Only in Chicago, where murder is a macabre civic pathology and an almost daily habit, would the slaughter of more than 400 people in 2013 be cause for relief. But with the 503 killings of 2012 still haunting the city, this year’s 410 through Dec. 26 is an improvement. Context, though, counts: These two years […]

“Does it make sense for our country to borrow money from China to give it to the unemployed in America? That is weakening us as a country,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told NBC recently. “I am worried about the workers. Not that I think they become bad people by becoming unemployed longer, but that the longer they’re […]

The country’s highest court does not say why it agrees to hear specific cases, but legal analysts say that this case combines hot-button issues in one question: abortion rights and free speech, and a state’s responsibility to balance the two. “That’s the issue the court will be looking at, and obviously [the state’s] argument is, […]

Effectively, this means that those states that have offered benefits for anywhere from under 26 to 73 weeks will now be limited to offering 26 weeks or less. (See what that looks like in these helpful maps from the Washington Post.) At the very least, a temporary suspension of emergency unemployment assistance will delay benefit checks for […]

For his part, Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston, is not convinced that knockout game attacks are growing. He argues in an upcoming journal article that racially fueled knockout attacks are in the news is because they’ve actually become rarer than in the past, so they are more notable. The 1990s, he says, […]

“I think that’s an old story,” says Barry Bluestone, an economist at Northeastern University in Boston. He’s been studying the 7,000 manufacturing businesses in Massachusetts, surveying hundreds of them and making site visits to dozens. “We’re seeing a new, almost renaissance in manufacturing,” he says. Bluestone says manufacturers are learning new technologies, and new manufacturing […]

A new study by Max Abrahms and Matthew Gottfried titled “Does Terrorism Pay? An Empirical Analysis” argues that it does not because government compliance is usually not forthcoming. An interesting finding is that governments are more likely to deal with terrorists in hostage situations when the demands are the release of prisoners or money, as […]

This isn’t just theory. Northeastern University’s Rand Ghayad sent out 4,800 fake resumes to job postings. Some of the resumes were from the new unemployed. Others showed longer spells of unemployment. The callback rate for the long-term unemployed was just 1 to 3 percent. For the newly unemployed, it was 9 to 16 percent. The problem for […]

The physical transformation of Boston may well be the enduring legacy of Menino’s record 20-year watch, including the birth of an entirely new neighborhood in South Boston’s Seaport District, thousands of new construction jobs, and a population that has reached its highest level since the 1970s. But the BRA may be squandering the opportunity created […]

A Northeastern University student, Matt Voska, is pitching a business idea called Flytenow. His idea is to enable private pilots who rent or own small aircraft to share the cost of flying with others who might want to go along for a ride. Voska, a 19-year-old who has his private pilot’s license, says the start-up has […]

Consumer confidence remains fragile and unemployment continues to be a drag on spending, wrote Bruce Clark, associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University’s Business School, in a statement earlier this week. The luxury sector will likely perform well, he said.  He added that e-commerce giant Amazon “looks likely to be the 800-pound gorilla of the holiday season.” Brick-and-mortar […]

Ted Clark, director of Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business, suggests family businesses face many of the same challenges every business does. Those issues include a competitive marketplace, financial challenges and regulatory changes. At the same time, he said, family businesses often confront issues that are unique to them, such as navigating interpersonal relationships and […]