor
From The Economist 20161008

0:00



Letters are welcome via e-mail to letters@economist.com

Company concentration

As mentioned in your special report on the dominance of “superstar” companies (September 17...

介绍： On companies, political parties, fiscal policy, geology, lords, happiness: Letters to the editor
From The Economist 20161008

0:00



Letters are welcome via e-mail to letters@economist.com

Company concentration

As mentioned in your special report on the dominance of “superstar” companies (September 17th), the big increase in profits and market share in America are much less pronounced in Europe. In Germany the share of the 100 largest companies in value-added terms compared with all German companies has in fact decreased slightly, to 15.8% in 2014. Nevertheless, the challenges for competition policy that you pointed out surely apply to Germany and the rest of Europe. Specific recommendations have been made by Germany’s Monopolies Commission in the context of digital markets and include, for instance, the consideration of transaction volumes as a trigger of German and European merger control.

But other sorts of entities pose an additional challenge for competition policy. Large institutional investors, which you wrote about in the “Free exchange” column in the same issue, create indirect links between rivals through their portfolio shareholdings. This may lessen competitive behaviour between these rivals. Such common ownership needs more attention. For example, when reviewing the Bayer-Monsanto merger, competition authorities should consider that powerful institutional shareholders, such as BlackRock, Vanguard and Deutsche Asset Management, not only hold shares in Bayer and Monsanto, but also in many of their rivals, thereby creating an additional source of concentration.

JOHN WECHE

Too many parties

Several times in the past few months, most recently in “Britain’s one-party state” (September 17th), you have said that the first-past-the-post electoral system results in two dominant parties. This is not true. For more than 70 years Canada has had as many as five significant parties in the House of Commons. In America, first-past-the-post matters not a jot compared with gerrymandering, unlimited political funding and the partisan division of spoils.

The preference for proportional representation is misguided. Would you really choose Spain or Belgium (no government), Italy (ineptitude), Greece (incompetence), or Israel (extremist intransigence) over the clarity and simplicity of Westminster? In Britain, the Liberal Democrats’ decision to join the Conservative-led coalition in 2010 was an act of self-inflicted annihilation. Do not blame first-past-the-post for the bad judgment of political leaders.

KERN DEORKSEN

* Your recent coverage on the state of the Labour Party makes grim yet accurate reading. However you suggest that outside of the Labour Party there is no significant opposition to Jermey Corbyn: this is simply not the case. In September 2014, aged 18, I joined the party through my university’s Labour society. I campaigned in a number of target seats in 2015 ahead of the general election and after the election, like many others of my age and background, enthusiastically flocked to Jeremy Corbyn, believing that through sheer force of will he could sweep Labour to power.

After a few months this positivity diminished and it became increasingly clear that that the enemy was not just the Tories, but those in our own party—the Blairites, the Red Tories, those who doubted that our leader was up to the task of power. I became increasingly disillusioned with the abuse faced by any dissenter, and the seeming indifference of the leadership.

Of interest

Living in “The low-rate world” (September 24th), you say, means finding “a form of fiscal policy that can revive the economy in the bad times without entrenching government in the good”. This fiscal policy already exists. Starting in Chile in 2001, more recently in Colombia and Peru, and soon in Paraguay, a group of Latin American countries have implemented a structural fiscal rule in which government spending is determined by long-term fiscal revenue rather than current revenues.


Independent experts help estimate the growth trend and the long-term price of the main commodity that influences public revenues. Once this structural revenue is estimated, the government has to make explicit its commitment to the structural fiscal balance, a given number for deficit or surplus.

With this kind of fiscal rule a government can truly run a counter-cyclical fiscal policy, allowing moderate deficits in bad times, which are compensated by fiscal surpluses in the good. The best way to accumulate surpluses is by implementing sovereign funds which normally invest their resources abroad in order to avoid a Dutch disease (currency appreciation following resource booms). Counter-cyclical fiscal policy makes the job of central bankers easier as well.

FELIPE LARRAÍN

Your briefing on persistently low interest rates included the sub-heading “Down, down, deeper and down” (“Low pressure”, September 24th). Do I detect a bias towards the Status Quo?

CHRIS WRIGHT

Man’s brief time on Earth

As a geologist I have been following the Anthropocene debate with mild amusement (“Dawn of a new epoch?”, September 3rd). No other geological unit of time bears the name of species. To accord that honour to our own exemplifies the ego that characterises Man. Given the short time frame, the low preservation potential in terrestrial environments and the subduction of oceanic sediments, one must question just how much of our record will be preserved in 100 million years.

Regardless of the outcome of debates and votes cast by official stratigraphic commissions, we should at least enjoy an ironic chuckle that when the Anthropocene ends, we won’t know it.

ANDREW CULLEN

M’ lords and ladies

Wulfila, who translated the Bible for the Goths, was not alone in choosing a non-military word for a leader (Johnson, September 10th). The English word “lord” comes from the Old English hlaford which derives from a compound hlaf (meaning bread, or loaf) and weard (meaning guardian) so that “our lord” is the keeper of the bread. The word lady means “the maker of the bread”.

RONALD MACAULAY

Smiley culture

Schumpeter’s column “Against happiness” (September 24th) could have mentioned the well-accepted scientific evidence that faking happiness actually does make people happier. One study proved that clenching a pencil between your teeth and forcing the face into a smile released hormones that made the individual happier. A smile unconsciously draws positive responses from others. Like nudge theory in economics, it seems entirely appropriate that companies encourage their employees to use this technique. If those employees choose to reject this, as Schumpeter seems to, then it is not only themselves but their colleagues who will suffer.

CAROLYN GIBSON

There is surely nothing more British than to proclaim the right to be miserable and taciturn.

ALEX WAYGOOD

Schumpeter’s piece was fascinating. His descriptions of the heavy-handed attempts to enforce outwardly cheery behaviour reminded me of an old joke about a corporate memo to all employees informing them that, “The floggings will continue until happiness improves.”

DAVID ROWE

* Letters appear online only


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