Jun 04 Watch 6:46 Tech-age butlers aren't just for superheroes anymore By PBS News Hour If you're too busy and you want to outsource your chores, there are apps galore these days. Now there’s Alfred, a new online service that aims to scale up the business of butlering by offering relatively low-cost help with shopping,… Continue watching
Jun 04 Dirty laundry? Batman's butler, Alfred, to the rescue By Paul Solman Paul Solman chats with Hello Alfred CEO Marcela Sapone about how more Alfreds will liberate people in busy careers. Continue reading
Jun 04 A creepy vision of the new economic order, harvested from you By Anna Bernasek, D.T. Mongan What happens when corporations become Big Brother? Anna Bernasek and D.T. Mongan paint a Orwellian future, where big data reigns. This data collection won’t just infringe on the privacy of real people, they argue, but also on market competition. Continue reading
Jun 03 Watch 11:41 Opposite parties, same goal: change U.S.-China relations By PBS News Hour China is on track to eclipse the U.S. as the world's largest economy by 2016, and it hasn’t been shy about flexing military muscle. Henry Paulson and Bob Rubin, former treasury secretaries from different parties, say the U.S. and China… Continue watching
Jun 03 Should I be paying for this? And more of your Medicare questions By Philip Moeller You can't sleep. Your doctor prescribes you a durable medical device to help—one that Medicare usually covers. But what do you do when the bill falls on you?… Continue reading
Jun 03 That free trial? It might not be so free after all By Anna Bernasek, D.T. Mongan You may have thought you signed up for a free trial, but did you read the fine print?… Continue reading
Jun 01 25 examples of why you can't trust what Social Security says By Laurence Kotlikoff I receive emails virtually every day from people who have been misled or misinformed, sometimes terribly, by Social Security. This generally involves particular staffers at Social Security telling people to do things they shouldn't do, telling them they can’t collect… Continue reading
Jun 01 Is trickle-down economics science or scam? By Nick Hanauer In this column, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer critizes the theory that a higher minimum wage will cause increased unemployment. Going further, he suggests that economic theories in general are not science, but merely social and moral constructs. Continue reading
May 29 Why the Freddie Gray riots began at a shopping mall By Paul Solman Editor's Note: When economic correspondent Paul Solman went to Baltimore earlier this month to report on how the riots there affected the local economy, he spoke with Johns Hopkins historian N.D.B. Connolly. Connolly brought Paul to the mall where the… Continue reading