Demographics Never Gets Old (As a Speaking Topic Anyway)

Whenever I speak before an audience I inevitably bring up the subject of demographics, because to me it is the aging-elephant in the room. Whether I am engaged to talk about the economic outlook or about interest rates or about the future of work, it inevitably all does come down to the subject of people, […]

Why Walmart Wants to be Hipster-Cool

Walmart buying Modcloth? ‘Say it’s not so’ went the lament from Millennials and other assorted cool people earlier this year. After all, Modcloth is a cutting-edge, online retailer that offers funky clothes for those who consider themselves the opposite of everything the world’s biggest retailer stands for. Modcloth and Walmart could never be a fit […]

On Trend but Out of Luck: The Problem With Orchestras

If I had to think of an industry prone to poisonous industrial relations battles I would probably think first or the auto sector, or maybe even something like education or health. The battles in those industries, however, are apparently being matched by orchestras (can I say ‘in the orchestra industry’?) across North America.  Like many […]

Fancy Fitness

Sure you can go for a run for free, but if you did you would be off trend. That is one take-away from some new statistics on where people are spending their fitness dollars. According to this article from Quartz (which quotes data from the International, Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, U.S. attendance at specialty […]

Sharing the Spoils of the Gig Economy

Amongst the problems with the Sharing Economy – and its offshoot, the Gig Economy – is the fact that shares in it tend to be pretty unequal. In fact, even more than is the case of a usual employee-employer relationship, oftentimes the ‘employee’ in this example (who is really a gig worker) ends up with […]

The Economic Impact of Zika (or Why Disruptors are as Important as Trends)

A year ago most of the us knew little to nothing about the Zika virus, but at the mid-point of 2016, it appears that its existence is one factor that could disrupt world economic activity for years to come.  The existence of the Zika virus is a great example of a ‘disruptor’ a random factor […]

Switzerland May Have Voted No, But the Idea of a Universal Basic Income is Not Dead

Really, it seemed like the universal basic income (UBI), was going to be the hot new thing in economic policy. It sounds like such a simple solution to economic woes, so uncomplicated, just so basic really. Give every citizen in a country some form of stipend so that at the very least everyone has enough […]