Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
Polar Vortex
A new weather term popped up this week – Polar Vortex. If you were in its path you quickly found out what it meant. COLD. Not surprising really. Anytime they give weather patterns a special name, it never turns out good.
These single weather events impact the economy. The closed businesses, flight cancellations, home damage, school closings, higher heating bills, and extra cost to local governments all adds up. It’s not all bad news. I guarantee all the online retailers and deliver services were slammed with orders. And it was so cold an escaped prisoner turned himself in. Guess freedom does have a price.
Higher Learning
Every once in a while I find some free education opportunity. This time it’s through Coursera, an online company that partners with universities to offer free course. Now, you can take recent Nobel winner Robert Shiller’s course on Financial Markets. It begins Feb. 17th.
It’s a beginning course on the different financial markets, their function, interaction, and how it might chance in the future. And if that’s not exciting, there are free courses offered on a number of other topics too. Check it out.