What corporations fear is the phenomenon now known, rather inelegantly, as 'commoditization.' What the term means is simply the conversion of the market for a given product into a commodity market, which is characterized by declining prices and profit margins, increasing competition, and lowered barriers to entry.

Most corporate name changes are the result of mergers and acquisitions. But these tend to be unimaginative.

If you work for Google or Apple, stock options give you a chance to share in the increasing value of the company. In the N.F.L., nothing like this happens; the players, though rich, are just working stiffs like the rest of us.

In American politics, 'Europe' is usually a code word for 'big government.'

The autocracies of the Arab world have been as economically destructive as they've been politically repressive.

Movies' mistrust of capitalism is almost as old as the medium itself.

Lower oil prices won't, by themselves, topple the mullahs in Iran. But it's significant that, historically, when oil prices have been low, Iranian reformers have been ascendant and radicals relatively subdued, and vice versa when prices have been high.