SIR—You use an ugly duckling simile in lamenting the continued poor performance of the euro relative to the dollar (“There once was an ugly duckling”, November 11th). You take the side of the beleaguered Europeans by boasting of recent economic restructuring and increasing growth. Continuing like a broken record, you bring up America's trade deficit, poor savings rate and supposed dangerously overvalued stockmarket as reasons why Europe will begin to catch up, or at least keep pace, with the American juggernaut. It seems that for some time predictions of European resurgence fall short while predictions of America's doom are shifted to “next year”.
I find it more constructive to look for and learn from the American phenomenon instead of shaking one's head in disbelief. The fact that America's economy is freer, more vibrant, less taxed and at the forefront of high-tech makes it a natural destination for the world's investment capital as well as a role model. It may be painful to admit it but, with few exceptions, the European economy is still pretty boring.
Palo Alto, California
SIR—A contributory factor to the irrational weakness of the euro relative to the dollar may indeed be the delayed issue of banknotes. Even when they become available, there will no doubt be a period before they become as useful, and as widely circulated, as the dollar. A possible early indicator of the true acceptance of the euro could be the percentage of randomly sampled euro banknotes that test positive for illegal drugs—a trend towards the contamination level of American legal tender should predict a relative strengthening.
SIR—You overlook a problem CEOs face today (“Tough at the top”, November 11th). One corporation announces its 20th consecutive quarter of increased profits. Unfortunately, the company's earnings of 98 cents a share fail to meet analysts' expectations of 99 cents a share and its shares drop 20%. Another corporation proudly announces that its losses for the past quarter were only $100m instead of the expected $105m and its shares rise 20%. Which CEO gets a raise and which one gets the boot ?
SIR—I had never heard of voluntary taxation before I read your leader on Britain's National Lottery (“Gambling with public money”, November 18th). I think people can decide for themselves whether to take part in the National Lottery or not. Anyone wanting to gamble without doing good still has plenty of other opportunities. I think the lottery is just what you praise so often: a simple market solution with a good result. What is more, it is perfectly in line with human psychology, which would be strongly against additional tax. Who would mind that?
SIR—You draw an implicit distinction between “the public's top priorities”—education, health and pensions—and some matter-of-fact priorities saying that “a country that lets its historical buildings...fall into a state of disrepair...is in a bad way.” You then argue that the government should appeal to the public to justify rectifying the situation with “general taxation”, not lottery money.
Surely the reason why the government resorts to a hidden tax is precisely that the public's top priorities in the past have led to the neglect of the causes you mention. You are silent on which is better: a taxed lottery that supports these causes or a non-taxed lottery that would probably provide no, or much less, such funding. In wanting a democratic ratification of what are essentially non-majoritarian concerns (with the exception of sport) you seem to want to have it both ways.
SIR—Certainly some Swiss think English is a fifth column but they are mostly French-speaking politicians who are as usual way behind the curve (“Fifth tongue, fifth column?”, November 18th). Business, the young, and more and more other people happily embrace a kind of English because that is what they like and need for success.
As creator and host of the first programme in English on Swiss TV, a talk-show which has multiplied its audience ten-fold since it started in 1998, I have been promoting Swinglish—Swiss not taken over by English but adapted to meet needs. The model is not the Nordics and Dutch, but rather the Indians. What has held India together in spite of its huge diversity of languages and cultures, was the decision at independence to adopt English as a second language.
SIR—The electoral college gives advantages to small states, giving them greater representation than their population alone would warrant, and to very large states making their big block of votes a valued prize likely to attract special attention from presidential candidates (at least when states are truly up for grabs). To some extent the two benefits offset each other and a lot of interests gain from the arrangement.
The problem with Lexington's proposal (November 18th) that a state's electoral votes be divided (as in Maine and Nebraska) is that it continues one of these advantages while eliminating the other. Small states will continue to have more electoral votes than their population would suggest is fair, but large states would lose their block voting power. The result would be a shift in the balance of power in presidential elections.
A further weakness of Lexington's proposal is that it would give even more importance to how congressional districts are drawn, further increasing current incentives for lines to be drawn in ways that value some votes over others simply on the basis of where they are cast. If one wants to reform the process by which Americans elect their president, a more fundamental change, to a system like the alternative vote that would guarantee an eventual majority winner, would be far more desirable.
SIR—Eli Berman (Letters, November 11th) is right to point out that the recognition that working long hours represents a sign of commitment to a company is not whacky theorising. However, what is whacky is that academics consider worthy of pioneering proclamation something that is blindingly obvious to anyone who has had a real job.