The Economist UK - 31.08.2019

16 The EconomistAugust 31st 2019

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Letters

Hold on to your cash

You cheered the fact that rich

countries are becoming cash-

less (“The dash from cash”,

August 3rd). Yet one of the

largest benefits of physical

cash is that it prevents over-

spending. Psychologically, it is

more difficult for someone to

hand over cash than to tap or

swipe a bank card. One is much

more aware of the act of

parting from a physical item of

value, and therefore more

mindful of how much has been

spent. Banks are increasingly

providing a variety of spend-

ing-management tools to help

people keep track of their

money when they use digital-

cash services. The best method

of managing spending would

be to encourage people to start

carrying and using cash again.

evan byrne

London

Richard Thaler, who won the

Nobel prize for economics in

2017, has shown that people

spend at least twice as much

with credit cards than with

cash. Modern society is grow-

ing ever more complex. The

phasing out of cash should be

discouraged.

rodolfo de luca

Buenos Aires

Those who advocate digitising

everything do not recognise

that life is full of nuance. Wal-

lets get lost, but so do phones

with digital wallets (which can

also break). At 62 I want to be

able to delegate errands. I don’t

want my young grandson to

have a card until he is ready to

face up to the obligations of

using one. Some people will

never cope without cash,

because of illness, or just a

total lack of interest in absorb-

ing more banal mental clutter,

such as constantly updating

passwords, reviewing transac-

tion printouts or reading

tomes of terms and conditions.

Always keep a little cash

around. Diversify. It lowers

risk. Plastic is useless when

power lines are down. If

someone can wire you some

cash, on the other hand?

maria ashot

Brussels

Britain’s unreliable railway

One of the bugbears of the

British rail industry is the

perennial search for structural

solutions to problems that may

not have structural causes.

Your article, “Getting back on

track” (August 17th), is a case in

point. In the 26 years since

privatisation the franchising

regime has changed little, but

rail reliability has fluctuated

widely. It improved steadily

from 1993 until the Hatfield

crash in 2000, which precipi-

tated a sharp decline. It took a

long time to recover, but by

2009 Britain had one of the

most reliable railways in

Europe. It is now back down to

dismally low levels.

Given this varied history, it

is difficult to see any strong

causal link between franchis-

ing and reliability. A more

plausible diagnosis is that the

railway is suffering from

financial and political neglect.

Tinkering with the franchising

system may attract politicians,

but it is unlikely to make the

trains run on time.

mark lambirth

Former director

ukDepartment for Transport

Paphos, Cyprus

Market policy in Canada

It is not often that Canada’s

competition law makes it into

the global economic discus-

sion, as it did in your special

report on Canada (July 27th). As

the federal commissioner of

competition, I was grateful to

talk to The Economistabout

how innovation is reshaping

our economy. And I was happy

to share thoughts about how

we promote competition.

You reported that, “unlike

authorities in other rich coun-

tries” Canada’s Competition

Bureau “cannot compel firms

to provide information.” It is

true that Canada cannot

compel information for

market studies. However, we

do use available tools,

including applications to our

federal courts, to compel firms

to provide the information we

are seeking in enforcement

matters. We also discussed

Canada’s efficiencies defence,

whereby increased efficiencies

attributable to a merger may be

used as a defence against the

merger’s anti-competitive

effects. Your report included

my comment that the principle

of allowing anti-competitive

mergers should be, “at the very

least” limited to exporting

companies. More precisely, it

is that the availability of the

efficiencies defence should be,

at the very least, strictly limit-

ed to exporting companies.

The Competition Bureau is

working hard to make sure that

a fair, competitive and trust-

worthy marketplace endures in

Canada.

matthew boswell

Commissioner of competition

Ottawa

A parting memory of home

The murals and floor of the

airport in Caracas represent

much more than just “kinetic

art” (“Art that moves”, August

3rd). All Venezuelans who have

emigrated have taken a picture

of their feet on the broken tiles

of Carlos Cruz-Diez’s floor, as

we say goodbye. We do not just

pause to admire the art. We

pause to cry. We pause to linger

a few minutes more with our

families. Those broken tiles

have seen our youth emigrate

with nothing but a suitcase and

hope. It is powerful art that

captures an entire country’s

sorrow and longing.

ricardo rosas

Basel, Switzerland

The last days of Wilhelm II

I was surprised to learn that

enough of the belongings of

the Hohenzollern family had

remained in Germany to be

subject to legal actions (“Jaco-

bin fury”, August 3rd). Some

time after the dethroned Kaiser

Wilhelm II was given asylum in

the Netherlands in 1918, he

purchased Huis Doorn, a villa

in the centre of the country. He

then miraculously managed to

obtain permission from the

Weimar Republic to retrieve

most of his personal belong-

ings. Since 1956 the villa and its

opulent contents have been a

charming but often overlooked

museum.

After meeting Hermann

Goering, Wilhelm realised the

true intentions of the Nazis,

and that these did not include

the restoration of the German

monarchy. He therefore

arranged to be interred in a

mausoleum on the grounds of

Huis Doorn, next to his favour-

ite dachshunds. His final wish

that no Nazis or swastikas

would be present at his funeral

in 1941 was rudely ignored.

hans barnard

Associate researcher

Cotsen Institute of

Archaeology

University of California, Los

Angeles

Party harmony

Your report on seating arrange-

ments in parliaments around

the world (“Better politics by

design”, July 27th) brought to

mind the seating of choruses.

Traditionally, choruses are

clustered in sections: soprano,

alto, tenor, bass. Thus, singers

can be corralled by their

section leaders (by political

analogy, party whips) and led

by the stronger voices.

Some conductors, however,

like to challenge their choris-

ters by seating them randomly.

The choristers’ immediate

neighbours are likely to be

from sections other than their

own, forcing them to tune in to

one another. Section leaders

have less control, but the

chorus is more harmonious.

david corbett

Exeter, New Hampshire

What’s in the fine print?

Thinking about people’s

tendency neither to read nor

understand contracts (“Critical

conditions”, July 27th) they

should always be aware of

what’s written down, because

while The Large Print Giveth,

The Small Print Taketh Away.

chris marler

London