Senators know that even unpaid entry-level work can be valuable. That’s why they make some of their employees work for nothing. President Obama called in his State of the Union for an increase in the minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015, from $7.25, notwithstanding the evidence that it will increase unemployment among young, […]
Read MoreIntroduced here by Dr. John Baden A Tale of Two Cities, Boulder and Bozeman First, an admission: I like Boulder, Colorado–as a place to visit and from which to learn. I’ve been there several times and always enjoyed my visits. Many say Bozeman is like Boulder was 30 plus years ago. They mean that as […]
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Anyone who pays even passing attention to American politics is familiar with the map (Figure 1) of the United States showing states in which a majority of voters favored President Obama (colored blue) and those where Romney garnered the most votes (in red). This map conveys three dominant messages: first, that states can be meaningfully […]
Read MoreIntroduced by Dr. John A. Baden, PhD Here is one great truth that has stuck with me since I was an undergraduate. There is little disagreement among micro economists; their basic model is largely uncontested. This field studies the behavior of individual households and firms in making decisions on the allocation of limited resources. It examines markets and […]
Read MoreIntroduction by Dr. John Baden “Trading Food for Fuel, Blood for Oil” Here is my nomination for book of the year, Thinner This Year. The authors are Chris Crowley and Jen Sacheck, Ph. D. The former is a retired attorney and 78-year-old fitness cheerleader, the later a nutritionist at Tufts University’s famous health science center, […]
Read MoreIntroduction by Dr. John Baden, Chairman, FREE Most contentious issues of public policy are nuanced and highly complex while carrying heavy emotional baggage. These ingredients foster error and acrimony. Intelligent people of good will, even those sharing similar values, can strongly disagree on policy prescriptions. This situation produces strong temptations to discredit and denigrate policy opponents. These characteristics are […]
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“Happy New Year” may seem an inappropriate cry as America balances on the edge of governments’ financial cliffs. We’ve been edging toward this danger for two generations. The reason is simple; politicians have strong incentives to provide current benefits and promise payments in some distant future. That future is ever closer. The politics of this […]
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Pete Geddes is the General Director of the American Prairie Reserve. This is an entrepreneurial foundation dedicated to restoring 3,000,000 acres of grassland and its wildlife and ranches. It’s their “American Serengeti”. Pete came to Bozeman from Missoula nearly 17 years ago after earning his graduate degree in forestry from the U of M. One […]
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John Goodman’s article for FREE this week underscores a crucial flaw in ObamaCare. Not a flaw of legislation, regulation or execution, but a very serious flaw in understanding how medicine works. The fundamental unit of health care is the physician and the patient, making and discussing the diagnosis together and jointly deciding the best diagnostic […]
Read MoreThe Founders were right to posit that a breakdown of the limits of government would cause a breakdown of consent. Only 22 percent of likely voters say the current government has the consent of the governed.
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