896 Posts Found

The financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession demolished many cherished beliefs—most significantly, the theory that financial markets always get things right. Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market explains where that idea came from, and where it went wrong. As much an intellectual whodunit as a cultural history of the perils and possibilities of risk, it also brings to life the people … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Justin Fox | Subjects: Economics, History

Beneath the surface of most companies are three kinds of businesses—a customer relationship business, a product innovation business, and an infrastructure business. Although organizationally intertwined, these businesses differ a great deal. …These three businesses rarely map neatly to a corporation’s organizational structure. Rather, they correspond to what are popularly called “core processes”—the cross-functional work flows that stretch from suppliers to customers and, in combination, define … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: John Hagel III, Marc Singer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Strategy

A British merchant’s long-forgotten work, An Essay on the State of England, could lead to a rethinking of how modern economies developed in Europe and America, and add historical perspective on the proper relationship between government and business. An interview with business historian Sophus A. Reinert.

Content: Article | Author: Sean Silverthorne | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Economics, History

We are stuck now, not only in the United States but in many European countries, in a polarized polemic in which pundits and politicians alike suggest to us that the essential question of political economy is one of choosing between planning and laissez-faire, between Stalin and Ayn Rand, between stupidity and intelligence. This is as specious as it is dangerous. The encouragement and regulation of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sophus A. Reinert | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Economics

When asked to predict activity in the stock market, J.P. Morgan replied that stock prices would fluctuate. Modern finance theory ascribes meaning to these fluctuations. The stocks of successful, well-run, or lucky companies rise. Those of unsuccessful, misgoverned, or unlucky companies fall. While portfolio managers view the volatility of individual stocks as a problem to be overcome through diversification, corporate executives watch their stocks rise … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bernard Yeung, Randall Morck | Source: STERNbusiness (NYU) | Subjects: Economics, Finance

Just after the nation’s founding, Alexander Hamilton took on a banking crisis with eerie parallels to today’s,

Content: Article | Author: Richard Sylla | Source: STERNbusiness (NYU) | Subjects: Economics, History

GFmag.com, the Global Finance website, presents a free database of information on finance and economics – including such topics as M&A, macroeconomics, FDI flows, and income and taxation – with interactive maps and tools that help present the data in a user-friendly format.

Developed and designed by project coordinator Alessandro Magno and prepared by seasoned journalists Tina Aridas and Denise Bedell, each page presents facts, figures … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: GFmag.com | Subjects: Economics, Finance, Reference / Search

The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister David Cameron plans to create a national well-being index. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has formed a team that includes two Nobel Prize-winning economists to come up with a system for measuring the nation’s well-being. In China, happiness indexes have become so popular that cities there compete for the title of China’s happiest city. Many now argue that purely economic measures … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Nic Marks | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Economics

Before the Industrial Revolution, individuals owned the processes, tools, and procedures, and suddenly they were taken over by the corporation. That went on for 150 or 200 years, and as we shifted into the knowledge- and service-work economy, we put more and more back on the shoulders of the individual worker. The corporate infrastructure has not kept up with the changes in the design of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bill Jensen | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Economics, Knowledge, Organizational Behavior

How capitalism killed the soul of Motorola.

Content: Article | Author: Barry C. Lynn | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Economics, History | Company: Motorola

Kathy Fogel, Randall Morck and Bernard Yeung compiled lists of the ten largest employers in each of 44 countries across the world, in a recent study published in the Journal of Financial Economics. Fogel and her colleagues discovered that countries with rapid churn into and out of this elite group had faster growing economies. This relationship even seems to be causal, because high turnover in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Tim Harford | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Economics

Mainstream media generally accepts the current commonplace institutions as fundamental features of ‘the economy’. Others with an eye on innovation, recognize that digital platforms are empowering alternative forms of economic behavior at scales never before possible. Digital currencies, reputation metrics, social capital scores, and collaborative consumption platforms are proliferating at a rapid pace. Those of us who enthusiastically explore this territory regularly … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: On the Spiral | Subject: Economics

[Umair] Haque… makes a persuasive argument that industrial capitalism is fatally flawed because it shifts costs to — and borrows benefits from — societies, nature, and future generations.

Content: Quotation | Author: David K. Hurst | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Capitalism

The market functions just as it’s supposed to, except when it doesn’t.

Content: Article | Author: Michael E. Raynor | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subject: Economics

Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money? The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction. [Hat tip to FinanceProfessor.com]

Content: Multimedia Content | Source: NPR | Subjects: Economics, Finance

What exactly is the relationship between money and happiness? It’s a difficult question to pin down, experts say. While more money may make us happier, other considerations — such as whether you live in an economically advanced country and how you think about your time — also play into the equation. An increasing number of economists, sociologists and psychologists are now working in the field, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

Textbooks say that even minuscule differences in the price of identical goods in two places should be short-lived. Eagle-eyed arbitrage traders will swoop and make some easy money. But anomalies do exist, and they often persist for far longer than theories predict. As a result, economists are revisiting theories about arbitrage – the process which should equalize prices if they get out of line

Content: Article | Authors: Denis Gromb, Dimitri Vayanos | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Economics

Statistician Nic Marks asks why we measure a nation’s success by its productivity — instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people. He introduces the Happy Planet Index, which tracks national well-being against resource use (because a happy life doesn’t have to cost the earth). Which countries rank highest in the HPI? You might be surprised.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Nic Marks | Source: TED Conferences LLC | Subjects: Economics, Personal Development, Social Responsibility (ESG)

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Matt Ridley | Source: TED Conferences LLC | Subject: Economics

A pioneer in the field of market design, Harvard Business School professor Alvin E. Roth has helped to repair flawed market systems in fields ranging from kidney donation to high-school student placement. Key concepts include:
* Successful marketplaces must be “thick, uncongested, and safe.”
* Sufficient “thickness” means there are enough participants in the market to make it thrive.
* “Congestion” is what can happen … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Alvin E. Roth, Carmen Nobel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Economics