Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economist, said the better-than-expected tax collections for March surprised him, particularly in light of the Healey administration’s freeze plans. A major indicator will come in a month, when the state sizes up collections from April.

Rare phenomena, like a total solar eclipse, can be a good marketing opportunity for brands, said Koen Pauwels, associate dean, research and distinguished professor of marketing at Northeastern University. “Lots of people are interested in it, they may be searching for it online. For existing customers it can give another cool reminder about a brand,” […]

“It is a pretty miraculous outcome,” said Daniel Aldrich, a professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University who studies the resilience of cities, calling the toll “a very low number of deaths by a strong, powerful earthquake near an urban center.”

The trend could speed up the transition to automation or advanced artificial intelligence as companies are forced to do more with fewer workers, said John Bai, a business professor at Northeastern University

“Now there’s a whole new level of concern,” said Darin Detwiler, a food safety expert and professor at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies. “I don’t think that one can make an argument that we shouldn’t be concerned about drinking raw milk in this era.”

“Similar level earthquakes in other societies have killed far more people,” said Daniel Aldrich, a director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University. Of Taiwan, he added: “And most of these deaths, it seems, have come from rock slides and boulders, rather than building collapses.”

Sebastian Stockman is a teaching professor in the English department at Northeastern University and the writer of an infrequent newsletter, “A Saturday Letter.”