As a child I was fascinated by cashiers: how casually they handled money. I firmly believed that they were the richest people in the world until I learned that Bill Gates, the wealthiest man, was somehow not a cashier. This first introduction to the economics left me with a lot of questions. When I was three, my family moved from Poland to Russia where life for me was comprised by a series of concentric circles: the smallest of these were...

Social responsibility is at the core of my existence. Given my fascination with Business and Economics, I can’t help but see this from an economic perspective. While to previous generations, social responsibility and business have seemed to be at counter-purposes, my generation has been raised face-to-face with the ill effects of corporatocracy, oligarchy, and shameless cash-grabs by multinational corporations. We have seen the excesses of Capitalism and—especially for an individual raised in post-Communist Poland—the hangover from excesses...

In my book, UChicago is known for a few things: Economics, Economics, and Economics. Good thing I’m studying Economics! How is it, after all, that so many Economics Nobel Laureates have studied at, taught at, or otherwise graced the halls of UChicago? That’s something that I intend to find out. Perhaps most interesting to me is the reputation that UChicago has for “free market above the interests of the rest of the world.” Given that I consider social...

My boss at the Walk advertising agency said that in advertising, we were “putting the products on a stage.” To me, this meant designing a particular costume—in this case, an ad campaign—for Nikon cameras. The campaign would represent their fundamental characteristics, making them stand out as actors’ attire does on the stage. After my experience as a makeup and costume designer for six plays at the American School of Warsaw, I knew the impact—conscious or not—that...