Globally (except in Japan), family-run businesses under perform those run by professional managers.
Japanese corporations often seem to have a talented son to take over for his father.
The main reason for that, according to a “Freakonomics” radio report, is that the family scions usually first recruit an ideal “son” and then adopt him, often also encouraging their daughters to marry the men.
Japanese adage: “You can’t choose your sons, but you can choose your sons-in-law.”
If the man is already married, sometimes he and his wife will both get adopted.
In fact, while 98 percent of U.S. adoptions are of children, 98 percent of Japan’s are of adults.
Justice
is blind
and bare, too
A Swedish court dismissed charges against two 20-year-old men, accused of having bared a passed-out, 18-year-old woman’s breasts at a party and taken photographs.
Since the woman was not “aware” that she was being molested, the act was not a crime, ruled the Stockholm District Court.
The law
isn’t
the law
The Falun District Court in central Sweden convicted 23 women of possession of “large quantities” of child pornography, but gave them suspended sentences, merely fining them in amounts as low as the equivalent of $375.
Their male “ringleader” was sentenced to one year in prison.
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)