Brown`s debt to society Testosterone on the floor Testosterone on

Brown`s debt to society Testosterone on the floor Testosterone on

18.7.2008
10:14
Str. 24
■ GLOBAL BUSINESS BUSINESS PRESS
Driven by
hormones:
male
traders
Testosterone
on the floor
Co mají hormony společného s obchodováním na burze?
Touto otázkou se zabývali v Cambridgi.
profimedia.cz
24-25.qxd
difficult
Financial Times
G
iven the stereotype of the “big swinging dick” on
the trading floor, it should be no surprise that a
study linking trading and testosterone has attracted
attention. Researchers from Cambridge University studied 17 male traders at work and discovered that for
each individual, temporarily higher testosterone levels
seemed to be both cause and consequence of a profitable trading day.
Yet one can have too much of a good thing. On
volatile days the traders are flooded with cortisol, a
stress hormone, while too much testosterone turns calculated risk-taking into recklessness.
One of the researchers, John Coates, himself once a
Wall Street trader, comments that, contrary to macho
stereotypes, these hormonal surges are masked by demeanours of icy calm. Alas, rational judgment is suspended nonetheless. …
What may catch many people’s attention, then, is the
speculation by Mr Coates that markets might be more
stable if more traders were women. …
But what if few women … have a taste for life on the
trading floor? In that case, testosterone and cortisol
must be drained from the system whenever they build
to dangerous levels. Elevator music, fish tanks on desks,
t’ai chi: all must be considered as vital tools for reducing stress.
Castrating traders is another possibility, but it might
discourage new recruits. ...
The Spectator
Brown’s debt to society
Dohoní někdy premiéra Gordona Browna, jakožto bývalého ministra
financí, jeho úvěrová politika?
L
ast year, the proportion of Britons who own their
own home fell for the first time since the second
world war. Yet the notion that this is an inevitable market correction will provide scant comfort to those it is
affecting. … [M]any thousands ... are finding themselves in a financially impossible situation. They bought
homes, at inflated prices, with the aid of mortgages
which were only just affordable at the fixed rates on offer a year or two ago. As those fixed rates expire, borrowers are finding themselves stuck with their lender’s
much higher variable mortgage rate. Combined with
sharply rising energy costs and, for low-earners, a sharp
rise in taxation, it is enough to break budgets. …
The repossessed will have good reasons to wonder
whether [Gordon] Brown has exacerbated their prob-
24 Business Spotlight
Hard times
for British
homeowners
lems: with the housing market rising sharply in 2003,
the then Chancellor switched the official inflation index,
obliging the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee to track an index which excluded all housing
costs. The result was interest rates lower than they otherwise would have been, and a continuation of the
housing boom. Repeatedly, Mr Brown and the Financial Services Authority, the agency he set up in 2000 to
oversee banks and building societies, ignored the many
warnings of loose lending practices. ...
4/2008
18.7.2008
10:15
Str. 25
profimedia.cz
24-25.qxd
The Economist
Our nomadic future
Digitální kočovnictví: jsme na cestě zpět do budoucnosti?
S
ometimes the biggest changes in society are the
hardest to spot precisely because they are hiding in
plain sight. It could well be that way with wireless communications. Something that people think of as just another technology is beginning to show signs of changing lives, culture, politics, cities, jobs, even marriages
dramatically. In particular, it will usher in a new version
of a very old idea: nomadism. …
Ancient nomads went from place to place — and they
had to take a lot of stuff with them (including their
livelihoods and families). The emerging class of digital
nomads also wander, but they take virtually nothing
with them; wherever they go, they can easily reach people and information. … It is getting harder to find good
excuses for being offline: [recently] the European Union
allowed airlines to offer in-flight mobile-phone service,
and several carriers have Wi-Fi. The gadgets, too, are
getting ever smaller and more portable.
A century ago some people saw the car merely as a
faster horse, yet it led to entirely new cities, with suburbs and sprawl, to new retail cultures …, new depenaffect sb. [ fekt]
alas [ l s]
ancient nomad
[ en nt n υm d]
big swinging dick [ b swŋŋ dk]
(dick US vulg. slang
break a budget [ brek]
building society [ bldŋ s sa ti]
by the same token
[ba ð sem t υk n]
carrier [ k ri ]
cubicle prison [ kju bk l prz n]
demeanour [d mi n ]
drain sth. from sth.
[ dren fr m]
emerging [ m d ŋ]
exacerbate sth. [ z s bet]
expire [k spa ]
fish tank [ f t ŋk]
fixed rate [ fkst ret]
gadget [
d t]
hormonal surge
[h m υn l s d ]
housing market [ haυzŋ m kt]
inevitable [n evt b l]
inflated [n fletd]
in-flight [ n flat]
in plain sight [n plen sat]
interest rate [ ntr st ret]
knowledge worker
[ n ld w k ]
4/2008
týkat se
bohužel
kočovník dávných časů
velký tvrďák
penis)
narušit, rozbít rozpočet
stavební spořitelna
stejně tak
letecká společnost
malá kóje ve velkoprostorové
kanceláři
chování, vystupování
odvést, odstranit
nově vznikající
zhoršit
vypršet
akvárium
pevná úroková sazba
přístroj, zařízení
hormonální vzedmutí, vlna
trh s nemovitostmi
nevyhnutelný
nafouknutý, vyšroubovaný
během letu
zřetelně viditelný;
zde: přímo před nosem
úroková sazba
duševní pracovník
Changing the way
we live and work:
wireless technology
dencies (oil) and new health threats (sloth, obesity). By
the same token, wireless technology is surely not just an
easier-to-use phone. The car divided cities into work
and home areas; wireless technology may mix them up
again. …
Will it be a better life? In some ways yes. Digital nomadism will liberate ever more knowledge workers
from the cubicle prisons of Dilbert cartoons. ...
livelihood [ lavlihυd]
loose [lu s]
mobile phone
[ m υba l f υn]
mortgage [ m d ]
new recruit [ nju r kru t]
nomadism [ n υm dz m]
notion [ n υ n]
obesity [ υ bi s ti]
oblige sb. to do sth. [ blad ]
oversee sb./sth. [ υv si ]
recklessness [ rekl sn s]
repossessed: the ~
[ ri p zest]
researcher [r s t ]
retail [ ri te l]
scant [sk nt]
sloth [sl υθ]
spot sth. [sp t]
sprawl [spr l]
stuck: be ~ with sth. [st k]
suburb [ s b b]
suspend: judgement is ~ed
[s spend]
taste [test]
track sth. [tr k]
trading floor [ tredŋ fl ]
usher sth. in [
r n]
vital [ vat l]
volatile day
[ v l ta l de]
Wi-Fi [ wafa]
živobytí, existenční základ
volný, vágní
mobilní telefon
hypotéka
nováček
kočovnictví
představa, názor
obezita
zavázat koho k čemu
dohlížet
lehkomyslnost
vyvlastněné osoby
výzkumník
maloobchodní
mizivý, malý
lenost
rozeznat, objevit
osidlování krajiny
mít na krku
předměstí
platnost rozsudku
je odložena
chuť, záliba
sledovat;
zde: orientovat se na
burzovní sál
přivést, zavést
kritický, důležitý
den na burze s výraznými
změnami kurzů
wi-fi, bezdrátové připojení
Business Spotlight 25