March 19, 2025

Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime,” but Japan has its own thriving baseball culture steeped in more than a century of tradition. Over the past 30 years, more Japanese players have come to the U.S. and Canada to join Major League Baseball, increasing the size of the league’s Japanese fanbase. Now that cultural exchange is paying off for the league with a whole new market for merchandise, ticket sales, and broadcast revenue. In 2024, MLB sponsorship revenue from Japan increased Continue reading

Continue reading...

March 14, 2025

Do you live within five miles of a Walgreens? If you’re like almost 80 percent of the U.S. population, the answer is yes. The Walgreens Boots Alliance has grown its pharmacy chain into a massive conglomerate since Walgreens’ founding in 1901. Less than a decade ago, it officially became America’s largest drugstore chain with more than 13,000 stores all the way from Norway to Chile, Alaska to Thailand. Its stock was so successful that the Dow Jones Industrial Average chose Continue reading

Continue reading...

March 12, 2025

Air travel is one of the most volatile industries in the global economy, and airlines routinely lay off hundreds of employees at once to balance budgets after major upheavals. One exception to this rule has long been Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based carrier hasn’t laid off any staffers in its more than five-decade history. Even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when revenue dried up and other airlines initiated mass layoffs, Southwest avoided forced job cuts thanks to employees who donated part Continue reading

Continue reading...

March 4, 2025

To produce fine French cheeses like brie and camembert, you need milk, time, and one especially important ingredient: mold. For decades, farmers around the world have produced cheese by cloning the mold Penicillium camemberti, but now some are worried that it could become extinct. Along with providing an in-depth look at how brie and camembert are made, this video examines the ways that some cheesemakers are responding to the uncertain future of their business.

Questions:

  1. Why are brie and Continue reading
Continue reading...

January 28, 2025

TikTok turned its service back on for U.S. users after a 12-hour shutdown earlier this month, but the popular video-sharing platform is still blocked from American app stores while it faces legal uncertainty. That means people can’t download or restore the app if it gets deleted. As a result, unlocked cell phones that come preloaded with the popular social media video-sharing app have become a hot commodity on resale sites like Ebay and Facebook Marketplace. In many cases, sellers are Continue reading

Continue reading...

December 6, 2024

The luxury car brand Jaguar started in England in 1922 as a shop that built sidecars for motorcycles. When the British government stopped rationing steel at the end of World War II, the company was then able to purchase enough supplies to produce eye-catching sports cars. Flashy Jaguar vehicles went on to dominate international motorsport in the 1950s, giving the brand a global reputation as athletic and glamorous. But even as Jaguar grew to become the preferred automaker of the Continue reading

Continue reading...

November 26, 2024

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a busy travel season at American airports as families trek across the country to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones. This year, AAA predicts more than 18 million people will travel by plane during Thanksgiving week, an increase of 6 percent over 2023. Three million people are expected to go through airport security on the Sunday after the holiday, which would tie the record set on the Sunday after this year’s Fourth of July. Continue reading

Continue reading...

November 8, 2024

A few weeks ago, we looked at how rising cocoa prices led to price increases for chocolate just before the Halloween season. The video below examines this global issue in great detail, from the struggles of cocoa farmers in Ghana to the effects of rising costs both on independent operators and major candy producers like Mars Wrigley. 

Questions:

  1. What are some of the issues affecting the livelihoods of Ghanaian cocoa farmers?
  2. How are independent businesses like Li-Lac Chocolates responding Continue reading
Continue reading...

October 11, 2024

Over the last few months, companies around the globe kept a close eye on American ports as a key union agreement neared its expiration date. The International Longshoremen’s Association, a union representing 50,000 members, demanded wage increases that met resistance from management. Unable to reach an agreement, the union went on strike at the beginning of last week. 

But not for long. Just three days after longshoremen at East and Gulf Coast ports walked out on their jobs, employers represented Continue reading

Continue reading...

October 2, 2024

While Microsoft is staking the future of Xbox on cloud gaming, Nintendo has long depended on iconic properties like Mario and Pokémon to drive sales of its video game consoles. In fact, the Japanese company has been infamous for filing lawsuits to protect its intellectual property for about as long as video games have been around. In one notable example from the 1980s, Nintendo sued Blockbuster for copyright infringement after the video rental chain added games to its lineup Continue reading

Continue reading...