Portal:Business

During the Khrushchev era, from 1956 through 1962, the Soviet Union attempted to implement major wage reforms intended to move Soviet industrial workers away from the mindset of overfulfilling quotas that had characterised the Soviet economy during the preceding Stalinist period and toward a more efficient financial incentive.

Throughout the Stalinist period, most Soviet workers had been paid for their work based on a piece-rate system. Thus their individual wages were directly tied to the amount of work they produced. This policy was intended to encourage workers to toil and therefore increase production as much as possible. The piece-rate system led to the growth of bureaucracy and contributed to significant inefficiencies in Soviet industry. In addition, factory managers frequently manipulated the personal production quotas given to workers to prevent workers' wages from falling too low.

Central and Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a highly developed free-market economy. It is characterised by low taxation, almost free port trade and a well-established international financial market. The Hong Kong dollar is legally issued by three major international commercial banks, and is pegged to the US dollar. Interest rates are determined by individual banks in Hong Kong to ensure that they are market driven. There is no officially recognised central banking system, although the Hong Kong Monetary Authority functions as a financial regulatory authority.

Highly dependent on international trade and finance, it is regarded as a favorable place to start a company. A study showed that Hong Kong went from 998 registered start-ups in 2014 to 4694 in 2024, with Fintech (13%) companies comprising the plurality. The Economic Freedom of the World Index lists Hong Kong as the freest economy, with a score of 8.58 based on data from 2022. (Full article...)

"At the same time, pecuniary externalities have significant welfare consequences when there are distortions in the economy (e.g., from monopolies, technological externalities, or distorting taxes). An important determinant of the optimal tax on one commodity is for instance a calculation of its indirect effect on government revenue raised from other taxes. It has not, however, been widely recognized that the distortions that arise in economies in which there is imperfect information and incomplete markets for practical purposes, all economies result in there being real welfare consequences of what would otherwise be viewed as purely pecuniary effects. As a result, economies in which there are incomplete markets and imperfect information are not, in general, constrained Pareto efficient. There exist government interventions (e.g., taxes and subsidies) that can make everyone better off. Moreover, the distortions that arise from imperfect information or incomplete markets often look analytically like externalities of the familiar technological sort, and viewing them in this way helps identify the welfare consequences of government interventions."

—Joseph Stiglitz, Externalities in economies with imperfect information and incomplete markets, 1986

• ... that Sandra Caron changed her name to avoid associations with a woman once described as "the most highly paid woman in British show business in the 1950s and 1960s"?
• ... that only months after going out of business, Milkrun relaunched?
• ... that Bill Chisholm's announced $6.1 billion purchase of the Boston Celtics is the largest amount ever paid for a North American sports team?
• ... that Japanese businessman Yasuyoshi Kato used embezzled funds to support his wife, who bought twenty Arabian horses, several emus, llamas, potbellied pigs, miniature cattle, and nurse sharks?
• ... that food was left to rot outside after the supermarket Supie went out of business?
• ... that Bill Post helped invent the Pop-Tart?

June 1:

• 1980 - Arthur Nielsen, an American businessman, founder of the ACNielsen company, died on this day.

• ...that Gold Fixing is the procedure by which the price of gold is set on the London market by the five members of the London Bullion Market Association?

• ...that the Heroninos Archive contains examples of a complex and standardized system of accounting used in 3rd century Roman Egypt?

• ...that Jerry White, cofounder of the Landmine Survivors Network, delivered the 2005 commencement address at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business?

• ...that the melting and export of cents and nickels can be punished with a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisoned for a maximum of five years?

• ...that the Vatican City, has an Automated teller machine (ATM) with instructions in Latin?

• ... that the GDP deflator (implicit price deflator for GDP) is a price index measuring changes in prices of all new, domestically produced, final goods and services in an economy.

• ... that Paul Krugman introduced returns to scale to the field of international trade, now referred to as new trade theory?

• July 21: Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland
• July 15: California governor signs new state budget, eligible Californians to get stimulus payments
• July 4: 130 OECD countries agree to back global corporate tax rate
• June 30: 'Each makes the other more difficult to recover from': University of Sussex professor L. Alan Winters speaks to Wikinews on trade, COVID-19, Brexit
• June 16: Wikinews interviews Victor Kline, leader of newly registered The New Liberals party in Australia
• April 23: Irish Finance Minister Donohoe criticises OECD's global minimum corporate tax rate
• April 17: People protest in Berlin against German Court overturning five-year rent cap
• March 5: Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces UK budget 2021
• February 10: Disney to shut down Blue Sky Studios, animation studio behind 'Ice Age'
• January 24: World Trade Organization declares US tariff hike illegal, rules in South Korea's favour