OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND, fans gathered at TD Garden to witness a spectacle unlike any previously hosted at the venue. The stage and venue configuration were similar to what one […]
Economics
Posted inThe Download
Perchance to dream
College campuses are anxiously waiting for President Trump’s decision on whether to dismantle or even substantially change the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA was an executive order from then-President […]
Posted inThe Download
Smart money in Massachusetts
Back in 1990, during his run for governor, John Silber made the somewhat controversial observation that not everyone is college material and those folks would be better off focusing on […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Don’t just sell, sell to your employees
SMALL BUSINESSES IN MASSACHUSETTS will soon face a generational impasse. As baby boomers begin to retire, the businesses they have built will need new owners, but who these owners will […]
Posted inEconomy
Got robots?
Sixth-generation family farmers Dave and Steve Barstow have stretched the limits of what dairy farmers can do to stay afloat. They opened a store and bakery on their dairy farm […]
Posted inEconomy
Jobless rates dropping all over MA
NEW ECONOMIC DATA suggest the state’s labor market is nearing full capacity, which is translating into employment gains across the state and not just in metropolitan Boston. A group of […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
The Catch-22 of online advertising
As advertisers flee the dead tree versions of news for the online sites that can target audiences through complex algorithms, they are confronting an unintended and growing problem that has […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Airbnb launches charm offensive
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A POLICY BATTLE on the Beacon Hill horizon, the short-term rental company Airbnb has launched a TV advocacy campaign framing itself as a boon to […]
Posted inUncategorized
The toughest mile
IN 2008, THE Patrick administration set out to wire 123 cities and towns in western Massachusetts for broadband. But eight years, 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable, and nearly $100 million […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Mending the social fabric
The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism By Yuval Levin New York: Basic Books 262 pages SPEND SOME TIME in West Virginia or Kentucky and […]
Posted inOpinion
New poverty numbers are misleading
NEW CENSUS NUMBERS released last month saw incomes rise by 5 percent nationally and the poverty rate dropping to 13.5 percent from 14.8. The news made major headlines. Many are celebrating. And […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Pay equity law’s unintended consequences
WITH THE PASSAGE of “An Act to Establish Pay Equity,” young women entering the workforce in Massachusetts might figure that they are protected from the gender-based inequalities that have been […]
Posted inEconomy
Sandwich shop struggling on Boston Common
THE EARL OF SANDWICH is struggling financially at its Boston Common restaurant location, with losses mounting and revenues declining. The city of Boston hasn’t taken a hit—rental payments to the […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
The income-growth challenge in Gateway Cities
IT’S POSSIBLE FOR an economy to grow in ways that expand opportunity and promote broadly shared prosperity. We know that’s possible because it’s exactly what happened in the United States […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Accountants are in high demand
NOW THAT ALL THE MORTARBOARDS have been flipped in the air, college graduates are assessing their career prospects. Amid all the noise surrounding their choices, at least one trend is […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
The lessons of GE’s move to Boston
LURKING BEHIND GENERAL ELECTRIC’S DECISION to relocate its headquarters to Boston is the hotly debated issue of why businesses locate and grow in Massachusetts or decide to consolidate or expand […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
GE’s Immelt not worried about local policy matters
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AIMING TO TRANSFORM BOSTON into the hub of the “industrial Internet,” the CEO of General Electric expressed a come-what-may attitude on Monday about two policy proposals […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Are dashboards the right tool to measure progress?
YOU RUN A government agency or nonprofit. You ask management experts how you can assess your “bottom line,” given that earning profits is not your mission. You want to know […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
S&P lowers Mass. outlook to negative
STANDARD & POOR’S left the credit rating of the state of Massachusetts intact on Monday but changed its outlook for the state from stable to negative because of concerns about […]
Posted inHealth Care
Partners head points finger at state
THE HEAD OF Partners HealthCare System on Tuesday pointed the finger at state regulators, saying the tight rein they have on hospitals is as much to blame for rising health care […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Using incentives and disincentives in health care
THE SUPREME COURT decision in King v. Burwell resolved another legal challenge to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and cited the success of the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance […]
Posted inEconomy
Boston wages outpace rest of nation
Private sector workers in the Greater Boston area saw their wages and salaries increase 3.9 percent over the last year, the highest increase among the nation’s 15 largest metropolitan area […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Time to end offshore tax loophole
IT COULD BUY a dozen new energy-efficient locomotives for the MBTA every year, put nearly 1,000 more police on our streets, or pay for more than 8,000 needy children to […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
British Columbia officials say carbon tax is working
OFFICIALS FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA came to MIT on Monday to make the case for their seven-year-old tax on carbon, which some lawmakers and clean energy advocates in Massachusetts want to […]
