Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing.

Breaking tasks down into smaller sub-tasks can be very useful.

Until the nineteen-seventies, Western countries paid little attention to corruption overseas, and bribery was seen as an unpleasant but necessary part of doing business there. In some European countries, businesses were even allowed to deduct bribes as an expense.

By the time of the '90s boom, CEOs had become superheroes, accorded celebrity treatment and followed with a kind of slavish scrutiny that Alfred P. Sloan could never have imagined.

If companies tell us more, insider trading will be worth less.

Standards wars involve lots of variables, and understanding them often seems more an art than a science. They generally involve just two big players, and end in a winner-take-all situation.

We assume that good-looking people are smarter and more effective than they really are, and that homely people are the reverse.