The BP gusher fouling the Gulf of Mexico, and ultimately much more, is surely one of America’s greatest environmental disasters. Just as surely, it’s not President Obama’s fault. Rather, it’s a function of physics and probabilities. Similar although smaller events occur approximately every 20 years. Union Oil’s Santa Barbara oil spill began on January 28th, […]
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The Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri is the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. In late May, Kaufmann announced its annual Index of Entrepreneurial Activity for 2009. Montana and Oklahoma were the entrepreneurial leaders and I was surprised—why Oklahoma? I actually have a warm spot for that state, I’ve had only good experiences there—but […]
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Ramona and I just returned from my successful reconstructive surgery in Baltimore. We came back through Minneapolis, me in a leg cast rolling through the airport in a wheelchair. I’ve known this procedure was coming for six years. With Obama’s election, I’ve anticipated increased difficulty in acquiring excellent medical care. Hence, I’ve been more sensitive […]
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This is the fourth summer FREE has offered conferences on environmental stewardship for religious leaders. This year’s are in June and September. The June slots are filled and we have just announced the September 13-17 offering, “Our Environment: Economics, Ecology, and Ethics.” The religious leaders program is popular and the conference location wonderful, Elkhorn Ranch […]
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We’ve all heard the phrase, “Bad money drives good money out of circulation.” This is now called Gresham’s Law but it dates back to the ancient Greeks. What does this mean in practice and how might it be relevant to the internet and more generally to civility in our public discourse? First I’ll consider legal […]
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Ramona and I delight in ranch life in the Gallatin Gateway community. There are immense social and environmental benefits to this rural setting, notably friends and excellent access to the urban qualities of Bozeman and surrounding outdoor treasures. We have many long-term neighbors we like, admire, and trust. Most are farmers and ranchers with whom […]
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National Public Radio (NPR), a nonprofit 501 c-3 corporation, has 860 independent stations throughout America. I wouldn’t care to live in a place that didn’t have radio access. (Streaming it on the web is a poor substitute.) When traveling, I find the local station so not to miss “Morning Edition” and the evening program “All […]
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This year is FREE’s 25th anniversary. The initial focus of our work was on the economics and policy analysis of contentious natural resource issues. Our goal was to show how to harmonize environmental quality with America’s founding ideals of liberty and responsible prosperity. Twenty-five years ago environmental problems were addressed almost exclusively through command and […]
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It is surely no accident that the term “bureaucracy” carries a crust of derision in every known language. And yet, with the possible exception of the TSA, most individuals within each bureaucracy normally attempt to do well and want to be liked. Against all odds, some succeed. For example, I’ve found the state auto license […]
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Each year we host a few dozen horses on our winter range. They are given hay when snow makes grazing difficult but they normally feed on rangeland and uncut hay fields. The horses have running spring water just south of our house and most mornings they troop down to drink. This is always a beautiful […]
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