After a series on monumental errors, our legislators are debating Montana’s energy future. They want to avoid a crisis of California proportions. They’re wrestling with forces and prices distorted by decades of regulation and flawed deregulation. California adopted policies that worsened problems. Basic economics can help us avoid mistakes by predicting likely consequences of alternative […]
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One of life’s greatest challenges is educating our children for an unknown future. Historically, people expected the future to be much like the past. This predictability is long past. How can we cope and responsibly prepare our youth for the unknown? It’s helpful to understand economic forces and anticipate opportunities. We can learn from Montana’s […]
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Several of the Rocky Mountain states have a serious problem finding enough good K through 12 teachers. Many of those graduating from our colleges and universities leave the region. The most promising and highly qualified seem most likely to exit. This sorry dispersion has huge, long term, and adverse consequences for our kids and our […]
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Finally, after decades of waving good-bye to children leaving for jobs in other states, we can replace sorry stories with happier endings. Since WWII, Montana’s most valuable export has been its educated children. Many, perhaps most, left reluctantly. Why, then, did they leave? Usually because the opportunities gained were too valuable to resist. The better […]
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Environmental think tanks exist to foster constructive reforms. That’s why FREE and Gallatin Writers launched a $35,000 contest. The goal is to generate innovative ways to help preserve the Upper Missouri River, its culture, and its economy. The bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2003-2005) will focus world attention upon the Upper Missouri, […]
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“How were your holidays?” Just wonderful, I reply. I learned a lot about our community and I’d like to share because stories influence behavior. Just before Christmas, Ramona and I returned from a 10-day business trip to New York City. When we got home it was minus 13 degrees and huge drifts blocked our lower […]
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Structural engineers never bitch about the force of gravity nor aeronautical engineers about air friction. These are merely forces with which they contend. These observations come from a casual, but substantial survey conducted during recent travels. Whenever I met an aeronautical or structural engineer I’d simply inquire, “Have you or any of your colleagues ever […]
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Dr. Geoffrey Gamble President Montana State University Dear Dr. Gamble, Welcome to Bozeman. I wish you a long and successful tenure as president of MSU. I’m especially pleased by the Montana Board of Regents decision to select a candidate who earned his Ph. D. from a world-class institution. You’ve experienced excellence. Last September, MSU’s interim […]
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I’m writing this column in support of environmental quality prior to the election. I hope voters purge two types of politicians; troglodytes who confuse conservative with exploitative, and watermelons, those green on the outside and pink within. Remember Jim Watt? When appointed Secretary of Interior in 1981, he led the “Sagebrush Rebellion”. He promised to […]
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Recently, my wife and I were dinner guests in a beautiful home. Like hundreds of others, it’s built in on a forested hill on the edge of the Gallatin National Forest. It is enclosed by trees which nearly brush the house. When a forest fire makes a run up their slope, their house is likely […]
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