Joel Kurtzman

Starting a quarterly magazine dealing with the biggest ideas means working hard on the ability to see into the future.

Stanford university economics professor Paul Romer explains how the knowledge economy is creating monopoly power and changing the nature of competition. This stems from the ability of knowledge-based industries to generate increasing returns by capturing as much market share as possible. Unlike traditional monopolies, however, information age giants will face being superseded by new entrants and little danger exists of permanent monopolies -- even in an industry like software.

In Taiwan, where business anonymity is the cultural norm, Stan Shih stands out.

A Conversation With Prof. Norbert Walter, Chief Economist Deutsche Bank Group