Weekend Reading

- The Economist on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg: "The venture capitalists backing Facebook may want to cash out, but Mr Zuckerberg is only 23 and doesn't need the money. He also happens to believe—rather as Google's young founders do—that he can, and should, change the world. A flotation would be a big distraction."

- The New York Times on General Electric: "There is growing pressure on (chief executive Jeffrey) Immelt to do something — anything — to get G.E.’s stock moving after six years of stagnation. Despite a 15 percent rally over the last two months, G.E. shares are still down 30 percent from their Welch-era peak. And in April, the analyst Jeffrey T. Sprague of Citigroup Investment Research stunned Wall Street by calling for a breakup of the company, urging Mr. Immelt to sell off NBC Universal, as well as the consumer finance and real estate units."

- The Guardian on the strength of the British pound and similarities to its highs 26 years ago. "At the start of the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher's government was convinced that the cure for Britain's recurrent inflation problem was to target the money supply. There was, ministers believed, a direct link between the amount of money sloshing around in the economy and what happened to prices. The answer was to make money more expensive, and that meant setting interest rates at punitive levels. Forget 5.75%. Back in 1980, bank rate stood at 17%. Fretting about the money supply, however, has come back into fashion."