Word: martine
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...high taxes stifle business. The U.S. and Switzerland, two moderately taxed countries, are at the top of the list, but so are Denmark, Sweden and Finland, where taxes are sky high. "There's always the debate about more government, less government, more taxes, less taxes," says Xavier Sala-i-Martin, the Columbia University economist who designed the index. "This suggests that is the wrong debate. We should be talking about what the government does and not its size...
...general, says Sala-i-Martin, the data show that democracy in developing countries is a wash. "That doesn't mean democracy isn't desirable," he says. "It just doesn't help economic growth." As countries grow richer, though, many--like Chile, Spain and Greece--adopt democracy. "Democracy," says Sala-i-Martin, "seems to be what economists would call a luxury good." Demand for it increases as incomes rise...
...people. As David Letterman once noted, "I think that's a record for a stand-up comedian in peacetime." Saturday Night Live's audience jumped by a million viewers when he was on. His phrases "Well, excuuuuse me!" and "wild and crazy guys" became schoolyard mantras. Steve Martin was the comic as rock star. And then he wasn't. He stopped cold in 1981 to concentrate on movies and never went back to stand-up comedy...
...Comic's Life (Scribner; 209 pages), this most private of performers commits the ultimate indiscretion: an account of his first 35 years, from his youth in Southern California through the lows and highs of his stand-up career. "The interesting times are as you're working your way up," Martin said recently over lunch, his mustache dyed black for his role in the next Pink Panther movie. "After you have success, it becomes a routine catwalk. In most of show business, the successes aren't as significant as the failures. It's the artists' personality. They're always more vulnerable...
...Martin's tone is not cautious, exactly, but careful. The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When he takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanesthetized patient. "My biggest fear," he says, "was that when you're writing about yourself, you're writing about yourself. It could come off like an ego trip." But Born Standing Up is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs...