From the desk of Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor - 5th February 2015

Thursday, February 05, 2015

This week we enter the world of activist investors—capitalism's unlikely heroes. In the past five years one firm in seven in the S&P 500 has been on the receiving end of an activist attack. Derided by managers as opportunist and short-termist, activists are in fact a force for good. More often than not, activist campaigns lead to a rise in investment, R&D and profits. They will benefit the public company  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief

Nigeria’s blood-soaked election In a country ravaged by corruption and fighting, the former dictator is a less bad choice than the failed president READ MORE » In praise of three-parent babies This week British MPs approved babies with three genetic parents. It is a breakthrough that promises to eliminate terrible suffering—and should spur on lawmakers elsewhere READ MORE » German-Americans The 46m of them are so thoroughly assimilated that they go almost unnoticed. We paint a portrait of what is thought to be America’s single largest ethnic group READ MORE » Politics this week The new prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, and his finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, toured Europe in search of debt relief and support against austerity. Mr Varoufakis floated a plan to replace Greek debt with bonds linked to GDP growth. For the most part, they met a dusty response; the European Central Bank stopped taking Greek government bonds as collateral. Markets were volatile but seemed hopeful that a deal would eventually be done SEE ARTICLE » MORE FROM: POLITICS THIS WEEK » Business this week The Spanish government, which faces an election in the autumn, was buoyed by news that the economy grew by 1.4% last year, the most since 2007. Some forecasters think Spain will be the best-performing economy among the larger euro-zone countries this year. Spending and investment have increased after cuts to both income and corporate taxes SEE ARTICLE » MORE FROM: BUSINESS THIS WEEK »

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