Hoping to cut costs at the pump and buy less foreign oil, President Obama said in his 2014 State of the Union address that medium and heavy duty vehicles would be the next target. A part of the CAFE mandate…
A Big Problem for Libraries
Several weeks ago, I had the huge pleasure of attending the final hour of the marathon reading of Moby Dick at the Nantucket Public Library. The stacks that surrounded me were filled with books and almost everyone had a copy…
The Olympic Gender Gap
This year it was the ski jump. Though still not allowed to participate in the large hill jump, for the first time, women competed down the 90-meter jumping hill. For years they had been told that their bodies could not…
How Firms Compete With Hidden Messages
Have you noticed the arrow in FedEx’s logo? Especially because, in class, we have been looking at how oligopolies compete, I appreciated what this BusinessInsider slideshow said about their logos: A competitive market structure shapes business behavior. For oligopolies, that…
What is the Real Gender Wage Gap?
It is tough to identify the gender wage gap and why we have it but I think a group of people who live in Northeast India provide some pretty good answers. But first… The U.S. Gender Pay Gap If we…
Changing Times at Sochi
At Sochi, (the right) time will be money. But when the International Olympic Committee asked for a time change, Russia refused. Saying it would cost them more than $300 million to switch to “Winter Time,” the Russian organizing committee explained…
The Cotton Wars
The Brazilian cotton saga continues…or maybe it has ended. Our story starts with the $150 million a year that the US had been giving to Brazilian cotton growers. We were sending close to $12 million a month because Brazilian farmers…
The Symphony Orchestra Still Has a Glass Ceiling
In 1970, only 5% of the musicians in a symphony orchestra were women. By 1997, the proportion had risen to 25%. The reason was the blind audition. Performing behind a screen that prevented any gender identification, woman were evaluated and…
Is the Super Bowl “Cheap” This Year?
From SeatGeek: January, 2013 $500-$2500 is the face value range for 2014 Super Bowl tickets. By contrast, in 1967, the least expensive box office ticket to the first Super Bowl would have cost you $6. Using an inflation calculator, I…
One City With More Air Pollution than Beijing
By Madeleine Vance, guest blogger and student at Kent Place School. On January 17th, the smog in Beijing was so thick that the sunrise was virtually played on television screens around the city. Around the same time, air pollution levels…