Why Didn’t I Think of That?

A person whose goal is growth and innovation, the founder of Parcel is an example of Joseph Schumpeter’s high impact entrepreneur and creative destruction.

How Much Do You Care About Your Independent Book Store?

The price floor in France’s Anti-Amazon Law protects independent booksellers and their cultural contribution but diminishes efficiency and raises prices.

The Long Life of the 3 to 4 Minute Song

Moving from records to digital, the music industry has undergone creative destruction but the length of a song between 3 and 4 minutes has been the same.

Our Weekly Roundup: From Traffic Lights to Sneakers, Everyday Economics Explained by 5 Great Economists

Our Econlife roundup for the week 7.14.14 An island without traffic lights displays the benefits of Adam Smith’s laissez-faire…more   7.15.14 Why David Ricardo would approve of where your sneakers were made…more   7.16.14 John Maynard Keynes could say why you’ll get less Social…

Joseph Schumpeter: Economic Models and Eileen Ford

Eileen Ford died this week. An entrepreneur who transformed the business of beauty, Eileen Ford’s talent was pairing a face with a camera. During its earlier years, the women her modeling agency represented included Martha Stewart, Ali MacGraw, Suzy Parker, Candice Bergen, and…

Note to Self… Entrepreneurial Activity Shapes Our World.

Asked about how much market research he did for the iPad, Steve Jobs said, “None. It’s not the consumer’s job to know that they want.” Art Fry could have said the same thing. His story is a good one… But first, where are…

Software's Creative Destruction

During 1989, a computer scientist wrote a memo in which he explained how information could be shared through a computer network. Two years later we had the first web pages and by 1998, one quarter of the US population was using them. Just…

Can the Supreme Court Change How We Watch TV?

At the Supreme Court this week, broadcasters sought to stop a small firm from competing against them. Saying it was violating copyright law, ABC led a group challenging Aereo’s business model. Aereo uses tiny antennas to send programming to viewers…

Eight Technologies That Will Destroy and Create Businesses

Making money was the Goldman Sachs agenda in an August, 2013 report. In “The Search for Creative Destruction,” their equity research connected Schumpeter’s creative destruction to investing opportunities. Eight new technologies, they said, would force businesses to “adapt or die.”…

The Significance of the Frisbee

The story of the Frisbee begins in a backyard during a Thanksgiving dinner in 1937. Fred Morrison and his girlfriend Lucile “Lu” Nay were tossing a  popcorn-tin lid when they switched to a cake pan because it had better aerodynamics.…