Aprendizes de feiticeiros querendo esturricar dinheiro impostado aos saxões

À atenção de Pedro Adão e Silva:
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"Consider the manufacture of memory chips. The process involves some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, with incredible quality controls, clean room environments, and highly complex manufacturing techniques (bom para o ego dos políticos e comentadores encartados. Ah ganda choque tecnológico). The investment requirements are prodigious. The industry consumes enormous quantities of capital, with new factories costing one to two billion dollars.
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Yet, the industry is profitless. Once every five or six years, when supply is tigth, a ray of profitability appears from behind the clouds. The the clouds close in, and the industry loses money for years, with no prospect of structural profitability in sight.
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Sometimes, there is no way to reverse the situation. Sometimes, the best course of action is to walk away. That's the decision Intel made in 1985.
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Intel recognized and was willing to acknowledge the bitter reality of life in a no profit zone. It had excellent engineering talent, worked exceptionally hard, competed successfully with the Japanese, invested enormous amount of capital - and made no money. In fact, it lost $200 million in 1985. Worst of all, there was no action that Intel could take to reverse the situation (pois, não tinham Pedro Adão e Silva para os alumiar), nor was there any prospect that circumstances would improve. Intel confronted the reality of the no profit zone pattern and made the toughest decision in its history - it walked away."
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Trecho de Adrian Slywotzky e David Morrison in "Profit Patterns".