The Best Fiscal Stimulus: Trust

The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.

Propellers’ role in flight date back to the dawn of engine-driven aviation. But the next generation of propeller-driven aircraft engines will put their rotors back in the spotlight.

A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.

Large-scale federal investment in American cities between 1950 and 1974 had some lasting benefits in economic growth, researchers say, despite the bad rap it currently has.

A report from The Sentencing Project argues that a primary driver for privatizing corrections isn’t really paying off.

Spouses who blame the economy for their woes, rather than pointing the finger at their partner, are more likely to be satisfied with their marriages.

A look at foreclosures in two Southern California cities shows why some fared better than others in the housing crisis.

For decades, academics have been running a lively prediction market in political aspirations. But now commodities traders have proposed actually selling options on presidential candidates.

Leadership consultant Ritch Eich offers tips for climbing the corporate ladder during these challenging times. Perhaps one of his 10 basic steps can be crafted into a New Year’s resolution.

An astronomer and an economist suggest the world would be a more sensible place if it dropped floating days of the week and leap years by switching to their Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar.

The real wages of Mexicans in the U.S. have declined since 1970, and Princeton sociologists say a “perfect storm” of anti-immigrant laws is to blame.

Degrowth theory, whose supporters push policies to reduce economic activity and end our obsession with GDP, is gaining momentum in Europe and Canada. Will the movement reach U.S. soil?

The former chief economist for the IMF discusses the unfairness of the existing American financial infrastructure and the complex policy prescriptions that seek a remedy.

Tech Town, an innovative business incubator in midtown Detroit, showcases the power of creative thinking and cooperation between public and private entities.

For years Americans having been moving long distances less and less, but the current bad times are pushing the percentages to post-World War II lows.

The Ohio official who sounded an early and frequent alarm about securitized home loans now has a plan for all those abandoned properties those loans helped create.

As the governments of Euro-zone states totter and fall, a public works project in Spain illustrates the sort of thoughtless expenditure that underlies their economic distress.

In a discouraging post mortem, it turns out neither the U.S. economy nor the environment really benefited from the 2009 “cash for clunkers” car-trading scheme.

A new National Endowment for the Arts report finds jobs for artists are concentrated in specific states, including New York, California, Oregon, and Vermont.

Backers of a move to add utility bills into home-loan considerations say it will boost energy conservation and create lots of jobs that can’t be exported.

The argument that taxing the rich is bad because they’re responsible for making jobs has some merit, says a researcher, but only for a subset of the wealthy — those funding start-ups.

Most of the U.S. Postal Service’s plans for surviving in the short term come down to cutting costs and not implementing the new ideas its own consultants have called for.

A growing body of research reveals myriad benefits — for employers and employees alike — when company policies promoting work-life balance are offered to low-wage workers.

How the recession transfers wealth from the old to the young.

A bill on the floor of the California Senate, if passed and signed, will limit employers’ ability to conduct credit checks of non-managerial employees.

Like the homemakers in the book “Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay,” the bureaucrats running Germany’s financial house are saying enough is enough.

High-flying professor Tatsuya Suda’s double-billing antics highlight the loose controls on the off-campus earnings of research university academics.

Welfare reform, 15 years old this week, was designed to get the structurally poor into jobs. What happens when there are lots more poor and lots fewer jobs?

Having seen well-intentioned but unsuccessful attempts to bring alternative energy to the developing world, several NGO founders suggest a more collaborative approach.

While the Obama administration pushes forward the idea of a “reverse boot camp” for veterans mustering out, economists say these unemployed vets aren’t all that different from civilian jobless.

Research confirms that increasing fuel economy standards does cost lives on the road. But economist Mark Jacobsen explains how that doesn’t have to be the case.

The tenor of the partisan kerfuffle over the debt ceiling may have its roots in declining job security, which has been declining steadily since the 1970s, argues political scientist Philipp Rehm.

A new National Endowment for the Arts analysis projects a healthy rate of growth in arts jobs through the year 2018.

Alcoa has made ”Fortune” magazine’s list of Most Admired Companies and the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index, but the aluminum company’s rhetoric doesn’t always match its performance.

Most major companies around the world have embraced the linked ideas of sustainability and responsibility. More of them need to embrace a sustainable and responsible reality.

DuPont is proud of its “publicly established environmental goals,” but the company has also faced lawsuits over allegations of contamination, and it’s associated with 103 Superfund sites.

Patagonia, Honest Tea, The Timberland Company and Seventh Generation Inc. talk the talk of corporate social responsibility and appear to walk the walk.

Cargill has also endured food recalls, environmental lawsuits and deforestation claims despite claiming that “corporate responsibility is part of everything we do.”

America’s very successful freight train system will have to make some compromises to accommodate high-speed rail, but those needn’t be the end of the world.

In the late 1980s, both Texas and Spain proposed high-speed rail systems: Texas walked away from the idea, while Spain leapt in a little too exuberantly.

In a sadly unusual move, the federal government shops around simplifications to important loan documents by asking the public to pick a winner from among two designs.

More employers are subjecting job applicants to credit checks as a tool to determine honesty and responsibility, but is that accurate, or legal?

If cheapskates are born and are not entirely the product of learned behavior, as a growing body of research suggests, policies to promote frugal living may do little good.

Washington dumped torrents of stimulus dollars across the American landscape to keep the U.S. economy from dying on the vine, but most of the spending won’t bear fruit until 2015.

The bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing movement tries to profit the developing world and make a profit at the same time.

Companies ranging from banks and defense contractors to organic yogurt makers reap benefits by creating a corps of sustainable-savvy employees.

The next time the U.S. looks at economic stimulus, two University of Delaware economists suggest, it ought to consider offering a hefty discount on every retail purchase.

Economists study European soccer stars to understand how the wealthy respond to tax increases and what states should do as a result.

Better teachers in Catholic high schools and more semesters of math and language boost student earnings later in life, a study shows.

Researchers say the decline of union rights in the U.S. contributes to the growing wage gap for all private sector workers, including nonunion members.

An international report on arms transfers suggests Europeans were eager to sell weapons to Gadhafi before Libya’s uprising this winter.

In hunting for leadership potential, you might make sweet music by looking at marching bands — or at least the examples good ones set.

In Cleveland, a union wins an outsourcing battle against clothier Hugo Boss, using a combination of innovative strategies and old-fashioned bare knuckles.

Proposals to test Americans on the dole for illegal drugs seem grounded more in stereotypes and less in data.

Dining customers tended to leave bigger tips when their bills spell out what 15 or 20 percent of their total amounts to.

London’s new idea to fight pirates in the Indian Ocean: an insurance-led navy.

Residents of New Orleans’ beleaguered Lower 9th Ward debate ownership models that they hope will bring life to their depopulated neighborhood.

Californians must start paying real costs at the pump, a bipartisan transportation group focused on national security says.

In the recessionary times, it rings true that the best places to work don’t always offer the biggest paychecks or the most pingpong tables.

Financial theorist and trade historian William J. Bernstein portrays globalization as inevitable and ultimately more benign than malign.

That the world has a finite amount of oil is undeniable. The latest WikiLeaks tidbit suggests the amount is a bit smaller than expected.

Might Frau Nein’s tough love debt limits translate into the U.S. needing German discipline?

New research finds stock markets tend to close lower on days with poor air quality.

A welter of tax credits, breaks and incentives help Americans out in ways they don’t understand or appreciate. This ignorance could have real consequences in debates about tax reform and deficit reduction.

A professor of tax law argues that tax reform to reduce federal spending, budget deficits and the size of government may start with axing deductions and subsidies while adding credits.

As the Porter Hypothesis — that well-structured environmental regulations can help businesses — marks two decades, resistance to the concept remains strong.

New research finds using bargain-brand products may deflate your self-image.

Turning foreclosed commercial properties into park networks could put people to work, raise real estate values and promote wise redevelopment.

American shoppers owe sales taxes on online purchases whether Amazon and its friends assess them or not. States are trying various gambits to recoup those lost dollars.

While big cities have been the traditional gateways for America’s waves of immigration, midsize cities are becoming the new destinations.

Taking a page out of cattle-raising’s past, an old breed from Britain is invigorating American herds with healthier meat that’s more sustainably produced.

One small rural bank’s humorous effort to expand succeeds fair and square, only to raise the eyebrows of the regulators tasked to oversee its health.

Researchers show why it’s good that the elderly habitually stick to their favorite brands and how less ambitious shopping can make you a happier senior.

As retailers’ “Black Friday” approaches, research shows that commerce and Christmas have a long history of coexistence, and the psychological effect may be generally positive.

The quake in Haiti and floods in Pakistan highlight that the multimillion-dollar emergency seed aid industry is in need of a makeover.

WANTED, Home care providers: flexible hours, good working conditions, low pay, age irrelevant, bring own insurance.

Artists and industry insiders discuss how to make music green, both for fans and businesses.

While a legalized marijuana crop wouldn’t solve all of California’s agricultural woes, it might still keep the state in the green.

“Stretched Thin,” “Both Hands Tied,” and “The War on Welfare” are three new books that highlight welfare reform’s failure to address the enduring poverty of single mothers and their children.

New research finds that as income inequality rises in a given state, the voting patterns of that state’s senators become more polarized.

Researchers report that different lighting schemes at stores influences consumer perceptions of the outlet’s quality and pricing.

When simple things like turning on the lights become too complex, Philips designers decided it was time for them to make a move.

Destitute spots hosting high-profile sporting events can at least burnish their international reputations even if they are hemorrhaging money, right? Well, probably not.

Splitting the European Union into separate “achievers” and “laggards” clubs may not be a good idea, but it may be inevitable economically.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has been rebounding slowly. Five years after the disaster, researchers suggest that the city promote its entertainment industry as a development strategy.

A cheap euro, plus the “short work” plan, allowed the Germans to make lemonade from lemons. But tomorrow may be sour.

For the U.S. to have world-class high-speed trains, the government will have to subsidize them. The investment would be small compared to the billions lavished on highways and airports.

In living through the euro’s teething troubles, it’s worth remembering the adolescence of the American dollar.

New research shows that consumers identify with and choose brands they see as the underdog.

University of Cincinnati researchers find common cause for bankruptcy in world’s leading economies.

With the pan-European currency trading in the middle of its historical range, perhaps the doomsayers should reduce their caffeine intake a bit.

History lessons address whether the European Central Bank should print more money to end the debt crisis.

Europe gets it just about right by not strictly capping pay but regulating how the payout wends its way to a banker’s pocket.

Despite the hype surrounding microfinance as an answer to solving world poverty, new research shows it isn’t the savior economists envisioned.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac try to block a municipal program that makes solar roofs affordable for homeowners.

A Swedish idea that creates an insurance fund for preserving big banks — but not necessarily their bosses or shareholders — needs to return from the dead.

New research acknowledges that money doesn’t buy happiness all on its own purchasing power, but rather happiness comes indirectly from the higher status money provides.

How naughty-sounding behavior on financial markets became an international fiasco.

New research finds that attractive people in the business world or academia may be at a disadvantage when they’re evaluated by a member of the same sex.

A new book, “Just Give Money to the Poor,” says the poor will spend the cash wisely and boost the economy, too.

Why euro-bashers could turn against the dollar, and how they might be stopped.

The status quo guarantees future dominance of fossil fuels, according to an authoritative government projection.

Don’t spend that World Cup money just yet, South Africa. Statistics show that the World Cup isn’t always an economic boon for host countries.

Brain-scan research suggests celebrity faces evoke specific happy memories, and those positive feelings rub off on the products they endorse.

New research suggests that the iPhone’s success is largely due to its ability to offer what other smart phones did not: Browsing was the killer app.

Again, money can’t buy happiness. New research finds having money, or just thinking about it, impedes our capacity to savor the joys of everyday life.

Researchers report the shame evoked by miserly behavior may have negative long-term health consequences.

The minority education gap, if not addressed, will have a huge impact on the U.S. economy in the future as good-paying jobs increasingly require college degrees.

Don’t expect a CCC or WPA in this decade as there are pointed reasons not to reach into the New Deal quiver.

If money equals fun, the adage that blondes have more of it appears to be true. Research suggests that blond women make more and marry richer than women with a different hair color.

Continental and United’s proposed merger entails a relocation of Continental’s headquarters to Chicago. Houstonians (rightfully) fear that this means a relocation of charitable contributions, too.

One year out of college, Miller-McCune fellow and economics aficionado Elisabeth Best examines her options for work or more schooling.

Although it may be hard to discern at the CEO level, higher pay equals higher performance. Two academics went to the track to suss out why.

Universal broadband Internet probably won’t help people find jobs, but it may improve their health outcomes (and music libraries).

Before the U.S. responds to “drill, baby, drill” campaign rhetoric with more offshore energy exploration, it should revise Reagan-era leasing and royalty rules that cost the Treasury billions.

Innovation, and not just drilling the same well deeper, could make energy in America as common, as, well, salt.

From breast pumping to adoption tax credits, the leviathan known as the U.S. health care bill is loaded with little goodies.

Bipartisan effort promotes manufacturer ‘take-backs’ of discarded goods

A coalition of major public universities has promised to halve the minority achievement gap in enrollment and graduation — and they set a deadline.

Ongoing efforts to improve measures of poverty in the United States must thread the needle between pragmatism and politics.

U.N. body comes down heavily against ban on fishing for iconic bluefin tuna.

In a Miller-McCune Q&A, the co-author of the ‘Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant’ report addresses the United States’ stumbling response to green energy.

Bottom-up campaigns to educate seafood lovers and sellers about what species are in trouble haven’t turned the tide yet, but there’s still hope they’ll help.

Wines made from organic grapes are often high-quality, but a new study suggests the eco-friendly label is a turn-off.

A new study reveals that U.S. companies are less likely to accept financial risks when they are based in communities where religion is important.

Research studies differ on the effect of an Oscar on a film’s bottom line.

Globally, moviegoers’ tastes are becoming increasingly homogeneous, which is a very good sign for Hollywood.

Graph shows that the U.S. government’s effort to shift car buyers to higher-efficiency vehicles was anything but a “Buy American” campaign.

One way for the U.S. Postal Service to save itself might be for letter carriers to lay down their bags.

A slew of good ideas, from high-tech UAVs to just leaving a hose out for firefighters, may help in battling tomorrow’s brush fires.

In this ‘Wonks Gone Wild,’ researchers say the hierarchical role-playing in Mardi Gras parades gave way to a free marketplace for beads, which included ‘negotiated transactions.’

Depression-era health solution may find new favor in the modern American struggle for health care change.

An inexpensive part of the federal effort to dig America out of the subprime crisis appears to have promise.

Blocks of ice are joining molten salt and compressed air as ways to deliver yesterday’s energy when it’s wanted today.

A new book on the discount chain’s down-home early days doesn’t tell us much about its status as the world’s largest — and most controversial — retailer.

Only 40 mpg by 2035? Current policy ensures long-term oil imports.

The real meaning of the fair trade label on your gourmet coffee.

Rebates for energy-efficient appliances don’t stand up to the economic analysis that, until now, no one bothered to do.

Rural electrification using solar energy may find a match made in heaven when linked to drip irrigation.

If you commit to a public service salary for 10 years, the government will forgive your student loans.

Recycling is leveling off, trash is piling up and cities are broke. In a throwaway society, who should pay for waste disposal?

Exceptionally cold temperatures and a vicious bacterium are giving the Sunshine State’s citrus trees a battle, but science in on the oranges’ side.

Predicting a blockbuster movie’s financial returns is more often based on gut instinct than scientific modeling — unless you develop data-crunching super software.

Lots of urban kids are flocking to eat crappy food peddled by corner stores, but both kids and vendors can be shown a more nutritious way.

A national gathering of transportation wonks try to square the circle, fitting private cars into a low-carbon economy.

New research shows that when corporations relocate their headquarters to new cities, they bring with them millions of dollars in charitable contributions.

The passing year has brought some technology and good ideas that just may improve the delivery of government services in the United States.

Beyond the humanity, there’s a business case for tackling the persistent gap in health for most U.S. minorities.

Federal plans for a green economic revolution need more discipline — and a long-term partnership with the venture capitalists who know startup winners from losers.

Just how toxic is the term “tax?” A newly published study suggests its use decreases support for climate change initiatives.

Can the unusual politics, economics and culture of the Alaskan salmon trade serve as a model for sustainable world fisheries?

The world of carbonate chemistry is rocking over claims that a new kind of cement can sequester carbon.

Climate legislation says we can stop global warming, improve our soils and help our farmers all at once. Not so fast.

Not surprisingly, bankruptcy filings are on the rise and likely to increase. Is the 2005 bankruptcy reform act helping, hindering or neutral in this instance?

Might a cooperative model that arose from ashes of a civil war serve the Rust Belt economies of America’s Midwest?

New research finds the presence of Mexican immigrants in the United States is good for democracy in Mexico.

Becoming a captain of industry suggests you’ve probably sailed a bit too closely to the ethical shoals, a new study suggests.

The miracle berry’s astounding ability to turn the sour sweet makes it a party favorite, but its properties may help dieters and cancer patients, too.

Things are tough all over, but the National League of Cities suggests when improvement comes, cities may be among the last to know.

Forget black and white — the new police car in development by Carbon Motors Corporation has green written all over it.

The documentary “The End of Poverty?” takes an impassioned if clunky look at international capitalism over the last half millennium. Guess what it finds?

Blog chatter has helped flat-lining album sales, but does that chatter even matter?

Researchers investigate whether that dollar of foreign aid just frees up money for the recipient to spend elsewhere.

Adobe’s laudable push for open government butts up against the difficulty that machines have sussing out what’s in its products.

Researchers looking at al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein explore why it is that people often steadfastly believe something even when they’ve been shown it ain’t so.

Late urban champion’s notions about decline and imports newly resonant during this recession.

A new survey indicates broad interest, but not commitment, in purchasing an electric vehicle.

A libertarian look at the current pay kerfuffle for financial services companies suggests regulating executive compensation will not produce healthier capitalism.

In a follow-up to a story we published in March, our featured homeowner still lives defiantly without payments or eviction for more than a year.

The Obama administration has a mortgage refinancing program that needs some tuning.

A financial stimulus for the recession-battered middle class: pot farming.

Members of the music industry reflect on making their green good intentions a marketable proposition.

Positive Train Control — technology that adheres to the simple premise that there should only be one train to one track — is still years away from full implementation in the U.S.

Two social ills come together in Miami for a positive outcome, at least on a small scale.

Industry responds to produce safety scares with a tracking system from farm to fork.

Famed for building homes for the poor from scratch, Habitat for Humanity sees a silver lining to thousands of foreclosed homes available for a pittance.

Drivers aren’t singing the blues so much about high-intensity headlights these days, but a smarter version of them might really light up their driving lives.

A new study calls for standardizing aircraft maintenance across the globe, but until then, says one co-author, the answer just might be yes.

Solar power’s portability has made it a go-to technology for projects out in the boonies, like oil production.

Arcane bits of the tax code provide a huge tacit subsidy for the producers of fossil fuels, according to a recently released study.

Intercity bus service is on the rebound in the U.S. thanks to some spiffy new competitors, but only half the country has gotten on board so far.

Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein has been following Wal-Mart for half a decade now, and he believes changes in China, and not in the domestic landscape, may force its day of reckoning.

There appear to be cheaper, more effective ways to improve education in developing nations than the glitzy One Laptop per Child program.

While the corn ethanol bubble has pretty much popped, serious efforts to find an economically sound and carbon-smart biological-based fuel continue.

America’s way of providing medical care has an Achilles’ heel — not in the operating room or the pharmacy, but at the oil well and the refinery.

The Kindle and its kin, like the newly announced Sony e-readers, will undoubtedly change the face of publishing in time, but the Delphic pronouncements of its partisans may be a tad overblown.

We predicted that Hispanics would feel more pain jobwise this recession than some other demographic groups. We were right.

A stimulus package launches with low hopes for qualitatively changing the pace of car buying and little real expectation of cleaning up the air.

Opponents and (the much quieter) partisans of tax havens both see their causes as ‘leveling playing fields,’ but they seem to be playing different games, one featuring U.S. taxpayers and the other international tax rates.

Author Steven Greenhouse’s Rx for better workplaces: tougher enforcement and friendlier policies.

An experiment in subsidizing school lunches to use locally raised commodities pays off both in the cafeteria and in the regional economy, one study finds.

The Germans already have a program for taking gas guzzlers off the road and replacing them with shiny new cars, but there are some bumps in the road.

Feed-in tariffs grow green power but may fall victim to energy politics, German-style.

Venture capitalist Woody Tasch has a down-to-earth approach — literally — for fixing what’s eating the economy.

The digital revolution lets antiquities forgers sell their ‘replicas’ worldwide, unintentionally undermining the black market in looted artifacts.

Is fancy-schmancy, fair-trade, shade-grown, bird-friendly, etc., etc., specialty coffee better for the planet’s climate, too?

Do exports of water-intensive crops hurt drought-prone California?

In a new book that questions the concept of ‘class war,’ two academics argue that income inequality is not a partisan issue but an American problem, and that citizens should ‘make a ruckus’ about it.

In extolling human rights, the U.S. has traditionally pursued the ones that don’t cost any money with greater vigor, even as its rhetoric suggests something different.

Regulators in car-mad California have made a statement about reducing carbon in the atmosphere, and while its specifics have their critics, expect the rest of the nation to grudgingly follow along.

Our spinogram allows you to watch the U.S. economy change before your very eyes.

Amid the destruction wrought by the global financial crisis, should American colleges and universities be seeking a bailout plan of their own?

Update: A political economist argues our high levels of consumer debt derive more from political decisions than from economic conditions.

In its first four years, Catherine Rohr’s Prison Entrepreneurship Program shows some success in turning drug dealers and other convicts into legit businessmen.

The editor of Public Policy & Aging Report asks if tax regimes set up when the words ‘elderly’ and ‘poor’ were nearly synonymous may have outlived their good intentions.

The Yale economist known as a bubble-popper extraordinaire is bullish on tomorrow, even if that tomorrow may be a decade away.

While legislation about improving trade ties to Cuba grabs headlines, a lot is going on under the embargo’s radar, say tipsters at a Miami trade expo.

Three innovators have created an approach that has greatly reduced — and just might end — homelessness.

Two guys in a pickup truck brewing fuel from farmed trees and grasses aim to show Americans that switching to alternative fuels is a viable option right now.

Thousands of Americans are defying eviction notices and exercising civil disobedience.

The United States has lagged behind other industrialized countries in providing high-speed rail, but the stimulus package includes a big boost advocates have been praying for.

Among financial services firms, those who ranked near the bottom on ethics scoreboards are near the top in the tsunami of financial crisis headlines.

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the subprime mortgage fiasco, don’t stop at George Bush. Go all the way back to Herbert Hoover.

Facing a technological arms race over billing, doctors score a win over insurers but are nowhere close to even par.

Amid severe economic gloom, some top executives take a pay cut, but it’s unclear how widely the salary correction will spread.

The consistent correlation between women executives and high profitability.

As Black History Month segues into Women’s History Month, it’s a fit time to review the challenges still facing African-American women climbing the corporate ladder in the Age of Obama.

It could be Key2SafeDriving, a new device that wirelessly links a cell phone and car key so your teenager can’t call or text while driving.

In a Miller-McCune.com interview, Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund explains why tackling poverty, education and health care during this financial crisis makes economic sense.

The poor are fleeing our cities, but life is not always greener, even when affordable housing comes with a two-car garage.

The economic opportunities found in inner cities should attract private investment, although a nudge from government can overcome traditional inertia.

Researchers say America’s chronically underserved urban cores are an untapped market that can sustain private investment — and turn themselves around in the process.

Efforts to align the boss and the shareholder prove difficult to master and sometimes create perverse results.

The knock that Wal-Mart destroys communities is much overstated, say a pair of economics professors. Just look at the data.

Analysis: Massive solar projects are sexy but bring a raft of land-use, technical and distribution headaches with them. Perhaps tapping America’s roofs could provide some cover.

In a nondescript industrial park near Portland, Ore., lies a solar gem that just might save the American Dream.

President Obama’s call for ‘green jobs’ has created both general confusion and competing interpretations of the term.

The nation’s largest natural gas producer discusses the ‘ocean’ of untapped product available in North America.

Energy researcher Jonathan Dorn says he backs electric cars, dismisses natural gas as our savior and reluctantly supports a Big Three bailout.

Why a low-cost program to educate employees about company ownership could produce huge financial benefits for the country.

Charities wonder if giving donors control over their donations makes for wise policy.

Bill Strickland hopes to persuade 200 cities around the world to replicate his arts, education and job-training program.

Analysis: Providing care and enrichment to the children of the working poor is a good investment, not a
luxury.

The U.S. Capitol’s new visitors’ center, which opened today, came in almost nine times over its original cost estimate.

In a manifesto for sports fans, two professors call for more merit and less monopoly.

A long-awaited oil land lease will bring a windfall to heirs of the Trail of Tears.

Current efforts to cap extreme CEO pay — which may or may not be a problem anyway — may not outlive bailout.

Our addiction to easy credit — and aversion to thrift — got us into this mess. The withdrawal may be painful for policymakers and consumers alike.

Jock Brandis invented a low-cost, people-powered peanut sheller that could raise millions out of poverty around the world. Now, if someone would just come up with the money to distribute it.

Pepperdine University marketing professor Roy Adler helps U.S. businesses take some of the guesswork out of finding customers around the world.

Latino unemployment already trends two-thirds higher than that of whites — an ominous portent for bad times.

Analysis: A noted Libertarian political philosopher takes issue with the idea that the parents of market deregulation gave a wink and nod to big government.

Two new proposals look to greatly increase the number of people who have adequate retirement plans, one by encouraging workers to save and the other by requiring them to.

If we’re going to rescue Wall Street, let’s bail out the industrial Midwest, too.

Gritty Hammond, Ind., and 80 other cities in decline have a novel approach to economic development: They’re attracting new residents by offering to pay for their children to attend college. But is a promise to pay tuition a growth strategy — or welfare for the middle class?

B Lab wants to separate companies that merely claim they are responsible from those that actually do good in the world. But can a logo really change the way America does business?

The fossil-fueled portions of T. Boone Pickens’ energy plan for the U.S. have had a rough ride.

The ‘star’ of a new documentary on the national debt says the deficit is still the even bigger threat to our financial house.

A documentary film warns that America’s fiscal policies are a looming disaster as Wall Street melts down in real time.

As the gas tax seems unlikely to support the weight of America’s infrastructure need, novel financing — from tolls, private investors, quasi-federal sources and vehicle transponders — is needed, one expert advises.

A Miller-McCune.com interview with the authors of the new book Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations

Critics of 2005 legislation grow thicker as times grow harder.

Two professors explain why small government, loose regulations and an over-reliance on markets eventually cost taxpayers.

Scientists are working to put economic value on the natural world, hoping to create ecosystem-services markets that protect the environment. But are they really just putting out a contract on Mother Nature?

How do we protect the markets from their own overexuberance? By signaling that future failures won’t get government bailouts.

For your Labor Day weekend reading pleasure, we have crafted summaries of recent research papers focusing on unions, strikes and the attitudes of workers. Collectively a bargain, they come to you fresh off the Miller-McCune factory floor.

The government provides billions of dollars in child care subsidies to help move welfare recipients into the work force. Here’s the catch: To get the subsidies, people transitioning off welfare need to have a job already.

Mike Wallace helps climate-savvy investors determine whether companies will prosper or shrivel as carbon dioxide regulation becomes reality.

A Danish professor promotes a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns in government megaprojects: Use past boondoggles as a baseline.

As seen in our main story on a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns, here’s a look at some infamous public works projects and what went wrong.

From toasters to tipples, buyers ceding decisions to outside advisers.

Here’s how government can help curb America’s seemingly endless appetite for “more.”

Corruption and terrorism pockmark the road ahead for international business, according to a respected global survey.

In business, we should make money and be a positive force in the community. The ancient philosopher told us so.

To stave off water crises created by climate change, we need new systems that manage water, energy and ecosystems together. Here’s why.

A proposed green hotel in Toronto is meant to show that environmentalism needn’t be a money loser.

Two economists say increased public health spending may lower suicide rates. But how?

Technology writer advises public to learn more about driver’s license scanners that can obtain and redistribute your personal information.

Free marketers want the government off business’s back, notes a University of California sociologist, but they may not realize how much of the spine is government funded.

A Wisconsin couple are starting a local bank with a national footprint and a global mission — serving the deaf in a manner that recognizes their culture and specific needs.

Even in an over-retailed America, there are still heavily populated areas that lack that basic service provider of urban life, a grocery store.

When an academic gets to introduce his new book on “The Daily Show,” you know he’s reaching a wider audience. A Miller-McCune interview of The Earth Institute’s Jeffrey Sachs.

With the public sector facing a potential staffing crisis, two scholars have some basic advice for reducing turnover: help public-sector employees like and trust each other more.

Residential neighborhoods are still the final frontier of desegregation.

International trade bottlenecks at ports, and the specter of a strike sends shivers through the nation’s body economic.

Despite reports of its demise, the gap in wage equality between men and women is still very much alive, reports the director of The Howard Samuels Center.

During a period of wide economic uncertainty, credit unions and community banks squared off for another round in their competition to continue making honest loans — perhaps for naught.

New York’s attorney general investigates possible fraud in an industry built on denying care, and two U.S. representatives want Medicare to have no part in it.

Companies that rank high in employee satisfaction offer better returns to investors, a business school professor says.

If we taxed corporations on the profit they report to shareholders, they’d lose the incentive to buy billion-dollar tax breaks from Congress.

The U.S. is behind the curve in how it manages air traffic control, says the co-author of a new book on air navigation policy.

Since the 1970s, the cry has been to ‘Save Our Cities’ — often from the seductive call of the suburbs. But now our oldest suburbs themselves are under siege from the same problems.

Economists and experts on aging say we should encourage the elderly to stay, or get back, in the workplace. But many seniors are not doing so because of a quirk in the law.

As some proclaim the arts as ‘necessary ingredients to a successful region’s habitat,’ a cultural studies professor offers words of caution.

Income inequality is rising more rapidly within professions than between professions, according to a new study by two sociologists.