Every society faces the important challenge of meeting its desires without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Since we care about the well-being of future generations, the question is, How do we best allocate scarce resources over the long term? Here I consider four categories of resources. The first is renewables, such […]
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Economics is about choices, not money. Money is only a useful measuring tool. But as the Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell has so rightly observed, what economists measure best are not those things that matter most. Yet, the economic way of thinking helps me understand two divisive issues, sexually oriented business and the burning of tires […]
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My colleague John Baden has long argued that economics is best understood as a branch of evolutionary biology. Like biological systems, economic life evolves as people and organizations learn, respond, and innovate. Markets, like DNA-driven organisms, are highly efficient information-processing systems. The realization that prices transmit and process information was a great insight of the […]
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Bozeman is an attractive place to live. Its natural beauty and community character foster rapid growth. Increased traffic is one unpleasant consequence. In response, some have proposed a public bus system. Is this really the best solution to our traffic woes? How many people travel only from home to work and back home on a […]
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Animals and Christmas go together. Sheep around the manger, turkey or Hutterite goose for dinner. My message builds upon holiday trips to my grandfather Baden’s farm and the comments of a friend, Bob Cindrich, a federal judge in Pittsburgh. They would agree on many important things including treatment of animals. My family’s heritage in America […]
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The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend my family and I awoke to four inches of sewage in our basement. While we have many close fiends, we didn’t call them for help. No doubt some would have interrupted their plans and come over. But we didn’t want to impose this big, unpleasant job on their Thanksgiving plans. […]
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The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development concluded last month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Real progress was made in debunking a recurring and fundamental error. Here’s the error: Most environmental problems are due to modernization and affluence. In fact, across time and cultures, technological advances and economic growth have proved the only sure path […]
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Although the UN’s recent World Summit on Sustainable Development looked set to become simply another opportunity for environmentalists and Europeans to trash the US, leaders of developing countries injected a healthy dose of reality. Rather than submitting to the West’s eco-imperialism, poor countries were able to retain their freedom to pursue economic development as they […]
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Dear President Bush: Our industry is suffering from unfair competition from a foreign rival. His productivity is far superior and his labor costs much lower than ours. As a result, he is flooding the U.S. market with goods at very low prices. If you don’t take action, he’ll soon attract all our customers, our sales […]
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There’s general consensus in the scientific community that global average temperatures are rising. It’s also generally agreed that increased carbon dioxide is a major factor. However, there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about the amount of warming and its expected ecological and economic effects. Because of CO2’s prominent role in warming (i.e., it remains […]
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