What Berkeley's budget cuts tell us about America's public universities
Feb 29, 2016 12:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views
The University of California at Berkeley recently announced a financial restructuring due to mounting structural deficits, including a US$150 million shortfall in the current budget year. All areas of universitys...
We helped uncover a public health crisis in Flint, but learned there are costs to doing good science
Feb 29, 2016 12:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
Our team of more than two dozen students and research scientists at Virginia Tech has spent much of the past year analyzing and publicizing unsafe drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Our open science research...
How not to wind up voting for a president you don't actually agree with
Feb 29, 2016 12:41 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
When any American enters the voting booth, he (or she) is free to cast his private ballot for any candidate he favors. On the surface, this seems rather obvious, and easy. We each privately vote for the candidate we wish...
Why has trust in charities been declining?
Feb 29, 2016 12:40 pm UTC| Insights & Views Law
Many of us regularly donate to charity in order to do good. From rare diseases to abused animals and cancer research, each year we donate around 10 billion to a diverse range of causes such as homelessness, cancer research...
South Africa faces difficult times, but disaster is not inevitable
Feb 29, 2016 12:34 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Finance minister Pravin Gordhans budget speech has generally been well received. Nevertheless, many people still fear that South Africa is on the verge of disaster. They cite recent events such as the firing of Nhlanhla...
Why UK universities are returning to the public debt markets
Feb 29, 2016 12:32 pm UTC| Insights & Views
The University of Leeds has recently become the latest higher education institution to raise money by issuing a public bond. The bond is worth 250m, has a maturity date of 2050 and a fixed interest rate of 3.125%. The...
Sustained downside pressures on EUR/CHF could see SNB action ahead of its 17 March meet
Feb 29, 2016 10:16 am UTC| Insights & Views Central Banks
As we head into policy meetings from the ECB and SNB scheduled on 12 March and 17 March respectively, with the rates market pricing 12bp cuts for both central banks, we can expect some EUR/CHF downside if ECB cuts but SNB...
South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed
Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects