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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice gift for the business person in your life, 23 Oct 2005
This is a somewhat unusual sort of book, but very attractive. It even has a ribbon sewn into the binding for keeping your place. It is filled with miscellaneous information that should prove of interest to business people, put together by one of the world's top business authorities, The Economist. What I think the people at The Economist had in mind for this little red volume is something that the business traveler might take with him or her to read on the plane. Consequently this might make a nice gift for the business person in your life, even if that person is yourself.Which country in the world spends the most on per capita advertising? Well, the US at $517 a year per person, but would you believe that Norway is next? I don't know what it means, but India is dead last at a mere two bucks. Japan still has the highest average wage at $33,843 with the US second at $32,360. The most valuable brand in the world is still Coca-Cola but Microsoft is second. I don't know how they determine these things, but the brand that has moved up the most in recent years is Toyota. Gotta love that Prius. The US has 719.9 billion dollars worth of paper money in circulation and $34.9-billion in coins. That is one heck of a pocketful of change. In Angola, Mr. Businessman, it takes 14 procedures, each averaging 146 days to start up a business. In Haiti it's a little worse: 12 procedures, 203 days each. In the US it's five procedures and about five days each. I don't know what these procedures are, but I suspect that things speed up a bit when the right palms are greased. Speaking of corruption, the most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International is Bangladesh, and the least Finland. Most of the least corrupt countries are European with the US raking just ahead of Ireland and would you believe just behind Hong Kong. There is also some info on the Best and Worst Times in the stock markets worldwide. The best day and the worst day percentage-wise both occurred in October 1987. There are a few pages on bursting bubbles, including tulipmania and the dotcom meltdown. For those impressionable, newly minted MBAs in your life who like to read about business moguls the way some people like to read about sports stars and Hollywood celebs, there a section on "business GIANTS of the past." All in all this is a pleasant, diverting, and handy suitcoat-sized hardcover that is easy to lug around. It comes dressed in a very noticeable red jacket which makes it, I suppose, hard to leave behind in the hotel room. Bottom line: buy two and give one to your boss.
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by The Economist
by The Economist
by Economist
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
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