Smith Brain Trust

The best givers take time to understand their customers, who just might want a Miles Davis poster, shares in the local utility company, a piano or a pocket calculator. 

How do you close the gender wage gap? Maryland is taking one step, adopting a law that will ban companies from inquiring about a job candidate's salary history.

Speculation is swirling about the world's largest oil company. But the Smith School's Charles Olson says there is increasing evidence that an initial public offering isn't actually going to happen.

One of the smartest things you can do is pause in a volatile and uncertain world, says New York Times columnist and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman.

Among the pages and pages of proposed changes in the still-evolving Republican tax plan, the Smith School's Sam Handwerger detects some signs that the party is becoming more open to a flat tax.

As lawmakers continue to grapple to find a fix for the DACA program, the Smith School's William Longbrake explains why it's imperative, strategically and morally, for business leaders to weigh in.

"Hell, no," said some on social media, of the new Amazon Key service, which grants delivery people access to your house. But experts predict that what they meant was: “Not yet. But soon, hell, yes.”

For stock markets, the nomination of Jerome "Jay" Powell comes as welcome news. Powell represents continuity for monetary policy in the United States, the Smith School's David Kass says. 

Smith School professors David A. Kirsch and Brent Goldfarb examine the feasibility of futuristic plans for a 600 mph hyperloop between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

No one is quite sure what's behind the wave of sonic attacks in Havana that have harmed at least 21 American diplomats and their family members. The matter remains a mystery. It's also a setback.