One way to minimise the cost of shareholder activism, says Bernard Black, at Stanford Law School, would be for institutions to put their strength behind initiatives that affect hundreds of companies, not just pick on a few.

ECONOMIST: Shareholder activism

In a fascinating paper published last year, Stanford law professor Bernard S. Black correlates market discounts for Russian firms with their tendency toward uncouth behavior (such as stripping assets or shafting minority shareholders).

FORBES: Honesty Pays--How Much?

Taylor, Berlin was a consummate telly-don, always available for a word-perfect interview in grainy black-and-white with Bernard Levin or Bryan Magee on the meaning of life or the way of the world.

ECONOMIST: And what it says about the role of public intellectuals