Convenient and inexpensive health foods like the potato and canned veggies are making a comeback in the current economic climate.  Public Health Officials here in the US are encouraging people to lo0k for cheaper alternatives to the mixed green-based diet people maintained before the recession.  Registered Dietition and nutrition professor Joan Salge Blake can offer healthy, inexpensive recipes and tips and can be contacted at salgeblake@comcast.net or (978) 436-0341.

Advertising Professor Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of the College of Communication, says the recession means there are plenty of bargains to be had for advertising buyers, except on bona fide hits on broadcast and cable TV.

“There is a glut of media options, so the supply-demand chain favors advertisers rather than the media.  Digital and social networks are where the action is, but even these are not drawing premium prices because they’re still trying to figure out how to monetize their popularity.

“The bargain basement of bargains are the newspapers.  Print readership dropping like a rock, with bad press further driving down space costs.  And local TV is begging for dollars with local news almost in as dire straights as their print counterparts.  Magazines, meantime, are sinking.

“So where are the bargains to be had?  Pretty much everywhere!”

Contact Tobe Berkovitz, 617-353-3447, tobetv@bu.edu

School of Management finance Professor Mark T. Williams, an expert on energy risk management, says the global recession has overtaken the ability of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to set oil prices, which will be reflected in next week’s OPEC meeting in Vienna.

“The global recession has put significant downward pressure on oil demand, forcing OPEC to be a price taker instead of a price setter.  Complicating this is the fact that OPEC countries continue to rely heavily on oil revenue to support national budgets, so the recent free-fall in prices has pushed them into recessions themselves.

“OPEC countries have to jump-start their home economies and need more revenue to implement stimulus-type programs.  When OPEC meets in Vienna on March 15, it is clear that these countries will make further cuts in daily oil-production targets.  Equally clear is that this time the recession-driven market, not OPEC, is firmly in charge.

“Middle East OPEC countries influenced the last three major recessions – starting in 1973, in 1983, and today.  Given the significance of oil in the global economy, it is nice to see that market forces – not OPEC – are finally determining this commodity’s appropriate price.”

Contact Mark T. Williams, 617-358-2789, williams@bu.edu