The World is Getting Better    We are blessed to begin the new year with excellent news: “In material ways the world is rapidly getting better.”  The late Swedish physician, Dr. Hans Rosling thoroughly documented this progress in his 2018 book, Factfulness: …Why Things Are Better than You think. Greg Ip updated this theme in […]

John Baden’s Intro to Insight by Christian Nasulea  Many people who elect to live here enjoy outdoor places they’ve discovered.  Most move here in anticipation of doing so, no one comes to mine or log.  Rather, people are attracted to our romance lands and our comfortable civic culture. Parks, wildlands, forests, range, ranches, and wild waters […]

Thanksgiving Insight, 2018   Liberty, Ecology, Prosperity: America’s Great Blessings Thanksgiving is the day we celebrate the great bounty enjoyed by most Americans.*   Good friends and warm relations with relatives are key ingredients to wholesome lives.  Living in a pleasing environment is a huge bonus. The ideal Thanksgiving features conversations with loving people over a […]

Helping Hunters Succeed: An Experiment in Economic Anthropology I can tell when hunting season approaches—and not only by seeing leaves changing color and hearing elk bugling while I’m in the quiet of our hot tub.  How?  I get phone calls and visits from ‘friends” I’ve not heard from since last hunting season.   “Hey John, can […]

Romance versus Finance on Public Lands   Introduction by John Baden, PhD, Chm. FREE   Here are two important truths to consider when managing America’s “romance lands”:  First, the values that economists measure best are not those that matter most.    It is relatively easy to measure or estimate the values of commodities extracted from […]

Why is Bozeman a Special Place? Search Forbes Magazine for Bozeman, Montana and what pops up?  Forbes and other national publications report our community is in the top five or ten of nearly every positive recreational and cultural opportunity in America.  (*f.n.) Of course, perfection eludes: No place can have more than two of three […]

Introduction to Prof. Jerry Johnson’s FREE Insight, John Baden   “Yellowstone’s Predictable Political Problems: From Fires to Firings” Last week newspapers announced that Yellowstone Park Superintendent Dan Wenk was fired after 33 highly successful years with the Park Service.  As MSU professor, Jerry Johnson explains in our next FREE Insights, political forces were the cause.  […]

The Gallatin Valley has become an attractive place to relocate, especially for people with substantial human capital.  High human capital implies creative, entrepreneurial, and intellectual qualities directed with self-discipline.  Success in building wholesome lives is a regular consequence.  Why do they find our valley so attractive?  Quality attracts quality–and on several dimensions. Of course Bozeman […]