Economist, Oct 10, 2015 (I)

choi

Assisted dying  |  Brownlighted; The number of terminally ill people allowed to choose death triples.
http://www.economist.com/news/un ... riples-brownlighted

Note:
(a) The "Brown" in the title alludes to the governor's surname.
(b) English dictionary:
greenlighted = allowed
(c) Jerry Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Brown
(1938- ; In 1955 [age 17], Brown entered Santa Clara University [a private non-profit Jesuit university located in Santa Clara, Calif] for a year, and left to attend Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit novice house, intent on becoming a Catholic priest. Brown left the novitiate after three years,[6] enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley in 1960, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics in 1961. Brown went on to Yale Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1964")

Jerry's father (Pat Brown, a governor of California) was Catholic. As for Jerry's mother, I did not check.

choi

Schumpeter  | Norwegian blues; Now the easy times are over, Norway must rediscover its Viking spirit.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... rit-norwegian-blues

Quote:

"IT IS a capitalist country but it is dominated by state-owned enterprises; it is an oil giant but it eschews conspicuous consumption. For decades this unusual economic model has served Norway well: in 1970 it was in Europe’s middle ranks as measured by income per head. Nowadays, Norwegians are richer than everyone in Europe except the Luxembourgers.

"The oil bust is exposing two weaknesses in the Norwegian model. One is bureaucratisation, born of Norway’s enthusiastic embrace of state capitalism. The government owns about 40% of the stockmarket, with large stakes in [big corporations] * * * The second weakness is the over-ripe welfare state. The public sector employs 33% of the workforce in Norway, compared with an average of 19% for the OECD countries. The state is undermining the work ethic

Norway's "sovereign-wealth fund * * * is now the world’s biggest, at $873 billion.

"Norway has fish as well as oil in its waters, and exports around $10 billion-worth of them a year, a decent sum for a country of just 5m people. * * * Aquaculture [in Norway] has gone from nothing in 1970 to accounting for 70% of Norway’s total catch.

"The country’s reaction so far to the oil-price drop has been to embrace socialism more firmly: in local elections on September 14th the left made big gains in most of the country’s big cities, including Oslo and Bergen, on a programme of higher spending and zero reform.

"Norway is fortunate in that it can learn from neighbouring countries, with similar cultures, that have implemented wide-ranging reforms. Sweden, in particular, has reinvigorated its model by shrinking its state, allowing private firms to run its schools, hospitals and surgeries, and reducing its tax burden.

Note:
(a) Schumpeter is the name of an Economist column, which is named after an economist of that name.
(b) "Norway’s rise to glory began when the first oil was extracted from its continental shelf in 1971. * * * turning Bergen from a fishing village into an industrial hub" but Norway's oil industry faces two threats: low oil price and fracking.

Bergen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen
(section 1 Toponymy)

(c) "Norwegian Air has been more consistently profitable than its rival, SAS, and gets better ratings for service."
(i) Scandinavian Airlines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Airlines
(SAS; is the flag carrier of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and the largest airline in Scandinavia; founded in 1946 and headquartered in Sweden; when established (in 1946) and presently, the three national governments -- Sweden, Norway and Denmark -- together owned/ own 50% of SAS stocks, and the remaining 50% were/ are publicly held and traded on the stock market)
(ii) Compare
"SAS Institute, a software company headquartered in North Carolina, United States"