Like most parents in Chicago, I’ve been living out school reform with my child; he started in the Chicago Public Schools and is now at a Catholic high school. I teach finance part-time at University of Illinois at Chicago, so I see the range of abilities and preparation that Chicago Public Schools students bring to… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Political Discourse
Band-Aid, Ethiopia, famine, and other fun stuff
In 1984, singer Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats was so outraged by the news videos of Ethiopian famine that he organized a fundraising organization, Band Aid. He convinced a group of English and Irish musicians to record a song, the proceeds of which would be spent to bring food to Ethiopia. “Feed the World”… [Read More]
The Heartbreak of the Heidelberg Project
In 2011, I took a press trip to Detroit. The city’s tourism office was anxious to show off the interesting aspects of the city, which are legion. One of the things that fascinated me was The Heidelberg Project, an open-air art installation on the city’s East Side. The artist, Tyree Guyton, started re-doing old houses… [Read More]
Economic efficiency in this Etsy/Blogger/Food Truck economy
Like most self-employed people, I do it all: accounting, advertising, tech support, you name it. I spend almost as much time running the business as I do writing or consulting. That’s not unusual, and a lot of the stuff of running a business is fun. But some of it is a drag. I do many… [Read More]
Barbarians at the Gate, workers, and wages
I’ve started showing Barbarians at the Gate in my corporation finance classes because it is a great story that ties together so many items on the syllabus: investment decisions in existing businesses, sunk costs (the Premier cigarette), the differences between cash flow and accounting income, and the use of leverage. Plus, James Garner is so… [Read More]
