People make New Year’s resolutions to change their behavior. That’s why so many fail. Stopping unhealthy habits such as smoking or overeating are commitments that require the self-deprivation of pleasure. Vowing to exercise and substitute reading for TV is a positive step to self-improvement, but hard to maintain. The lower the costs or the higher […]

While joyful in anticipation, coming home for Christmas is often a mixed blessing. Folks arrive with their baggage of memories packed over some years and selectively sorted by time and experience elsewhere. Pleasing recollections color our expectations. Unless gone for a very long while, we expect our home territory to be much as when we […]

I find it interesting that green activists and their political allies uniformly favor dramatic and draconian action to avert climate change. Serious policy analysts are different; they generally favor less dramatic action applied over the long term. What explains this difference? Perhaps it’s because the analysts understand long-term adjustments are much cheaper and easier than […]

Bozeman should thank Rick Stroup, a longtime resident and retiring head of the Ag-Econ & Econ Department at MSU. Rick has contributed much to our community. With his forthcoming move to North Carolina State University, an era ends. In the 1970s a small group of scholars at MSU developed the principles and policies that became […]