Korn Ferry: Your Next Corporate Benefit, Yoga Class

It’s been a great year at Company X, and already there are rumors it’s preparing to offer workers a host of new benefits. Will it be more vacations days? Changes in retirement plans? Actually, it might be stress reduction programs.

According to a recent joint study by Korn Ferry and the human resources organization WorldatWork, companies are going all-in to help workers lead healthier—and presumably longer—lives. Two out of three employers offer stress reduction programs that include yoga and massage, a jump from just over half in the year before. Telemedicine is making huge inroads, too: Three-quarters of those companies offer the service, allowing workers to access healthcare professionals by phone. Read more here.

Barron's: How to Play Iran Sanctions and $80 Crude

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Crude-Oil prices are set to jump because—contrary to popular belief—President Donald Trump is likely to reintroduce harsh sanctions on Iran by mid-May. Read more here.

Forbes: Is Economics Going Back To The 1800s? Maybe So

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Some economics thinking seems to have gone backward in time. How far back? At least as far as the nineteenth century.

That's the observation of  Robert Wright, professor of political economy at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He's also an eminent economic historian.

He sees the resurgence of three economic ideas that were more at home in the 1800s than in the twenty-first century. Read more here.

Internet Archive Book Images, 

No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes: Iran's Futile Gesture Mirrors Venezuela's Economic Idiocy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Iran's leaders seem to have contracted a case of economic idiocy.

Let's hope it's not infectious.

Mid-April, the Islamic Republic announced it would start to denominate its holdings of official assets in euros instead of U.S. dollars.

The news comes during a period of fast-deteriorating diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, which makes the currency denomination change look like a way for the Iranian leadership to snub the U.S.

Unfortunately, for people of Iran, the decision would seem to be both futile in the near term and one that would auger yet more pain for the already beleaguered economy in the future. Read more here.

Mentioned in the Press: The Columbian

In Our View: Trump Trips on Trade

Read more here.

Forbes: Finally, A Boss Gets The Message On Social Media

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A captain of industry in Britain has done something both smart and courageous.

He has decided to shutter the company's social media accounts for all of its hundreds of outlets. It is something that other business leaders should consider doing too! Read more here.

P.J. Media: Oxycontin Tweak Helped Turn Addicts to Heroin

By SIMON CONSTABLE

 Lawmakers trying to combat the epidemic of opioid addiction might want to take note of the law of unintended consequences.

It can lead to the most unfortunate results.

A case in point is getting prescription painkillers off the streets might not have the effect of reducing addiction deaths. It might instead merely move the problem. At least that's the finding of some recently published research from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Read more here.