Our Monday Gender Issue: Last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had long opposed female quotas on corporate boards, capitulated. Ms. Merkel’s labor minister, a physician and mother of 6, held firm to demands that her boss accept quotas. Merkel…
The Reason the Price of Gasoline Has That 9/10
If you asked me how much I pay for gas, I would say $3.49 a gallon. Actually, though, the sign says $3.499. And that means, because the gas station rounds up, I am paying $3.50. Doesn’t $3.50 sounds like a lot…
Why Should Tesla Stay in New Jersey?
At my local New Jersey shopping mall, there is a Tesla store… I think. It might have closed. During the 1920s, the auto industry and local governments agreed that the way to sell a car was through a network of…
Should the Word “Glass” Belong to Google?
Neither raisin bran nor shredded wheat are names that Kellogg’s can trademark. And yet Apple has trademarked “Apple.” Should Google be able to claim “glass?” Several days ago, the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office told Google that “Glass” was “merely…
The Surprising Impact of the Shot Clock On Basketball
This 60-foot shot is amazing. The game was between Shakopee and Hopkins, 2 Minneapolis-St. Paul area high school basketball teams. Playing a semifinal playoff, in quadruple overtime, Hopkins won 49-46 with the 60-foot shot. Hopkins’s strategy? They stalled with the…
What Happens When 1-Click Meets a Barcode?
It’s almost like 1-click and the barcode had a child. 1-click diminished the friction of an online purchase. Described in The Everything Store, it let Jeff Bezos increase revenue by making the purchase process easier. And, once Bezos got his…
Fast and Slow Stock Markets
Goldman Sachs is asking $30 million for a firm that, 14 years ago, it purchased for $6500 million ($6.5 billion). The story (sort of) starts 222 years ago. Wall Street was where our first Congress met, where Alexander Hamilton lived…
Why Might Salsa Prices Soar?
During the 1970s we did not eat many limes, maybe less than 1/2 a pound each year, and most were from Florida. Now our consumption has tripled and the lime has gone global. Faced with cheap Mexican limes, devastation from Hurricane…
The Unexpected Impact of the First Bar Code
A 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was the first item ever to have a barcode checkout. The year was 1974 and the place, a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. While for decades, people had been trying to figure out…
How is March Madness About Women?
Our Monday Gender Issue: “A woman’s place is on home, first, second, and third.” A League of Their Own, 1992 45 years ago, cheerleading and square dancing were the sports we associated with young women while only 1 in 27…