Can most people learn the traits to be highly successful in business?

The systemic risks of financial institutions haven’t changed much since 2008.

This is pretty staggering news: According to experts, the Connecticut-based franchise, which arranges skewered pieces of fruit into displays vaguely resembling floral bouquets, has defied all modern economic models, expanding continuously for the past decade despite its complete lack of any discernible consumer appeal. “In theory, the market should have done away with Edible Arrangements [...]

The story that GE paid zero taxes last year despite mega-billion dollar profits is completely untrue.

Philip Greenspun wonders, “How did the New York Times manage to spend $40 million on its pay wall?”

Today’s news that the unemployment rate had fallen another tenth of a percentage point in March was quickly touted by the White House and, as Chris Cillizza points out it’s not at all hard to understand why: A downward trend line on the unemployment rate — if not a drastic reduction in the actual number [...]

The American people have no idea what’s really in the Federal Budget, which makes any discussion about what to cut virtually impossible.

Since November, the Unemployment Rate has fallen a full percentage point, a sign that this is more than just a minor recovery.

A new study suggests that increases in the price of gasoline have very little impact on consumer behavior. If that’s true, it has serious implications for energy policy.

Cruise lines are the latest to create separate enclaves for customers willing to pay more to escape the riffraff.

A new study finds that the robust growth of the financial sector in the United States in recent decades has come at the expense of entrepreneurship.

Customers at a Radio Shack in Montana have an opportunity to get a free gun if they switch to Dish Network.

Another sign of the extent to which the continued growth of the Chinese economy is shaping business decisions around the world can be found in the prediction of one major Hollywood studio executive: LAS VEGAS — A decade from now, the Chinese box office will eclipse North America in terms of revenue, Warner Bros. International [...]

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs may be headed to Facebook: Facebook is in talks to hire Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s former White House press secretary, for a senior role in helping to manage the company’s communications, people briefed on the negotiations said. Facebook is seeking out Mr. Gibbs ahead of an initial public [...]

GE made $14.2 billion in profits last year but paid zero corporate taxes to the United States Government. Legally.

Natural disasters in Japan have lessened the supply of pigments necessary to make black paint.

My latest post over at Forbes is about how responsible management of livestock can reverse desertification. If these procedures are followed, it would alleviate some concerns that I had expressed earlier this month.

A sad testament to what has become of what was once the capital city of America’s Rust Belt: Laying bare the country’s most startling example of modern urban collapse, census data on Tuesday showed that Detroit’s population had plunged by 25 percent over the last decade. It was dramatic testimony to the crumbling industrial base [...]

Michael DeGusta compares the digital subscription prices of a variety of services and concludes that the New York Times is delusional. Does The Times really think the mass audience is going to decide their $455/year is better spent on The Times rather than getting 20+ free articles/month from The Times plus The Wall Street Journal ($207/year) plus [...]

People and businesses are sitting on cash out of fear, creating a vicious cycle.

Can some of the more economically minded in the house explain something to me? I was having a discussion with someone about economics in which two claims were made by the same person. The first, is that inflation is always bad, and so currency should be on some sort of standard (he preferred the gold [...]

In less than two weeks, much of the content of The New York Times will go behind a paywall.

Judging by the comments to my previous post, I think a lot of people didn’t understand what I was getting at, so let me try to simplify and clarify my point. Bastiat’s point is that when a kid breaks a window that costs 6 francs to replace, that’s 6 francs that could have been spent [...]

Bastiat vs. the Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Wall Street Journal today forecasts that the unemployment rate will be at 7.7% when Barack Obama faces re-election on November 8, 2012: The U.S. jobless rate will be 7.7% in November 2012, the highest level for a presidential election month since Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976, according to the average forecast of [...]

Can the massive destruction caused by the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns stimulate the economy?

David Bernstein points to this mind-numbingly dumb comment in a Wall Street Journal article about the Japanese earthquake: “Some economists have argued that a quake could actually lift the economy in the long run, by requiring a surge in rebuilding spending.” We’ve seen this before, of course. Back in September, I noted that Nobel Laureate [...]

Job interviews, resumes, and all the rest are imperfect ways of matching candidates with employment openings.

NPR is a collection of local stations, not a single station. And it’s run that way.

When the professionals stop buying government bonds, it’s time to start paying attention: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Pimco’s Total Return Fund (PTTRX), the world’s biggest bond fund, slashed its exposure to U.S. government debt to zero last month. It’s the second month in a row that well-known fund manager Bill Gross has drastically reduced Pimco’s [...]

We’ve been hearing about peak oil for years. But now some experts are warning of an even more serious crisis: Peak coffee.

We’re heading towards a future of higher food prices and more hunger.

The AP notes that as a result of natural gas drilling, smog in parts of Wyoming is the worst in the country: Wyoming, famous for its crisp mountain air and breathtaking, far-as-the-eye-can-see vistas, is looking a lot like smoggy Los Angeles these days because of a boom in natural gas drilling. Folks who live near [...]

Friday, Ezra Klein lauded Ed Glaeser’s new book, The Triumph of the City, and concludes, “The overarching theme of Glaeser’s book is that cities make us smarter, more productive and more innovative. To put it plainly, they make us richer. And the evidence in favor of this point is very, very strong.” Tom Vilsack, the [...]

As gas and oil prices rise, the pressure is increasing to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s a dumb idea.

How to shave 40 percent off your grocery bill: Buy less meat!

“Collective bargaining in the years since has played a major role in America’s economic miracle. Unions represent some of the freest institutions in this land. There are few finer examples of participatory democracy to be found anywhere. Too often, discussion about the labor movement concentrates on disputes, corruption, and strikes. But while these things are [...]

Much like the buds starting to appear on the Cherry Blossom trees in Washington, D.C., February’s jobs report offers some signs of new life for the labor market.

At what point does the legitimate right to demonstrate cross the line into infringing on the rights of others?

February’s unemployment report comes out on Friday, but one advance report indicates that we may get some good news: The private sector added 217,000 jobs in January, pointing to an accelerated improvement in the employment picture, according to the ADP National Employment Report. For several months running, ADP’s numbers have sharply overstated actual nonfarms payroll [...]

Speaking before Congress yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke debunked the assertion that the GOP’s relatively modest $61 billion spending cut package would significantly harm economic growth.

It’s not the size of your government that counts — it’s what you do with it that matters.

Americans had it so much better in the 1950s, right?

The privitization of Federal helium reserves is a textbook example of the damage to the nation that can be caused by imprudent budget cutting.

The most likely cuts in federal spending are likely to actually increase the deficit over time.

Moodys warns the the Republican plan to cut spending could cost the economy 700,000 jobs.

Whites make more money than non-whites throughout our food distribution system.

Labor and management are not simply adversaries at the negotiating table; they represent two very different cultures, if not social classes.

Google erects some much-needed defenses in the optimization arms race.

The Social Security “trust fund” may actually be worse than worthless.