Review & Comment

Here's an axiom that applies to almost all behavior: It won't change until there is enough pain.

It's amusing, to a degree, and it's also sad, to a greater degree, that here it is mid-2011, two years after the recession wrought so much economic devastation, and only recently have more and more policymakers felt enough pain to change their and their governments' behavior. Surely you've noticed: Creating a favorable climate for business is now all the rage.

Three examples, two of which our editors chronicled recently in the Business Review: