July 4 has always been a huge holiday in my family. It’s big for Americans in general, of course, but my grandfather was born on July 4 in England. He always said that he had to emigrate because no one celebrated his birthday back in Durham. He used to tell us that the fireworks were… [Read More]
Blog
Paying for College: What Are You Buying, Anyway?
The big story in higher education circles last week was the firing and rehiring of Teresa Sullivan, the president of the University of Virginia. The ostensible reason for the firing was that she was not reacting quickly enough to the changing educational marketplace. But, of course, it’s hard to say what the right course of… [Read More]
A Testimonial for a Jet Lag Prevention
I’ve been in China since Thursday evening. I generally do okay, not great, with jet lag because I can sleep on planes, but I always thought it would be great to avoid entirely. This spring, I read about a new approach: a fast. The idea is that you skip eating for 12 to 16 hours… [Read More]
Why I Love Google Translate
Google Translate makes investing in international markets, emerging or otherwise, easier than ever. If you are looking at a company website or a foreign-language news source, you can copy the URL, go to Google Translate and paste it in the box, set the source and translation language, and bingo! You have a reasonable translation of… [Read More]
Two Fun Classroom Experiments
I like to work some in-class exercises into my courses for two reasons: they help students think of material in a new way while breaking up the monotony of a lecture course. There are several of these online and in a journal called The Journal of Economics Education. I’m always looking for something new and… [Read More]
