Personal finance: Follow these 10 Commandments
1. The house you live in is a home, it is not a source of equity to “unlock” or
Cell Phones Driving Progress and Change in Africa
Throughout the developed world, the rise of cell phones as a way to communicate and stay connected has been a potent force in economic and social change. New devices and more connectivity have changed not only the business landscape, but also the way we interact with our friends, families, and relations. While many assume this change has been limited to
What can be done to convince pharmaceutical firms to lower prescription drug prices?
When the news broke that Martin Shkreli, now the former CEO at Turing Pharmaceuticals, decided to increase the price of the life-saving drug, Daraprim, from $1,130 to $63,000, it made headlines all over the world. A price increase of more than 5,000 percent is probably not justified by high research and marketing costs. More likely
Teach a Man to Fish
World hunger.
These two little words encompass one huge problem: people do not have enough to eat. And this problem kills. According to the World Food Program, hunger kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
World hunger is a widely recognized problem and many intelligent and generous people are working toward a solution.
Logically and intuitively,
Is International Trade Good or Bad for Communities?
The human instinct for trade has deep historical roots, but its economic, social and political importance has risen in recent times due to industrialisation, technological advance and globalisation. In fact, there is evidence that our Cro-Magnon ancestors engaged in trade and moved from barter for their immediate use to trade for resale. The shift by
Can People Be Trained To Be Compassionate?
Compassion, often reckoned to be the “highest personal virtue,” is held to embody the very essence of humanity. It is widely attributed to play a fundamental role in pro-social behavior, cooperation and human morality. But there is compelling evidence that the “compassionate instinct” to care and cooperate is not the sole preserve of humans. Across
Customizing Wellness with Financial Finesse
Since 1999, Financial Finesse’s mission has been “to help people from all walks of life become financially secure and independent.” To achieve this goal, Financial Finesse works with employers to develop highly customized financial wellness programs aimed at improving employee engagement, retirement preparedness and physical wellness by helping employees build solid financial foundations, implement plans
Celebrating one who uses business to help minorities
Len Greenhalgh is a senior management professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. He is also faculty director of Tuck’s extensive programs for minorities, entrepreneurial women and Native Americans. Dartmouth College was founded in 1769 with a royal charter to serve Native Americans and European settlers in New England.
Disabilities and Personal Finance
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in every thirty-three children is born with a birth defect. Birth defects are not the only cause of disabilities. Accidents can cause disabilities, as can military combat and severe forms of substance abuse. This is significant because it reflects the sad fact that disabilities
Dreaming of Downton
The last season of “Downton Abbey” has just finished airing the U.S., and a significant portion of the populace is once again caught up in the fortunes and misfortunes of the Earl of Grantham and his household, both above- and below-stairs. Why are we so interested?
To give it its due, the cast is phenomenal, the production values are
Maternal mortality rates rising in US, stunting global maternal health progress
The overall global maternal mortality rate (MMR) may be dropping, but the decline is slowed in part by a surprising rise in rates in the developed world. In the United States, the rate of mothers dying from complications in pregnancy and birth is increasing. The rate seems inconsistent with modern medical and technological advances. Maternal
The Private Sector: India’s Next Challenge
The private sector of the economy is an important component in helping individuals climb out of poverty. In the last forty years, we have seen dramatic examples of the power of the private sector. China’s recent emergence as a world economic power has helped lift millions of its citizens out of poverty. In order to
The Power of Being a Follower
From the time we are young, we are lectured to become leaders in school and extracurricular activities. Parents, teachers, advisors, coaches and other adults encourage us to seek leadership experience, to learn to become leaders.
Colleges and universities want to see leadership on applications and employers want to see leadership on resumes. They tell us: “it
How could mobile financial services help people in poverty?
According to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, three out of four adults in the developing world don’t have access to banks or any other financial institutions. Moreover, only 10 percent of the 2.5 billion people who earn less than $2 a day have a bank account. What these figures tell us is that for
Employee Ownership and Employee Health and Wellness
John Raines and Donna Day-Lower write in Modern Work and Human Meaning that “Work is not first of all what we do to “make” a living. Work is human living – human being and human becoming.” Purposeful, rewarding work is a key source of good life, with job satisfaction being strongly linked to overall happiness.
Progress Through Business – A Story of Addressing Poverty Through Enterprise
After over three years of writing these weekly columns, I thought it would be useful to tell the story of the group that appears in the byline of each of these pieces. It all started in 2006 when a group of people united around a common mission: to use business to fight world poverty.
Craig Wilson
Personal Finance and Fraud
The 1920s are known as the “roaring twenties.” One reason for this is that the stock market was booming and it seemed like money was there for the taking. A man named Charles Ponzi certainly thought so: At the very start of the decade he was working a fraudulent investment scheme, which continues to bear
Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan
After the fall of the Soviet Union, a new economic world opened for dozens of countries in Eastern Europe. No longer under the control of a domineering communist regime, individual nations and economies entered directly into world markets formerly unavailable to them.
One of these countries is the Republic of Uzbekistan. Situated north of Iran and
Understanding the Harsh Realities of Child Slavery in Africa
We all know poverty wreaks havoc on families, but rarely do we see the corrosive effects extreme poverty has on even the strongest of bonds, such as those between parents and children.
Jake Roble was an intern for me at the University of Oxford and returned from studying child slavery in Ghana in West Africa, where
But It Was Guaranteed!
I was recently speaking with someone who was defrauded in an investment. This person had a fairly successful career in corporate finance before he retired so I questioned him closely on how he came to be defrauded. After about five minutes of discussion he stated, “But the thing that really threw me was that the