The Week’s Best Business Longreads: Business Beast’s Picks for Dec. 16, 2012

17 Things I Learned From Reading Every Last Word of The Economist’s “The World in 2013” Issue
Mark Leibovich, The New York Times Magazine

Since college, Leibovich has been telling friends he reads The Economist. What happens when he actually does?

What Those Glowing Obits Didn't Tell You About Joe Allbritton
Ken Silverstein, The New Republic

Joseph Allbritton, who died this week, was remembered in the press as a kindly banker and media mogul, but he was also Pinochet’s favorite banker.

Building a Showcase Campus, Using an I.O.U.
Andrew Martin, The New York Times

All too often, students go deep into debt in pursuit of college degrees that may not pay off. Are the colleges doing the same thing with their massive building boom?

Meet Them in St. Louis: Bankers Move
Dan Fitzpatrick, The Wall Street Journal

St. Louis is doing everything it can be become the next financial hub: one brokerage is even building a bull statue.

FT Person of the Year: Mario Draghi
By Lionel Barber and Michael Steen, Financial Times
 
This summer, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said “the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.” He wasn’t bluffing.