One of the things that we have heard a lot about — from both political parties — is how we need to go out and spend money in order to help the economy. The bottom line is that our economy has evolved (or devolved?) to a point where debt-fueled consumer spending accounts for about 2/3 of the economic activity. This sort of spending leads to short-term, somewhat explosive growth. It means the boom times are bigger (as are the bust times). While dramatic economic growth may seem like a good thing, the truth is that the sort of economic model …read more

Yesterday, I received an advanced copy of the ethics column that is expected to appear on BusinessWeek.com’s Web site sometime today. It was written by Bruce Weinstein, and it looks at holiday gift giving in today’s economy.
I know we’re scaling back a bit in the gift department this year. We’re still giving holiday gifts to family and close friends, but they aren’t as expensive as they have been in the past. And, according to Weinstein, “The Ethics Guy,” there’s nothing wrong with that:

There are lots of ways to say “thank you” or “I value our relationship” to someone besides spending …read more