Economics is a two-faced discipline. It claims to be a science, describing the world without preconception or value judgment. The reality is that descriptive economics has been shaped by a framework of assumptions geared more to its normative message than to its pretensions. The self-interested individual--who rationally calculates how to achieve…

The story of Bernard Madoff rivals outrageous fiction. It was astonishing that this seemingly kindly, respectable financier, a pioneer in electronic trading, a founding partner in the Nasdaq exchange, turned out to have been running a $65-billion Ponzi scheme that victimized country-club elites, middle-class retirees, foundations, universities,…

Jokes about "Dark Angel" and "Blackborg" surfaced almost immediately after Blackboard Inc. announced its plan to buy course-management software competitor Angel Learning, the author reports. Angel had lured away dozens of Blackboard clients in recent years with a friendly, approachable corporate culture that stood in sharp contrast to Blackboard's…

This article reports that the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), a widely used measure of colleges' costs, rose by 3.6 percent for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. But even as they reported the good news of that moderate increase, experts at the Commonfund Institute who maintain the index noted that broader economic trends could…

In July, when energy prices were sky-high and some pundits were predicting a continued rise, Charles Riordan, facilities director at Loyola College of Maryland, and his colleagues locked in a chunk of their electricity prices--about a quarter of the college's consumption--to cover the next two years. Now that energy prices have fallen, the…

Real-estate markets are almost as volatile as stock markets. Prices of agricultural land, of commercial real estate, and of homes and condominiums have gone through a series of huge bubbles, as if people never learned from the previous ones. Such events--in particular the recent housing bubble--are driven by what John Maynard Keynes called animal…

Book publishers are stepping up efforts to stop college students from downloading illegal copies of textbooks online. One Web site, Textbook Torrents, promises more than 5,000 textbooks for download in PDF format, complete with the original books' layouts and full-color illustrations. Users must simply set up a free account and download a free…

Financial experts everywhere agree that the economy appears headed toward a recession. The question is how long it will last and how deep it will be. The last recession, in 2001, lasted less than a year. Most sectors, including higher education, shrugged it off. During lengthier downturns, colleges have often benefited from increased enrollments.…

Back when markets hinged on local contacts, product standardization wasn't a concern. When higher education was thought to be mainly about educating citizens, standardization wasn't much of a concern, either. Standardization has come later to higher education than to other commodities markets, but it has arrived. As with other commodities, unit…

At Oregon State University, an investigation into physical plant administration in response to complaints found significant problems with customer service. Adopting an approach called Total Quality Management, the staff identified and resolved problems, improved quality, and reduced cost. Administrators feel the principles could be applied in all…