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December 9, 2011

Rise of the Zune Monopolists

“Understand, I am not for monopoly when we can help it,” Louis Brandeis said in 1912. “We intend to restore competition. We intend to do away with the conditions that make for monopoly.” (Wikipedia) Brandeis had some inkling of what hare-brained schemes...
December 9, 2011

Our Old Friend Film Tax Credits

There’s a state commission that’s currently examining all the so-called “tax expenditures” that the state offers. The commission has said it wants to review the collection of tax expenditures and eliminate those that don’t make sense. Its also held out the possibility...
Education
December 8, 2011

Some lessons for virtual learning

There is so much energy in the virtual learning space right now, with a number of products that are maturing and others that are continuing to grow exponentially. The free Khan Academy has provided almost 100 million exercises, now boasts about 3.5...
Opportunity
December 2, 2011

Frank: One of a kind, but not in a good way

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank’s retirement announcement prompted this from President Obama. “This country has never had a congressman like Barney Frank, and the House of Representatives will not be the same without him.” I’m no fan of the president, but in this...
Transportation
November 30, 2011

Taking Commuter Rail In-House?

Bad idea. At least that appeared to be the consensus at commuter rail forum held this morning by A Better City (to mark the release of their paper on commuter rail). The event was structured around the idea of a public-private partnership...
November 23, 2011

Examining Our Community Colleges

Community Colleges are a popular topic these days – with two research reports (here and here) being issued in the past weeks. The first came from the Boston Healthcare Careers Consortium. It was released with a host of ‘stakeholders’ taking credit. This...
Healthcare
November 18, 2011

Questions for the AG on Health Reform 2

Attorney General Coakley spoke this afternoon at MAHP’s annual conference. I wanted to offer a few thoughts and questions. Video can be found here. I like the AG’s focus on transparency and health literacy, but I am not sure these actions alone move...
November 18, 2011

The Dog That Didn't Bark -- Chelsea Housing Authority and the Auditor

It feels like a familiar story – an obscure public sector entity with a clueless (or worse) board of directors fails to do their job and the executive director makes off with bags of money. Except this time, the setting is the...
November 16, 2011

What a Deal: State $. No Oversight?

Imagine getting money from the state on a no-bid basis. Even better, a state law names you as the sole entity eligible to get the cash. If you are lucky enough to be BDC Capital, you don’t have to imagine. As recently...
November 12, 2011

Pressley’s Victory and Connolly’s Regrets

The more you look at Ayanna Pressley’s first-place finish in Tuesday’s at-large race, the more impressive it looks. As I noted previously, she was able to hold onto a lot of votes from the 2009 at-large election that had much higher turnout...