1 Euro as the ‘New’ Coke of currencies (Larry
Elliott in The Guardian) The date 23 April 1985 was a momentous day in the life
of the Coca-Cola corporation. For years, the company had been planning a new
drink to see off the challenge from Pepsi. There was no expense spared for
Project Kansas.
“New” Coke (as it was dubbed) bombed. The company
responded with alacrity. It didn’t say consumers were wrong. It didn’t say that
given time New Coke would be a success. Instead, it recognised that there was
only one option: to go back to the traditional formula. This returned to the
shelves on 11 July 1985, within three months of “New” Coke’s launch.
There is a lesson here for both businesses and
policymakers – and European policymakers in particular. Sixteen years after its
launch, it should be clear even to its most die-hard supporters that the euro
is New Coke. European politicians took a formula that was working and messed
around with it.
They changed the ingredients that made the European
Union a success, thinking it would be an improvement. Coca-Cola thought New
Coke would see off the challenge from Pepsi. Europe thought the euro would see
off the challenge from the US. Both were wrong. The only difference is that
Coke quickly saw the writing on the wall, and that Europe still hasn’t.
It is not hard to see why the pre-euro European
Union was popular. The EU was seen as a symbol of peace and prosperity after a
period when the continent had been beset by mass unemployment, poverty,
dictatorship and war. Britain’s decision to join what was then the European
Economic Community in 1973 was mainly due to the feeling that Germany, France
and Italy had found the secret of economic success.
Since the birth of the euro, it has been a different
story. In the good times, monetary policy is too loose for their needs, leading
to asset bubbles, inflationary pressure and the loss of competitiveness. In the
bad times, there are no shock absorbers. Devaluation of the currency is not
possible. The euro was a bad idea. Getting rid of it and reverting to a more
sensible way of running the European economy is not as easy as taking a product
off the shelves. But the single currency is New Coke, and the sooner Europe
realises that the better.
2 IBM sales drop for 13th straight quarter (BBC) IBM
has reported a fall in sales for the 13th consecutive quarter. The world's
largest technology services company said that revenue fell 13.5% to $20.8bn, while
net profit fell 17% to $3.5bn.
The strong US dollar and IBM's decision to move away
from its hardware business to focus on higher-margin operations both hit its
performance. Chief executive Ginni Rometty said that the second-quarter results
reflected the company's ongoing transformation.
IBM said much of the fall was due to the impact of
the strong US dollar and the sale of its System x business. Excluding that
unit, sales were down by just 18%. In contrast, it said revenues from its new
areas of focus - cloud computing, analytics and engagement - had risen by more
than 20% this year.
3 Why parents push kids into the rat race (Asha Iyer
Kumar in Khaleej Times) The task of finding our wards a niche in this world isn't
easy anymore, for things aren't the same as when we or our parents were
children. The challenges of child bearing and rearing aren't the same as it was
then and parents are at their wit's end trying to chart the course of their
children's progress.
Parents of past generations wanted their children to
be 'happily settled,' the term essentially implying comfortable finances and
amiable domesticity. Parents today are fighting battles at different levels -
with the world to make sure their young ones stay unharmed by its toxic
influences and vagaries; with societal prejudices and false standards of worth
that can shatter their children's self-esteem, with themselves, and with
self-assertive children whose demands are exceedingly materialistic.
Even when we berate the rat race, we exhort them to
it. Compete. Succeed. Be aggressive. Achieve things in life that we didn't. Be
happy. Make us proud. It's all we want of you in life. Simultaneously, we also
seek 'peace of mind' for them, but we don't utter it, for we realise that
things that fetch true peacefulness are unmaterialistic and we are afraid to
prescribe it.
So we strive to arm them to the teeth and watch
nervously from the sidelines as they battle it out in the middle, unsure if
they will still romp home in victory. In the end we merely say a tad
resignedly, 'we did our bit. Now it's their destiny'.
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