Most who believe the end is nigh are mere curiosities, disappointment their shared reward. In contrast, Islamic terrorists know precisely when their world will end and they murder on their way out. Empathy doesn’t help me understand these terrorists. Economics and ethnology do. The explanation has less to do with money than with culture and […]
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Please don’t impose Tom Wolfe’s portrayal of licentious behavior at his fictive Dupont U on your children. His description of life at America’s top schools, I Am Charlotte Simmons, is captivating even when he describes appalling behavior. Trust me, college is not that hedonistic and undisciplined. Fortunately, neither are universities as monolithically “progressive” and politically […]
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Each Friday my colleagues and I produce a column for the following Wednesday. Mine of November 3rd, the day after our election, anticipated election results and suggested constructive reflections. The following day, November 4th, I surveyed 20-plus folks who often read my column. Alas, only two had read the latest. It was like a morning […]
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Writing before it occurs, what can I say about yesterday’s election? In this arena, modesty and circumspection come naturally. Yet, I am confident of a few important features of our emerging political economy. Here’s the history from which I write. Ramona and I spent the Wednesday after the 2000 election in the Lima, Peru airport. […]
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Here are three important issues confronting our community, region, and state: the 911 and open space bonds and the 147 referendum to repeal the ban on cyanide mining. We dial 911 when things go, or threaten to go, off the rails. It’s our link to first responders. Here are two personal examples. On a Sunday […]
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Two years ago my cousin Antonio Glassberg lost a battle to cancer. He was 21. Although my uncle lost his only child at an unbearably young age, the most horrific part of his passing was not his youth, but the circumstances surrounding his death. Antonio’s intensive chemotherapy treatment caused endless pain. He often couldn’t sleep […]
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We protect the environment because we care about clean air and preserving other species, not mainly for financial reasons. But we also value inexpensive supplies of power and fast and convenient transportation. All interesting and important policy questions involve choosing among competing values. Consider climate change. How does human action influence future climates? How willing […]
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The Bush administration has authored a proposal that will, for the first time, give Western governors authority to formally propose development in our wildest public lands. This overturns President Clinton’s decision to set aside 40 million acres of National Forest as roadless areas. Although the initiative was criticized as part of the Clinton administration’s “War […]
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Many folks believe the government should provide insurance against natural disasters. Congress recently voted to extend the National Flood Insurance Program for another four years. The NFIP was established in 1968 to provided “affordable” insurance to people living in the most flood-prone areas. (In the West, federal flood insurance has primarily taken the form of […]
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Let’s dispel a common myth. Critics deride capitalism and private property as simply a means for the rich to exploit the poor. Actually, the poor have the most to gain from secure property rights. In a system without private property rights, the rich have the resources to buy security, either by bribing government officials or […]
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