Broadway and Economics has been published!

Available through Amazon and other bookstores

Economics has often been described as "the dismal science," with TV and movies reinforcing this description. However, economics is a powerful tool that can be used to understand how the world works, helping to answer confusing puzzles and solve the world’s problems. Surprisingly, Broadway musicals are an excellent way to show this.

Promotion and lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts.  I took over as interim dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University in May 2017 and permanent dean in May 2018.  That has cut into my blogging time dramatically and I expect the lack of posts to continue.  That said, I am writing stories for our local newspaper occasionally and will try to also post them here.

Story is here.

New Oped in Fox News

Link here

Excerpt:

If we simply paid athletes, coaches would still have value but not nearly as much. For example, suppose Louisville has the best college coach in the country, but offered an athlete a salary of $20,000 in addition to the full scholarship. Suppose UCLA had the 10th best coach, but offered that same athlete a salary of $35,000. You could imagine that many of the athletes in this situation would choose to take the higher salary over the best coach.

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.