The Economist

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The rise of performative work

IN AN EPISODE of “Seinfeld”, a vintage TV sitcom, the character of George Costanza reveals the secret of pretending to work: act irritated. He shakes his head, frowns and sighs to demonstrate...

Why workers are fleeing the hospitality sector

RESTAURANT AND hotel bosses have had a tough year. Some 700,000 hospitality workers threw in the towel on average each month in the past year. Bars, cafés and eateries are 1.3m workers...

A jury finds Elizabeth Holmes guilty of fraud

AFTER SEVEN days of deliberation and a flurry of notes to the judge about deadlock, a 12-member jury in Silicon Valley found Elizabeth Holmes, the entrepreneur behind a once promising phlebotomy startup,...

Will the cloud business eat the 5G telecoms industry?

SMARTPHONES ABLE to take advantage of zippy fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks have graced American pockets for nearly three years. Samsung launched its first 5G-enabled device in April 2019. Apple followed suit in...

Just how big in media does Apple want to be?

As violins play mournfully, Jon Stewart, an American comic, makes a mock-emotional appeal to viewers. “Every year thousands of hours of high-quality content go unwatched,” he says seriously. “Because good, hard-working people…don’t...

Can American firms rid their supply chains of Xinjiang goods?

MOST COMPANIES prefer to talk about corporate social responsibility than to act on such pronouncements. The Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law on December 23rd, is...

Virtual-property prices are going through the roof

“RIDICULOUS AND cool.” That is the architectural brief for a new office tower under construction in the Crypto Valley, a business district of Decentraland, a virtual platform built on the Ethereum blockchain....

A memo from the boss on apology inflation

DEAR TOP TABLE, We have discussed many of the risks that threaten us in the coming year: the pandemic, our supply-chain troubles and staff retention. But I want to raise a more...

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