Word: lowing
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...anywhere, anytime, the fears that our gadgets may make us ruder and dumber and more easily distracted, it's a natural temptation to abandon technology, or at least vacation from it occasionally. First-time--and best-selling--author Timothy Ferriss has become a Silicon Valley darling by pushing his low-information diet as the secret to achieving The 4-Hour Workweek, which among other things involves checking e-mail no more than twice a day. Maybe it's worth taking the test: Do our devices really make us more efficient or less so? Do they bind us--or isolate...
...These are the obstacles going forward. What can we do to overcome them?'" In the overall ranking, the U.S. finishes first (same as last year) out of 131 countries, thanks in part to top scores in venture-capital availability (plentiful), domestic-market size (huge) and cost of firing workers (low). The index focuses on productivity, not its collateral effects. Next are Switzerland, Denmark (see page 68 for a look at why), Sweden, Germany, Finland, Singapore, Japan, the U.K. and the Netherlands--some fairly usual suspects. Further down are some more surprising comparisons (see list at left), such as South Korea...
...that adds up, according to the latest rankings from the World Economic Forum (WEF), to the third most competitive economy on the planet. But while economic competitiveness has often been sold as something that requires long hours, low taxes and minimal government--a litany often heard in the U.S.--Denmark doesn't fit that bill at all. Denmark has the second highest tax burden in the capitalist world (after Sweden, which is just behind it in the competitiveness rankings), a generous welfare state, a heavily unionized workforce and at least five paid weeks off every year...
Since 1998, when a glut of tea from low-cost producers caused prices and profits to plunge, Indian growers have struggled to pay the country's 1 million tea workers. Unpaid employees launched a wave of strikes, while some owners sold or simply abandoned their plantations. "Many tea plantations became totally unviable," says Shiv K. Saria of Soongachi Tea Industries, which owns five tea farms in northeastern India. Estates went bankrupt because they were selling at below-cost prices and banks wouldn't lend any more...
...basis of gender equality. The report measures the discrepancies between men and women in four categories: 1) educational attainment, 2) economic participation and opportunity, 3) political empowerment and 4) health and survival. The U.S. slipped from 22nd place in 2006 to 31st place this year, partly because of its low political-participation rate for women. Countries of note...