10-17-2016, 10:48 PM
But in early 2015, Walmart announced it would actually pay its workers more. That set in motion the biggest test imaginable of a basic argument that has consumed ivory-tower economists, union-hall organizers and corporate executives for years on end: What if paying workers more, training them better and offering better opportunities for advancement can actually make a company more profitable, rather than less? It is an idea that flies in the face of the prevailing ethos on Wall Street and in many executive suites the last few decades. But there is sound economic theory behind the idea. "Efficiency wages" is the term that economists — who excel at giving complex names to obvious ideas — use for the notion that employers who pay workers more than the going rate will get more loyal, harder-working, more productive employees in return. Walmart's experiment holds some surprising lessons for the American economy as a whole. Productivity gains have been slow for years; could fatter paychecks reverse that? Demand for goods and services has remained stubbornly low ever since the 2008 economic crisis. If companies paid people more, would it bring out more shoppers — benefiting workers and shareholders alike?
How Did Walmart Get Cleaner Stores and Higher Sales? It Paid Its People More
Good news: The stock market is dropping. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, while ending Thursday well off its early triple-digit decline, fell for the sixth time in nine days to close at its lowest level in 2½ weeks. Why is that good news? Because by dropping in October, the stock market creates the preconditions for a significant rally through the end of the year. This year appears to be quite closely following at least the beginnings of that script.
The stock market is setting itself up for a possibly monster year-end rally - MarketWatch
Now the idea of blockchain has gripped Wall Street's biggest institutions. Its enthusiasts think it could change the world. Sure, it would make contracts more enforceable and speed up the settlement of stock trades — hence the interest from big banks. But some see it going much further, cracking down on sex trafficking, music piracy, and child labor. And the key to all that — what attracts these different factions — is something that, on the surface at least, sounds rather banal: a digital ledger, like the one in your checkbook. "Blockchain is a truly extraordinary technology that does really mundane things," said Paul Brody, Ernst & Young's global blockchain leader. But for all the promise, these big questions remain: Who will foot the bill, and is it really as secure as supporters say?
What is blockchain? - Business Insider
Professional sport may appear a dream to those who watch it, but for those who live it, the experience can be a cruel shock: joyless, unrelenting, a betrayal of why they fell in love in the first place. "I used to love boxing when I was a kid," Fury has said. "It was my life. Then you finally get to where you need to be, and it becomes a big mess." For every O'Sullivan, who has managed to keep playing and keep winning at an age when previous greats were long spent, there are other great sporting talents who lacked the mental skills to back up the physical: former Manchester City midfielder Michael Johnson, unable to handle the pressure of expectation and injury; former Manchester United and West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison, unable to match his off-field behaviour to his immense footballing gifts. "Pressure affects everybody, but people deal with it in different ways," says Johnson, dubbed the new Steven Gerrard at 19, retired from football at 24. "We all have different skill sets, whether it is football or any job, and I don't think I had the best skill sets to deal with it."
Nick Kyrgios: Is Australian world number 14 wasting his talent? - BBC Sport
With a population of just over 11,000, Dobbs Ferry, New York is your typical sleepy town, except for one thing. When the first school bell rings, kids are wide awake. Last September, Dobbs Ferry School District joined a small but growing cluster of schools around the US that have started pushing back their middle and high school start times in an effort to combat student grogginess. Bolstered by a mountain of sleep science research that says pre-teens and teenagers are some of the most sleep-deprived people and would actually do better in school with more rest, these forward-thinking schools are finally cutting worn-out students a break. They're letting kids sleep in. What happens when you start later? Dobbs Ferry Superintendent Dr. Lisa Brady tells Business Insider that prior to the 2015-2016 school year, middle schoolers started at 8:15 a.m. and high schoolers at 7:30 a.m. Under the new policy, each school now starts and ends 45 minutes later. Both schools have experienced tremendous benefits, Brady says.
School start times finally listening to sleep science - Business Insider