In the fall of 2008, as Sen. Joe Biden pondered the delicate task of debating Gov. Sarah Palin, his debate team honchos circulated an internal preparation memo. The first sentence: “No candidate for president or vice president in the history of the country has had more advice on what to say than Sen. Biden has […]

He has been stereotyped as the Obama administration’s gaffe-prone sideshow. But Vice President Joe Biden also is a veteran debater who was in the U.S. Senate for a quarter century and is perhaps the Democratic White House’s most passionate defender of the working class. Now, with his debate against Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan […]

Researchers from Northeastern University report that only girls from healthy families are positively affected in terms of mental health when moving from high- to low-poverty communities.

With a growing body of evidence to support that economic inequality suppresses growth and creates instability, what should the next president do to reverse this long standing trend? Northeastern University’s Barry Bluestone and Boston Federal Reserve Bank economist Katharine Bradbury offer their thoughts. Barry Bluestone: In our quest to understand rising U.S. inequality since the […]

The third debate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown, candidates for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, accomplished something their two previous matches did not: it produced a winner. Professor Warren had her best night in the debate arena thus far, delivering a performance that was focused, confident and energetic. Although Senator Brown made no particular […]

Moving to a more prosperous neighborhood may help some girls from poor areas feel less distressed, but could harm some boys, a new study suggests.

In this season of non-stop mudslinging and campaign acrimony, there’s a hot-button issue on which Republicans and Democrats actually agree. Stranger still, it involves taxes, and a set of bills in Congress that, though stagnant until post-Election Day at the earliest, could end tax-free shopping on the Internet as we know it.

For most people reacting to last week’s presidential debate, their first thought was probably not about who made the best arguments or told the most truths. Rather it was likely deciding who won. The answer this time around was unusually definitive: Mitt Romney, by virtually every account and measure. But in presidential debates — and […]

Is there a role for government in helping entrepreneurs? Should the free market rule? Here are the big questions, with Hugh Courtney, dean of Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business — and some answers.  

Barry Bluestone Title: Director, Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University Building a base to ‘think and do’

After a widely criticized performance in this week’s debate, President Obama proved he’s not immune to the pitfalls of the modern presidential campaign cycle. But the president can take solace in a look back at history: He’s hardly the first sitting president to flub the first debate of a general election campaign – and he […]

Everyone said it was coming. The Boston Red Sox fired manager Bobby Valentine Oct. 4, the day after the team ended its worst season in more than 40 years. Former Major League Baseball arbitrator and Northeastern University Law professor Roger Abrams spoke with Boston Public Radio that day about the development. Abrams said the firing […]