Moving and Retirement

Ferida Wolff writes: In America, we accept many different pronunciations and still understand what is meant; it is the word itself that conveys its meaning. In China, it is the tone of the character that makes the word and, depending upon which is used, the meaning changes. The character ma, for instance, can mean you are calling your mother, asking a question, naming a horse, or saying something offensive. So, armed with our new linguistic knowledge, we headed off on our own into the shops that lined Nanjing Road, a major shopping area in Shanghai. more »

Jeffrey Gray, an economist, argued in the late 1990s that “… any divorce-law change that alters the financial well-being of divorcing women and their children will also impact the welfare of individuals in families that do not dissolve … these indirect effects should not be ignored when designing effective social and economic policies.” Much of the research to date supports his claim. Studying divorce is hard — precisely because pinning down cause and effect is challenging. more »

First, as this expansion continues into its 11th year — the longest in U.S. history — economic conditions are generally good. Second, the benefits of the long expansion are only now reaching many communities, and there is plenty of room to build on the impressive gains achieved so far. Fortunately, the outlook for further progress is good: Forecasters are generally predicting continued growth, a strong job market, and inflation near 2 percent. I will begin by discussing the Fed's policy actions over the past year to support the favorable outlook. Then I will turn to two important opportunities for further gains from this expansion: maintaining a stable and reliable pace of 2 percent inflation and spreading the benefits of employment more widely. more »

The exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco aims to make concepts accessible to a general audience and to address climate change through four centralized themes that reflect key characteristics about survival architecture: Circular — the importance of creating structures made of materials that can be used and reused indefinitely; Portable — the ability to create easily moveable and nomadic dwellings; Visionary — forward-thinking ideas that can radically change the way we think about shelter; and Resilient — structures that can adapt to adverse and dynamic circumstances. Linda Gass: My textile, glass, and mixed-media artworks address these concerns – how our infrastructure and development policies are failing under climate chaos – and invite the viewer to ponder the question ‘what can we do better?'” more »