Jun 11 What Congress can learn from the general store owner who crafted U.S. borrowing limits By Bill White Former deputy energy secretary and mayor of Houston Bill White details how America's borrowing used to be manageable and how it can be once more -- if only the federal government would divide spending bills into parts financed by taxes… Continue reading
Jun 09 Will the European Central Bank’s negative interest rate be an economic positive? By Simone Pathe After the European Central Bank announced the largest ever use of a negative interest rate, Making Sen$e caught up with two central bank watchers for a closer look at how the ECB differs from the Fed and how both central… Continue reading
Jun 06 200K more Americans and 200K more jobs, but 300K more ‘want a job’ By Paul Solman With 217,000 jobs added to the economy, payrolls now exceed their pre-recession level. But even if the economy is pumping out enough jobs for a workforce that also grew by roughly 200,000, there are now nearly 300,000 more Americans than… Continue reading
Jun 05 Why an apprenticeship may be a faster ticket to the American dream than a college degree By Dustin Reid Dustin Reid, an apprentice at BMW's only U.S. plant, explains why manufacturing is growing in the United States and why vocational training may be a more sure path to the American dream than a four-year degree. Continue reading
Jun 04 Watch BMW apprenticeship program trains workers to rise through the ranks without 4-year degree By PBS News Hour Continue watching
Jun 04 Can Americans compete with quality-driven Germans? By Paul Solman Werner Eikenbusch, BMW’s head of workforce development for the Americas, left high school in the 10th grade for an apprenticeship program that combined on-the-job training with vocational school. He eventually returned to school to become an engineer, and at BMW’s… Continue reading
Jun 02 Obama’s new energy plan: Why not put the fed’s trillions into renewables? By Chris Martenson Chris Martenson would be a lot less worried about this country’s economic future if America invested in the kinds of alternative energy he’s installed around his home in rural New England. Continue reading
May 30 Everything you need to know about carbon pricing explained in cartoon By Yoram Bauman Stand-up economist Yoram Bauman returns to Making Sen$e to present a chapter of his new book, "The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change," and more specifically, to explain how the carbon tax and cap-and-trade are two names for the same concept. Continue reading
May 23 The critique of Piketty and his reply By Thomas Piketty Former Harvard president Larry Summers admires the research of "rock star" French economist Thomas Piketty, but he's been skeptical that innovation and entrepreneurship don't have more to do with the high rate of return on capital. Innovation is great, Piketty… Continue reading
May 22 Watch What quality of life can workers earning nation’s highest minimum wage afford? By PBS News Hour Continue watching