Days of future past

Lockdown feels like it created a sense of physical and mental hibernation. It has been a delight, therefore, to feel like reading once more.

I have been reading again Tom Sine's 1999 book 'Mustard Seed vs McWorld'. As in all these things there are insights which haven't stood the test of time (the Y2K bug never really had an impact, but was a big worry back in the day). However, I was struck by the following (p65)

The economies of Europe and Japan are essentially 'stakeholder' economies that have a sense of responsibility not only to those who buy stock but to the workers, the communities in which the firms are based, the larger society and even the producers.

The United States and Britain, on the other hand, operate from 'shareholder' economies where the concern is almost entirely focused on meeting the expectations of those who own shares in the corporation. In this very competitive race to the top the shareholder model is setting the pace because the stakeholder model is considerably more expensive.

That seems to explain both Brexit and the proposed European Super League.