General

685 newspaper-front pages from around the world. This wonderful service courtesy of Newseum.

It must be Cleverly Customized Viral Video Week. Via Katya at the Non-Profit Marketing Blog, check out this fun video from the AARP. (And if you missed the Gonzaga U season ticket appeal, go see it now.)

By now, I hope you’ve seen the wonderful Girl Effect video. (I deconstructed it a few weeks back.) I’m pleased to say that they’ve radically simplified the process of making a donation. (It used to give so many options that it virtually ensured that “decision paralysis” would take place.) Barry Schwartz is smiling somewhere…

No doubt you’ve made some political donations this cycle. Now that neither party wants your money anymore, how about going and giving $20 to improve the lives of girls worldwide? Here’s why you should give and here’s how you can give.

I could not resist clicking on this headline.

“Airwaves Battle Pits Dolly Parton Against Google”

My compliments to the headline writer.

You can learn what “credit default swaps” are, and how they brought down AIG, in 10 minutes, thanks to Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch. What’s particularly clever is the car insurance analogy, which buys us some quick intuition into a complex topic.

In the book, we discuss the simple trade models that teachers use in Econ 101 — e.g., “You grow apples and I grow oranges. Both of us would rather have some of both. How do we trade?” That’s exactly what Hirsch does … he builds up our intuition via a simple, two-party transaction, and then zooms out to show us how that behavior can explain a catastrophe like the fall of AIG. Really well done.

(Thanks to John H for the tip.)