Progressives: “What’s Going On?” and “Who is John Galt?” Brian Kahn’s defense of progressives is the feature of this week’s FREE Insights. Brian is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Berkeley’s law school. Like Theodore Roosevelt, Brian was a boxer in college and an enthusiastic outdoorsman. He has hosted his radio show “Home Ground” since […]
Read MoreElinor (Lin) Ostrom of Indiana University was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics. Lin died June 12th after diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late 2011. Following her diagnosis she traveled to India and Mexico, and taught a graduate seminar. Having known her for 45 plus years, I was not surprised by […]
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This summer FREE is hosting two seminars for seminary professors, other academics involved with religion, and federal judges. The July program will examine environmental and social justice and will include an excursion to Butte, America. What can we learn about booms, busts, and revitalization from the Butte experience? What does and can religion contribute during […]
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Here is a true, empirical, generalization about people’s understanding of political economy: when well intended, smart, honest, and alert individuals observe government’s operation over time, they eventually separate hopes for reform from expectations regarding outcomes. They develop an intuitive understanding of Public Choice economics. Here’s what they often see: when government expands beyond the limited […]
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I’ve had the great good fortune to meet and work with some of America’s nicest and most highly respected public intellectuals. These people have a mission, to advance human freedom and well-being. They do so through their knowledge of human propensities and ambitions. They work to understand society’s organization and coordination and then explain it […]
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Here is a true, empirical, statistical generalization. Smart, mature, politically attentive adults gradually move toward a classical liberal philosophy. This philosophy is committed to the ideal of limited government under constitutional constraints, the rule of law, due process, and individual liberty. This includes freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets. Independent of their education, through experience and observation, the […]
Read MoreAs we approach the 42nd Earth Day, environmental data accumulates and wisdom grows, however unevenly. Most measures of America’s environmental quality show major improvement, notably air and water pollution. The increasing plenty of natural resources is also something to celebrate. Environmentalism has become many people’s preferred religion. It’s unseemly to criticize people’s faith but this […]
Read MoreFREE Insights and Innovations This FREE Insights introduces two innovations. First is the addition of a day-long excursion during our July and August seminars. The July program, “Faith, Political Economy, and Social Justice: Lessons from Butte, America” includes a day in Butte with experts on its history, decline, and renewal. The August seminar is “Faith, […]
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This week’s FREE Insight is by University of Illinois political scientist, Robert Weissberg. Essentially, Bob argues that due to humans’ biological hard wiring, conflict will emerge when an energetic, intrusive state engages in social engineering threatening the values and behaviors that fostered survival of genetic lines. I had read a far longer version of this argument […]
Read MoreWhen is the last time you heard a liberal describe himself as a “liberal”? It’s probably been a long time. These days, those on the left are more likely to call themselves “progressives.” Writing in The New York Times, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs said there have been two progressive eras — one in the […]
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