Jul 17 Real inequality: why things are better than they seem and will almost surely get worse By John Nye Welfare inequality, John Nye argues, is much less severe than it used to be, and trying to tax away or regulate income inequality will only make more intractable forms of inequality more pernicious. Continue reading
Jul 16 The cruel key to individual prosperity: choosing the right ancestors By Gregory Clark In a column adapted from one of the most provocative economics books of the year, "The Son Also Rises," economic historian Gregory Clark argues that social status is inherited from your parents just as strongly as height. Continue reading
Jul 15 Watch Could Brooklyn hipsters help save the middle class? By PBS News Hour Frozen ginger slushies, tea-based pro-biotic drinks, a bed bug-killing steam machine -- these are just a few of the locally-grown products coming out of Brooklyn’s burgeoning artisan economy. But as popular as these start-ups may be, are they generating more… Continue watching
Jul 15 Get a liberal arts B.A., not a business B.A., for the coming artisan economy By Lawrence Katz Why should young people today want a liberal arts education? A strong multidisciplinary background teaches the flexibility and critical thinking needed to take advantage of the new "artisan economy" that Harvard's Larry Katz thinks can help bolster America's middle class. Continue reading
Jul 14 The Dow may be above 17,000, but not for long By Terry Burnham A year after economist Terry Burnham predicted the Dow Jones Industrial Average would hit 5,000 before 20,000, it closed above 17,000 Monday. But Burnham is sticking by his call, introducing a scorecard to track the macroeconomic policies underlying the impending… Continue reading
Jul 14 Is giving money to poor countries doing more harm than good? By Gregory Clark In designing aid, there's a natural tendency to address immediate needs, economic historian Gregory Clark tells Paul Solman in the fifth and final part of their conversation about his 2007 book, "A Farewell to Alms." But without economic growth first,… Continue reading
Jul 11 A genetic explanation of economic success By Gregory Clark There’s nothing to rule out the possibility that the economically successful of the modern world are actually genetically different from the people who are not successful, economic historian Gregory Clark tells Paul Solman in part four of their never-before published… Continue reading
Jul 10 U.S. teens rank between Latvia and Russia on financial literacy, far below Shanghai By Simone Pathe American teens may work summer jobs and manage money on their smartphones, but their financial literacy places them between Latvia and Russia, and far below 15-year-olds in Shanghai, who achieved the highest average score on the largest youth financial literacy… Continue reading
Jul 10 The key to England’s economic growth: The rich outlived the poor By Gregory Clark England's economic success, beginning with the takeoff of the Industrial Revolution, can be explained by the "survival of the richest," argues economic historian Gregory Clark in the third installment of his never-before published interview with Paul Solman about his 2007… Continue reading
Jul 09 How learning to pass the marshmallow test explains global economic evolution By Gregory Clark Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in England, setting them economically apart from the rest of the world? Contrary to popular economic theory, economic historian Gregory Clark says the existence of market and political institutions had nothing to do with… Continue reading