Culture, Community, and Civility: Code of the (New) West Living here is a great blessing for Ramona and me. We greatly appreciate the wonderful natural, cultural, and prosperous environment of the Gallatin Valley. Even these stellar qualities are sometimes trumped by seeing people care for one another. Our community has culture of civility and caring–even […]
Read More
Few professors go to economics from anthropology, as did I. An anthropology background affects how one sees the world. It places far more emphasis on culture. Most decisions are based on information and incentives. Culture creates powerful incentives, ones often far more powerful than money. As Nobel Prize winning economist Doug North explained, culture constrains […]
Read MoreI’m writing this on Groundhogs Day, February 2. Ramona and I are seven miles east of Ashton, Idaho near the Yellowstone Park border. YNP is an excellent place to explore parables of environmental stewardship so FREE’s work naturally features Yellowstone. Our July 15-19 conference, “Harmonizing Ecology, Prosperity, and Liberty”, will include a day in Yellowstone […]
Read More
The Gallatin Valley is truly a great place to build a life. As John Baden recently observed, the community is growing richer in civic culture, and access to high-quality amenities is easy. But might it also be an “ecological trap”? If it is, let’s understand it in hopes of helping folks avoid it. Here are […]
Read More
I find travel a mixed blessing, with the best part returning home. I always gain renewed appreciation of qualities we take for granted. I also again understand why our region is so appealing. No wonder we’re a magnet for migrants. Our most recent trip to Washington, DC reminds me that simply living here inures us […]
Read More
Bozemanites live in the midst of a fascinating experiment in environmental economics. We are in the vortex of two colliding principles. First, trash flows downhill or downwind toward poverty, and second, economic systems evolve toward efficiency. We are watching these forces play out at the Holcim Trident cement plant near Three Forks, Montana. Holcim Inc., […]
Read More
A year ago I wrote: “Urban and affluent newcomers to our region bring an utterly different value system for the land. To them, commodity extraction is inferior to the amenity value of land — scenery, recreation, open space, fish and wildlife, wilderness. Rather than the ‘boomers’ decried by [Wallace] Stegner, we now attract landscape architects […]
Read More
High human capital is critical to future success. Forty years ago, Montana’s per capita income ranked in the middle of the states. Now we are near the bottom. Here’s why. Montana’s traditional economic base of agriculture, forest products, and metals has dramatically declined and has no prospects for future growth. This is the result of […]
Read More
This year I can’t ski with Ramona for I was just liberated from a cast. Now while she skis, I sit in the Saddle Peak Lodge with my unactivated season pass and my PowerBook. I read and write. Occasionally I run across a great proposal. Here’s a winner being developed by Prof. Richard Wolff of […]
Read More
Next month I’m addressing 70 Forest Service Snow Rangers. I’m to contrast private ski areas around Big Sky with Bridger Bowl. The result illuminates fundamental transformations throughout the Intermountain West. I’ll discuss important cultural, economic, and environmental changes and identify conflicts. Yellowstone Club The Yellowstone Club is the second most exclusive community in Montana; only […]
Read More