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THE basic principles of economics have not changed—people and firms respond to incentives; demand and supply determine the relative prices of goods, services and even money itself; markets generally allocate resources well and deliver welfare-improving outcomes. However, the notion that markets are always efficient, can be left to themselves and are self-correcting is no longer tenable. Markets do eventually correct but, if allowed free rein, can get so far out of line that the corrections take the form of collapses that can be very painful. 

The crisis has highlighted the importance of the government's role in regulating markets to make them function smoothly. At the same time, the government is equally capable of mucking up markets—even well-meaning governments, in the name of improving social welfare (e.g., making housing affordable for everyone), can often create perverse incentives that only foment more instability.

In short, the crisis has brought to the fore the complex connections among markets, government and social and economic policies.

“There’s a huge distinction between the content that’s available through other media providers and PBS,” said Lesli Rotenberg, the broadcaster’s general manager of children’s programming. “Even though there may be more, there isn’t necessarily more educational content for kids.”

“There are a lot of children, particularly that are home in early prime time, we aren’t able to accommodate them except for on-demand.

“Actually, deep into prime time, there are still a lot of kids watching television

ever since I started writing about what I call the Frightful Five, some have said my very premise is off base. I have argued that the companies’ size and influence pose a danger. But another argument suggests the opposite — that it’s better to be ruled by a handful of responsive companies capable of bowing to political and legal pressure. In other words, wouldn’t you rather deal with five horse-size Zucks than 100 duck-size technoforces?

Given all the ways that tech can go wrong — as we are seeing in the Russia influence scandal — isn’t it better that we can blame, and demand fixes from, a handful of American executives when things do go haywire?

One benefit of having five giant companies in charge of today’s tech infrastructure is that they provide a convenient focus for addressing those problems.

During my 16 months at Facebook, I called many developers and demanded compliance, but I don’t recall the company conducting a single audit of a developer where the company inspected the developer’s data storage. Lawsuits and outright bans were also very rare. I believe the reason for lax enforcement was simple: Facebook didn’t want to make the public aware of huge weaknesses in its data security.

Concerned about the lack of protection for users, in 2012 I created a PowerPoint presentation that outlined the ways that data vulnerabilities on Facebook Platform exposed people to harm, and the various ways the company was trying to protect that data. There were many gaps that left users exposed. I also called out potential bad actors, including data brokers and foreign state actors. I sent the document to senior executives at the company but got little to no response. I had no dedicated engineers assigned to help resolve known issues, and no budget for external vendors.

Facebook will argue that things have changed since 2012 and that the company has much better processes in place now. If that were true, Cambridge Analytica would be small side note, a developer that Facebook shut down and sued out of existence in December 2015 when word first got out that it had violated Facebook’s policies to acquire the data of millions. Instead, it appears Facebook used the same playbook that I saw in 2012.

The world’s largest banks have funneled $3.8 trillion into the fossil fuel industry over the last five years, according to new figures published Wednesday. 

“Major banks around the world, led by U.S. banks in particular, are fueling climate chaos by dumping trillions of dollars into the fossil fuels that are causing the crisis

Though U.S. banks dominate fossil fuel financing, European banks are also big. French bank BNP Paribas, which has pledged to be a leader in climate strategy, provided $40.8 billion in fossil fuel financing in 2020, an increase of 41% from the previous year. Since 2016, the bank’s fossil fuel financing has risen 142%, according to the report.

Among the human remains in Harvard University’s museum collections are those of 15 people who were probably enslaved African American people.

This dehumanizing history of collecting African American bodies as scientific specimens is not a problem just at Harvard.

However, scholars and activists across the U.S. are now seeking to recognize and redress the deep history of violence against Black bodies. Museums and society are finally confronting how the desires of science have at times eclipsed the demands of human rights.

Water scarcity is often understood as a problem for regions experiencing drought, but a new study from Cornell and Tufts universities finds that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand send positive and negative ripple effects to water basins across the globe.

"Evaluating the economic impact of water scarcity in a changing world," was published March 26 in Nature Communications, and uniquely captures the interdependent effects of global trade consistently with differences in regional climate policies as well as river basin-specific capacity to address water scarcity risks.

The researchers coupled physical and economic models to simulate thousands of potential climate futures for 235 major river basins -- a technique known as scenario discovery -- to better understand how water scarcity is a globally-connected phenomenon, with local conditions having reverberations across the globe in industries such as agriculture, energy, transportation and manufacturing.

The government has recovered a "majority" of the millions of dollars paid in ransom to hackers behind the cyberattack that prompted last month's shutdown of Colonial Pipeline, officials announced Monday.

investigators discovered that the criminal group and its affiliates have been digitally stalking U.S. companies and intentionally targeting victims that are "key players in our nation's critical infrastructure"

The ransom was paid in bitcoins by Colonial Pipeline on the same day it was demanded by DarkSide

Scientists suspect the virus that has killed more than 1.9 million people since late 2019 jumped to humans from bats or other animals, most likely in China’s southwest.

Fifteen team members were to arrive in Wuhan on Thursday, but two tested positive for coronavirus antibodies before leaving Singapore

The team includes virus and other experts from the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam.

three-time national champion as a college football coach -- will now lead the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team announced Thursday.

"Urban Meyer is who we want and need, a leader, winner and champion who demands excellence and produces results

Meyer had a 187-32 record during head coaching stints at Ohio State, Florida, Utah and Bowling Green.

But his wife, Udella, who is 81 and has diabetes, has been unable to sign up for a vaccine at all. “Not eligible,” the couple says the state health department portal read after she tried to register.

But his wife, Udella, who is 81 and has diabetes, has been unable to sign up for a vaccine at all. “Not eligible,” the couple says the state health department portal read after she tried to register.

“It’s the anxiety, the frustration, the difficulty people have in scheduling appointments — which we are making with a very limited supply of vaccine that comes in — in quantities that we don’t know until it arrives,”

The definition of dog heaven is straightforward enough: bottomless biscuits, walks on demand, squirrels you can actually catch.

owners of all kinds of domestic animals have become more likely to believe in a pet afterlife

“By the mid-20th century, a greater proportion of animal gravestones suggest owners were awaiting a reunion in the afterlife.”

Photographic memory, eidetic memory, Hyperthymesia, Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, perfect recall, there are a number of labels to choose from when discussing formidable memory prowess.

However, the idea that someone has a “flawless” memory, is able to remember everything from any aspect of their lives in great and accurate detail, is far from confirmed by available scientific evidence.

when you ask more personal life events that things get tricky. If someone describes the scene at their 7th birthday and what presents they got, how you are supposed to confirm if they’re remembering it correctly?

As basic humanity demands that he minimize death and destitution, he seems more set on protecting his political standing and rewarding cronies. This isn’t America First — it’s Trump First.

To preserve political viability, he’s willing to risk the lives of millions.

this is a president who, when asked what he would “say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared,” replies: “I say that you’re a terrible reporter.”ADThere is no empathy inside this broken man — nor in his feeble response to this disaster.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time in its 40 year history that CNN had been threatened with legal action because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN’s polling results,” he wrote. “To the extent that we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media.”

The idea, recycled by Republicans in every election cycle since at least 2012, is that Republicans are being under-sampled in the polls, artificially inflating the results in favor of the Democratic candidate.

The movement’s founding father, Dean Chambers, trumpeted the theory during the 2012 campaign, when former President Barack Obama was consistently leading Mitt Romney. Chambers decided that polls should be weighted by party identification — disregarding arguments that it’s a fungible metric, and that many voters change their identification from one election to the next — so he “unskewed” some national polls. And all of a sudden, Romney started winning.

European plane maker Airbus EADSY -0.02% SE said Wednesday it plans to cut production of its flagship A380 superjumbo and A400M military transport aircraft, threatening thousands of jobs, though overall strong demand for airliners may mitigate staff cuts.

But Airbus’s A380 has missed out on the boom. Airlines worry that they won’t be able to fill an aircraft that seats more than 500 passengers. Plus, the superjumbo carries a price tag of $445.6 million before typical discounts,

The deal allows Airbus to sustain annual production at six planes, which it described as the minimum at which losses are manageable.