The mathematical insight that turned Google Inc. into a multibillion-dollar company has the potential to help the world avert the next financial crisis. If only banks made public the data required to do the job. more

Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the near-total paralysis of capitalism’s central nervous system – the moment fear completely overwhelmed greed on Wall Street – we are starting to see a few glimmers of hope. more

On April 5, at a signing ceremony attended by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and entrepreneurs from around the country, President Barack Obama signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups – or Jobs – Act. In his remarks prior to the ceremony, President Obama described the act as “a potential game-changer” for startups and small businesses. more

From 65 to 67. Only two years. What’s the big deal? Candidate Romney, who just turned 65, has proposed upping the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 – a “cut-federal-spending” initiative that reflects his business savvy. more

Over the past three decades, the global financial system has become more dynamic and interconnected, more concentrated and complicated than ever before. Financial engineering seems to know no limits to creating new instruments that link institutions in new ways. more

To the editor: According to PBN’s July 12 Morning Call e-newsletter, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras wants to borrow $40 million to fix city streets. Clearly, that’s bad financial management for a city already deeply in debt. Worse, it avoids dealing with the serious underlying issues. Providence is in a fiscal and infrastructure mess because of: more

Many U.S. states and cities have approved measures to help fix poorly funded public pensions. Now courts will decide if they are legal or not. more

We have all done something stupid – or imprudent, to use a kinder adjective. Bicycling without a helmet, driving after too much wine, swimming beyond the lifeguard’s vision, hiking off the mountain path. The list goes on. Part of being human is being rash. While computers always act rationally, we humans are innately unpredictable; indeed, sometimes we find joy in those irrational moments of stupidity. more

Through April of this year, Rhode Island continued to have the second-highest unemployment rate in the United States, leaving the state with 62,178 people unemployed. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 11.2 percent, a one-tenth of a percentage point increase from the March rate. In fact, a double-digit unemployment rate is forecast for Rhode Island through the end of 2013. more

Officials in San Bernardino County, Calif., believe they have figured out a clever way to solve the county’s, and possibly the nation’s, housing problems. more