The Loneliest Liberal: The only thing trickling down is billionaire tears

By James Knudsen

What I know about economics would probably fit in a thimble, with room to spare. Still, it doesn’t take a genius to figure some things out. What follows are some of those things.

Correspondence: The world moves on

Edited by Moristotle

Pictures from the first week of the Oktoberfest in Munich. Thankfully without terrorist attacks: “Oktoberfest: the world's largest beer festival – in pictures” [Natasha Rees-Bloor, Guardian, September 20]. Excerpt:

Thor's Day: A conversation with Bill Gates

By Ken Marks

Some time ago I came across an extraordinary quote in a biography of Bill Gates. He told his biographer:

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.