Philippa Kaur

Near Schumpeter’s home in Los Angeles are two fast-food restaurants almost kitty-corner to each other, as Americans quaintly put it. In different ways, both help explain one of the biggest puzzles in today’s business environment: the state of the American consumer. One is Chipotle Mexican Grill, a canteen-like restaurant famous for its burritos and bowls of chicken, the cheapest of which comes with rice, beans, salsa and various other toppings, and which costs $10.60. The other is McDonald’s, home of the hamburger. Its cheapest meal deal is $5. It comes with a burger, nuggets, fries and such generous quantities of salt it is a blessing that there is a fizzy drink to wash it down with. More

“The risk of under-investing is dramatically greater than the risk of over-investing,” said Sundar Pichai, the boss of Alphabet, on an earnings call last week. He, like lots of executives nowadays, was talking about artificial intelligence (AI). More specifically, he was talking about building more AI data centres to serve the customers of the tech giant’s cloud-computing arm. The sums involved are eye-popping. Alphabet’s capital spending is expected to grow by about half this year, to $48bn. Much of that will be spent on AI-related gear. More

“The risk of under-investing is dramatically greater than the risk of over-investing,” said Sundar Pichai, the boss of Alphabet, on an earnings call last week. He, like lots of executives nowadays, was talking about artificial intelligence (AI). More specifically, he was talking about building more AI data centres to serve the customers of the tech giant’s cloud-computing arm. The sums involved are eye-popping. Alphabet’s capital spending is expected to grow by about half this year, to $48bn. Much of that will be spent on AI-related gear. More

Pay close attention as the medals are draped over the victors of this year’s Olympic games in Paris and you may spot a hexagonal piece of wrought iron at their centre. That is a piece of the Eiffel Tower, kept after a renovation. The medals, designed by Chaumet, part of the luxury giant LVMH, are but one example of how the conglomerate’s maisons will be adding an opulent touch to the games. France’s team will don Berluti garments for the opening ceremony on July 26th. VIP lounges have been stocked with the cuvées of Moët Hennessy. Even the torch has been kept in a Louis Vuitton checkerboard trunk. More

Each year Airbus and Boeing, the two halves of the global aircraft duopoly, face off at the world’s most prestigious airshow, which alternates between Paris and Farnborough, in the countryside close to London. This year’s event in Farnborough, which opened on July 22nd, was a more subdued clash than usual. Both firms announced some orders from airlines, but these were mostly small. More

July 19th was a day for help-desk heroes and support superstars. A routine software update by CrowdStrike, a cyber-security company, caused computer outages in offices, hospitals and airports worldwide. Most white-collar workers looked disconsolately at their screens and realised just how useless they are if they cannot log in. People in IT came to the rescue of helpless colleagues and stranded passengers. Their work that day was full of stress—but also full of meaning. More

As alter egos go, Augustus Caesar is not a bad one for Mark Zuckerberg, pontifex maximus of Meta, owner of the Facebook family of apps. Both men started their march to power as teenagers. Both stopped at nothing to build empires—though unlike the impetuous Mr Zuckerberg, Augustus’s motto was “make haste slowly”. Both gave the illusion of sharing power (Augustus with the Senate, Mr Zuckerberg with shareholders) while wielding it almost absolutely. The Roman emperor is Mr Zuckerberg’s role model. In a recent podcast he used the 200-year era of stability ushered in by Augustus to illustrate why he is making Meta’s generative artificial-intelligence (AI) models available in a way that, with some poetic licence, he calls open source. More

“We will drill, baby, drill!” So thundered Donald Trump in his speech on July 19th at the Republican National Convention, where he accepted his party’s nomination as its presidential candidate. Encouraged by rapturous applause, he warmed to the theme, vowing to boost domestic production of fossil fuels to “levels that nobody’s ever seen before”, making America so “energy dominant” that it “will supply the rest of the world”. More