Center for Economics, Business, and Entrepreneurship Education

We (Susquehanna University and the Sigmund Weis School of Business) just launched a Center for Economics, Business, and Entrepreneurship Education.  

Excerpt from the press release:

"We are very excited to help those who educate children of all ages develop new and innovative ways to integrate business education into their classrooms," Fleck said. "At Susquehanna, our mission is to serve and nothing like this exists within a 90-minute drive of Susquehanna; so providing this type of resource for teachers is needed and will benefit thousands of students." 

Full story here.

2017-2018 Speaker Series at Susquehanna University

We are bringing three great speakers to the Susquehanna University Campus during the 2017-2018 academic year. This is the fourth year we are hosting a speaker series and this year's presentations should be fun and educational. (See here, here, and here for information on the previous three years.) 

The three speakers are:

Dan Kuester, Kansas State University

“Finding Economic Concepts in The Big Bang Theory, The Office and Other Television Shows” 

Monday, November 6^th 

Degenstein Campus Theatre, Susquehanna University 7:00 PM

Brian O’Roark, Robert Morris University

“Economics Lessons from The Hunger Games, Divergent, and other Dystopian Novels”

Monday, January 29^th

Faylor Lecture Hall, Susquehanna University 7:30 PM

Michelle Vachris, Virginia Wesleyan University

“Pride and Profit: The Intersection of Adam Smith and Jane Austin”

Wednesday, March 28^th

Faylor Lecture Hall, Susquehanna University 7:30 PM

As each presentation gets closer, I will provide bios for each presenter and a bit of background on their talk.  

Interview on Broadway Economics

I was interviewed about Broadway Economics for "In Your Neighborhood" by Service Electric Cable Vision.  

In part 1, I come on at the 14:15 point.  My interview continues with part 2.

Here are the links:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPQ4KYyPcNM&feature=youtu.be 

Part 2: https://youtu.be/5161J_gAIKs

Books I have read recently

Over the past few months, I haven't had too much time for leisure reading.  But I've read a bit - some for fun and some for work.  Here is a brief summary of a few books I've read recently:

Having Difficult Conversations (Douglas Stone et al.)  

And

The Academic Administrator's Survival Guide (C. Gunsalus)

Given my new role as Interim Dean, I wanted to read up a bit more on some issues that might arise.  They are good, but unless you are going into a managerial role, I couldn't recommend.

Verbal Poker Tells (Zachary Elwood)

I've played poker for many years, but most of my play has been online.  When I play live, I'm mostly quiet, but this has been interesting to understand how the words of others correlate with the strength of their poker holdings.

Thinking Tournament Poker - volume 1 and volume 2 (Nate Meyvis)

These two books contained hand-by-hand analyses of hands played by a top professional at the World Series of Poker main event.  I recommend for poker fans.

Brain Rules (John Medina)

This was recommended by my finance colleague, Peter DaDalt, who said it was like "Freakonomics about the brain".  It is in an interesting book and has some useful tidbits in there for teachers.

Doing Bad by Doing Good (Christopher Coyne)

Good book about how humanitarian aid can easily backfire and do more harm than good.  This has led me to think a bit more about the most efficient charities.  The ones that come to the top of my mind are anything that might improve the health of a poor country.  That should then increase the productivity in an area which should foster economic growth.  (As far as organizations - perhaps Doctors Without Borders, vaccine shipments, improving water quality.)


Stop Acting Rich: And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire (Thomas Stanley)

Interesting data about the consumption patterns of the wealthy.  (With more than $1 million in net wealth.)  Many millionaires are not flashy - and most consumption items are not correlated with increases in happiness.  Stanley finds that spending on experiences do increase happiness, confirming other research.

Order to Kill (Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills)

This is the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series.  Like the others, it is fantastic.

Video on survival jobs

As you know, I'm a big theatre fan.  I also know it is a tough industry.  Here are interviews with some of the best actors in the world on jobs they took to survive until they hit it big.  It is quite interesting.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-TV-They-Way-They-Got-By-Tony-Nominees-Reveal-Their-Worst-Survival-Jobs-20170611

Musical Entrepreneurship

Sorry for the lack of posts - my new role has kept me busy.

I have a new project online, however.  My colleague Emma Fleck and I have created MusicalEntrepreneurship.com.

The goal is to teach entrepreneurship concepts through songs.  We only have a five songs posted now, but more are on the way.  Stay tuned for updates.

Thoughts on Sweden

I accompanied 20 of our (fantastic) business students on a trip to Sweden.  These students are all juniors and part of the schools London program.  Overall it was a great trip.  Some brief thoughts:

The Good:

1. Stockholm feels incredibly safe.  Some locals told me it is a bit less safe now relative to a few years ago with the increased immigration.  Compared to US cities, however, it seems fantastically safe.

2. The people are friendly, although if I would stereotype them, I'd say there are a lot of "hipsters".

3. I've been impressed by their pizza.  It is more "Italian style" and is very tasty.

4. Their beers are good - really good, in fact.  We had a tour of a great place called Stockholm Brewing Company.

5. I also saw the Vasa Museum, Old Town, and History of Money Museum.

6.  I also visited Uppsala - a city about 30 minutes north of Stockholm.  It was a fun little city with a great town square, a prestigious university, and some historic sites.  (Including King Vasa's tomb.)


The bad:

Most of the bad boils down to socialism.

7. It snowed, and they don't know how to clear snow from city streets or sidewalks.  Given it snows a reasonable amount there, it seems crazy that they wouldn't do a better job with this.

8. Their casinos are run by the government.  I guess in the states we see governments running the lottery, but governments running the casino still seems really odd to me.  They also charge an admission fee - 6 Euros for one entry of 15 Euros for an annual pass.  The casino was clean and and the blackjack rules were not awful, but they don't give you free drinks (of any sort - not even a soda) when you're playing.

Where this really looked like socialism was in the poker room, where there were very long lines to get into a game.  I had never, before Sweden, put my name on a list to get into a poker game and not played poker that day.  That happened here.  In the states, the profit-maximizing casinos have an incentive to serve customers - but in Sweden they do not.

Given the government runs the casinos, this shouldn't be surprising.  They do exactly what you'd expect from a socialist entity - they run it OK, but would be forced out of business fast if there was any competition by not serving their customers in a better way.

9.  The state runs the liquor stores like Pennsylvania.  To "protect" their citizens they close at 3:00 PM on Saturday and are not open at all on Sunday.

10. It is an expensive city.  I used to think London was expensive.  But it is not compared to Stockholm.

New role

I'm excited to take a new role soon - as interim dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University.

Link to story here.

I've been busy with this - which explains the lack of posts recently.

Education as a signal vs. human capital

I really enjoyed this "Econ Duel" between the professors at Marginal Revolution University.

It is certainly worth 9 minutes of your time ...

My 2016 in review: Musicals and plays

In 2016 I was fortunate to see many great musicals and plays.  I love seeing shows, and now that I'm running BroadwayEconomics.com, I also am looking for new songs that help teach about economics.

Shows in New York (6 Broadway, 1 off-Broadway)

1. Hamilton

The whole show is great, but I don't think I've ever been more astonished by a song/scene for how they handled the Dinner Table Compromise - where Jefferson and Hamilton agreed to let Hamilton open the Central Bank in exchange for the capital being moved from New York to its current location on the Potomac.  I've always been fascinated by this moment in history and the way the show portrayed it was fascinating.

With Hamilton the music is so good, many who get the soundtrack listen to the whole thing prior to seeing the show ... I listened to the first act prior to going, and think it was a bit of a mistake. I enjoyed the 2nd act so much more.  I don't think it was because the 2nd act is better, I think it was the surprise. I would recommend that those who have tickets perhaps listen to part of it first, but not the whole thing.


2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

I usually prefer musicals to plays, but this was one of the best plays that I have ever seen.  The story does a fantastic job of getting you in the head of the (likely) autistic lead character.

3. Waitress

Great music and entertaining.  The song "When He Sees Me" was one of the top songs I saw on the stage in 2016.

4. She Loves Me

Just a fun show - incredibly fun.  It also has two songs that I have now posted on Broadway Economics.

5. Bright Star.

We actually had front row seats for this one!  A fantastic bluegrass score and a great story.

6. Fiddler on the Roof

I had seen this show almost 20 years ago.  That was with a touring group and the seats weren't great.  I did not enjoy it back then.

This was a completely different experience.  Seeing a fantastic cast perform Fiddler on the Roof is an absolute treat.

7. Avenue Q

I had heard much of this score over the years and had looked forward to seeing this show since 2004.  I don't know if my expectations were too high, but I was disappointed.  I think I might have known the material too well - I suspect if I didn't know any of the songs or jokes I would have been more entertained.



London

I got to see three shows in the West End in London.

1. Funny Girl

I saw this in London when co-leading an international trip.  I saw the understudy, Natasha Barnes, as the lead role and she was absolutely fantastic.  I know it was the west end and not Broadway, but if it were on Broadway this is the type of performance that would have garnered a Tony nomination.  The show ... not bad, although I certainly don't need to see it again.

2. Sunny Afternoon (The Musical of the Kinks)

Of the three London shows, this was my favorite.  Outside of Mamma Mia, this was my favorite jukebox musical (ever).  Just great music and the story was also fantastic.  I didn't know the music of The Kinks too well before this (maybe 3-4 songs) and wow, The Kinks had some fantastic songs!

3. The Threepenny Opera

I had never seen this before.  What a weird story.  It was pretty cool to see this show with a world-class cast, but it was weird.  (And I have no desire to see it again.)



Touring Casts, Colleges, and Community Theatre

1. Cinderella (Hershey Theatre)

A great show - better than I expected.  Very good music and an interesting story.  (It doesn't exactly follow the Disney movie version ... which is good.)  Also, one song from this show is on Broadway Economics.

2. Ragtime (Hershey Theatre)

The score of this show is simply fantastic.  Click here for Henry Ford!

3. The Addams Family (Susquehanna University)

4. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Gammage Theatre - Tempe, AZ)

5. Carousel (Bucknell University)

This show was fantastic, and even better, my older two children got roles in this college production.  (They needed some younger actors to fill out the cast.)

6. Of Thee I Sing

The first musical to ever win a Pulitzer Prize.  This was one of my favorites, largely because my three favorite actors each had a role.