Jul 08 Hobby Lobby hobbles worker voice By Christopher Mackin Worker-ownership adviser Christopher Mackin sees the American workplace lagging behind our political democracy, where "one person, one vote" is the law of the land. But he's hopeful that anger about the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby decision will fuel a… Continue reading
Jul 07 A world of woe: Why Malthus was right By Gregory Clark If you had to choose between living in a hunter-gatherer society and pre-industrial England, which would you pick? The more violent hunter-gatherer society was better: you’d live just as long, with more dietary variety and fewer working hours. Economic historian… Continue reading
Jul 04 After the World Cup, what shapes well-being for your country? By Simone Pathe On this Fourth of July, when America has already been knocked out of the World Cup, what factors are most important to your well-being? The OECD is asking citizens to consider what it is they really care about after the… Continue reading
Jul 03 Watch What’s driving the good jobs news for the month of June? By PBS News Hour he unemployment rate in the U.S. dropped to 6.1 percent in June, its lowest point since just before the financial crisis of 2008. Moreover, a strong hiring report is lifting hopes that momentum is building in the jobs market. Economics… Continue watching
Jul 03 A better-than-expected birthday present for U.S. in June jobs report By Simone Pathe Despite concerns about sluggish growth in the first quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and the economy added more than 200,000 jobs for the fifth straight month… Continue reading
Jul 02 The new new thing: Negative interest rates — but will they work? By Benn Steil, Dinah Walker Last month, the European Central Bank became the first central bank to charge banks for depositing their extra reserves with them. The idea is to encourage banks to lend privately instead. But as the Council on Foreign Relations' Benn Steil… Continue reading
Jun 27 Louis XIV’s accounting shenanigans and the threat they pose today By Jacob Soll Leaders have known how to do good accounting for nearly a millennium, but many financial institutions and regimes have just chosen not to do it. Historian Jacob Soll traces the origins of capitalism and representative government to basic accounting, and… Continue reading
Jun 26 Why brokerage account insurance is a bigger scam than Madoff By Laurence Kotlikoff Responding to the president and CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, Larry Kotiloff stands by his call for readers to close their brokerage accounts because the SIPC, he argues, doesn't exist to protect them; it exists to penalize them. Continue reading
Jun 26 Your brokerage account is safe with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation By Stephen Harbeck Do you really need to close your brokerage account, as Larry Kotlikoff warns? Stephen Harbeck, president and CEO of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, argues that the SIPC has recovered lost investments for victims of investor fraud, such as Bernie… Continue reading
Jun 25 How this community college student turned her biggest weakness into a marketable strength By Stephanie Pinto After years of teachers scolding her for talking too much, Stephanie Pinto thought she had a problem. In community college, her grades were lackluster; she wasn't putting in the effort and she didn't have any confidence. But through the career… Continue reading