Last week, I attended an informal seminar on the outlook for the euro given by the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). Two knowledgeable and thoughtful experts analyzed the current woes and historical flaws of the European …
Economics
Behind the Numbers: Slow Job Growth is a Problem; Long-term Unemployment is a Crisis
Any way you slice it, Friday’s jobs numbers were a huge disappointment. Forecasters were expecting 150,000 jobs added, and even that figure would have represented mediocre job growth. But the actual number of 67,000 new jobs …
Proof That Many Hackers — Call Them the Anti-Zuckerbergs — Value Freedom More Than Money
In the 1987 movie Wall Street, the character Gordon Gekko famously declared that “greed is good,” a line that has come to symbolize the darkest aspects of materialism. But the latest research from Wharton management professor …
Why Everyone’s Trying to Measure Well-Being
It’s mid-afternoon, and I’m sharing a long lunch with a colleague at a sidewalk café in Paris. There’s a basket of fresh-baked bread on our table and a parade of well-dressed shoppers passing by. At the next table, three …
Which Advanced Economy Has the Most Debt?
With all the talk of Greece’s impending exit from the euro zone, debt is once again in the headlines. Greece’s massive public sector debt, coupled with its inability to devalue its currency, has put the country at risk of …
Is the Fed to Blame for JPMorgan’s $2 Billion Blowup?
The JPMorgan $2 billion-trading-loss story is nearly a week old, and the news has predictably gone through the various spin cycles of the political right and left. Initially, progressives pounced on the loss as reason to …
How Baby Names Can Help Marketers Predict the Next Big Thing
Few parents would admit to naming their baby after a hurricane. But unconsciously that might be exactly what many of us are doing — or at least appropriating the sounds of a name that, if the storm grows large enough, is …