Policy-Making for Business and Entreprenuership
The Kaufmann Foundation came out with an interesting paper about local and state policymakers targeting entrepreneurs rather than existing businesses. Typically there are big incentives, usually in the form of tax breaks, which are offered to an existing business to move its operations to the new state. The paper argues that this type of thinking […]
Honest Garage: Getting Paid to Keep Mechanics Honest
A couple of weeks ago I read an good paper in experimental economics (http://forum.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/schneider/ ) and came away with an interesting idea for a small business venture.The paper is about asymmetric information in expert services and talks specifically about the car repair business. The question that is being asked is essentially ‘are car mechanics honest or […]
Netflix Rental Downloads on Your TV
I used to love the Netflix business model because it was such an improvement over the brick and mortar rental business. Then Blockbuster answered by offering essentially the same service, except with the option of returning and renting from its physical locations.
I thought for sure Netflix was going to be left behind, but it seems […]
What It Means When the Fed Changes Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve has been changing “interest rates” over the past few months and most people I talk to don’t know what that means or how it works. Here is a simple explanation.
First, a basic understanding of commercial bank regulation is needed.
Banks are required to have a certain amount of reserves in the form of […]
Literature, Moral Leadership and Harvard Business School
Following up on my last post on literature, leadership and billionaires, I found a relevant interview in the latest Working Knowledge from HBS. The interview is with Sarah Jane Gilbert, a faculty member at Harvard Business School, who recently developed a new course on moral leadership. What’s so interesting about this course is that it […]
20 Minutes: What Every City (and everyone online) Needs
Network news demands an hour of your time to get up to speed on the latest happenings, and the local paper takes at a minimum half of that. I don’t usually have that much time, which is exactly why I like the idea of 20 minutes so much. Here is what the company is all about:
“20 minutes is […]