Past Articles by Robert Smith
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Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money Like people in other countries that have gone through economic turmoil, people in Myanmar want U.S. dollars that look like they just rolled off the presses. |
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Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money Like people in other countries that have gone through economic turmoil, people in Myanmar want U.S. dollars that look like they just rolled off the presses. |
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Why (Almost) No One In Myanmar Wanted My Money Like people in other countries that have gone through economic turmoil, people in Myanmar want U.S. dollars that look like they just rolled off the presses. |
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The Trick To Selling Fancy Wine From New Jersey: Don't Say It's From New Jersey Instead, say it's from the "Outer Coastal Plain." (It's part of a plan to kick the state's reputation for making cheap wine.) |
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The Trick To Selling Fancy Wine From New Jersey: Don't Say It's From New Jersey Instead, say it's from the "Outer Coastal Plain." (It's part of a plan to kick the state's reputation for making cheap wine.) |
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At A Trade Show, Power Tools Fit For The Amish The Amish don't drive and don't connect to the electrical grid. Yet a growing number of Amish people are leaving farming for manufacturing. That means they need tools — and power. |
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At A Trade Show, Power Tools Fit For The Amish The Amish don't drive and don't connect to the electrical grid. Yet a growing number of Amish people are leaving farming for manufacturing. That means they need tools — and power. |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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Should The U.S. Import More Doctors? "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money." |
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A Union Vote For Chinese Workers Who Assemble iPhones Unions in China are typically controlled by management and the government. A union run by democratic vote of the workers would be a huge shift. |
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A Union Vote For Chinese Workers Who Assemble iPhones Unions in China are typically controlled by management and the government. A union run by democratic vote of the workers would be a huge shift. |
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A Union Vote For Chinese Workers Who Assemble iPhones Unions in China are typically controlled by management and the government. A union run by democratic vote of the workers would be a huge shift. |
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Will A $1.9 Billion Settlement Change Banks' Behavior? For punishments to work, they need to be both swift and meaningful. The HSBC settlement may be neither. |
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Will A $1.9 Billion Settlement Change Banks' Behavior? For punishments to work, they need to be both swift and meaningful. The HSBC settlement may be neither. |
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The Candidate Is Fake; The Consultants Are Real Yesterday, we had economists create their dream presidential platform. Today, we seek professional help to launch our fake presidential candidate. |
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A Tax Plan That Economists Love (And Politicians Hate) Everyone with a mortgage will pay more. Corporations will pay less. The first in a series of stories on economists' dream presidential candidate. |
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Why New York Is A Hub In The Global Trinket Trade Buyers from all over the world still come to vendors in Manhattan to buy cheap toys and tchotchkes. We find out why. |
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The Fed has the power to create money. But it has another, critical power: The power of words. |
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Just How Blind Are Blind Trusts, Anyway? Mitt Romney, like other candidates before him, has stressed that his investments are in a blind trust. But some trusts are blinder than others. |
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Identifying The Real Victims In The LIBOR Scandal The scandal over manipulation of a key interest rate raises the question: Who was hurt if bankers were pushing global rates down? |
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Rigging LIBOR: Banking scandal hits home (literally) Correspondent Robert Smith discovered an obscure but critical interest rate when he took out a mortgage. Now the world is learning how that rate was manipulated. |
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"People don't really see it as a badge of honor anymore," one entrepreneur says - and goes on to list three reasons why going public is more trouble than it's worth. |
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Why An Online Soap Opera Mogul Doesn't Want To Go Public "People don't really see it as a badge of honor anymore," one entrepreneur says - and goes on to list three reasons why going public is more trouble than it's worth. |
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Hiding In Every Euro: Signs Of Doom! Euro notes contain clues that suggest the common currency may not end well. |
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Food Trucks Seek 'That Mystical Spot' "We've gone to spots before where the falafel guys and the shish kebab guys will come up and say, 'What's your menu? Do you sell chicken? ... You can't sell chicken on this block. I'm the chicken guy on 52nd St.'" |
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On The Million-Dollar Trail Of A Mystery SuperPAC Donor   The superPACs raising money to support the presidential candidates have few restrictions. But they do have to reveal who donated money. So what happens when a donation comes from someone trying to avoid public scrutiny? |
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What The IRS Could Learn From Mormons Many religious traditions stress the importance of charity. But Mormons are remarkable for the amount and the precision with which they give to their church. |
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Lard didn't just fall out of favor. It was pushed. It was a casualty of a battle between giant business and corporate interests. |
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Ron Paul Captures 2nd Place In N.H. Primary As expected, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary. Texas Rep. Ron Paul clinched second place - ahead of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman. Paul told a crowd of supporters that he was nibbling at the heels of the front-runner. |
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Five Ways Candidates Can Use Their Kids To Get Votes The children of the Republican presidential candidates have been almost as present on the campaign trail as the candidates themselves. Sometimes they just serve as a backdrop on TV, other times as valuable surrogates. |
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How Do GOP Candidates Plan To Fix The Economy? In New Hampshire - and across the country - the economy and job-creation are ranked by voters as the most important issues. Front-runner Mitt Romney wants to shrink government. All the GOP candidates want to balance the budget and cut business and personal taxes. |
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Coconut Water Companies Sell Image, Not Taste For people who see soda as a sugary poison and fruit juices as loaded with calories, coconut water evokes glowing, healthy people. |
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How The U.S. Gave S&P Its Power The government gave rating agencies a special position in the financial system. "There's some ironies, shall we say, in all of this," a professor says. |
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In New Hampshire, Every Handshake Counts Presidential hopefuls who visit the Granite State must navigate an obstacle course of pancakes, cow pies and house parties. Of course, all of that won't guarantee votes, but opting out is not an option for those with an eye on the primary. |
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Breakfast At Libertarian Summer Camp Last weekend, a group of libertarians and anarchists gathered in the woods of northern New Hampshire for the annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. I went up for breakfast. |
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Ron Paul: Why The Young Flock To An Old Idealist The 75-year-old Texas congressman is a lonely voice in Congress: He rails against government spending, argues against wars and calls for the legalization of drugs. But Paul, who has run for president twice before, packs halls on college campuses. |
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The Finance Minister Who Robbed A Bank When the Libyan rebels went to look for someone to run their war economy, they went to an unlikely source: an economics teacher at the University of Washington in Seattle. |
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On Broadway, A 'Mormon' Swipe At ... Everything The guys behind South Park teamed with a co-creator of the smutty puppet musical Avenue Q to write a musical about Mormon missionaries in Uganda. Will theater ever be quite the same? |
