Extraordinarily, although raising money to buy second-hand ships is proving hard, shipping lines still seem to have little trouble arranging finance for new ones.

ECONOMIST: Shipping

So Patterson and a ring of his top execs, including Watson, concocted a plan to secretly buy up second-hand cash register stores.

FORBES: Beset by lawyers

And we've been persuaded of the merits of financial intermediation, so much so that we think we're investing when we buy the second-hand stock of a company that has been in issue for many years.

FORBES: Opinion