FREE is preparing for our August 25-29 seminar. We designed it for Article III federal judges and their clerks. This program will feature a field trip to Yellowstone Park. We will have presentations from the current Park Superintendent, a retired superintendent of Yellowstone, and natural scientists specializing in wildlands ecology. Ramona and I have been […]
Read MoreI came to Bozeman from Bloomington, Indiana in 1970. My senior colleagues at IU assured me this was a huge mistake. Their well-intended reason: Montana was a colonial economy, one isolated and insulated from cultural and commercial success. The state supplied commodities, wheat and wood, coal and copper. From the Civil War to the first […]
Read MoreI welcome several changes in this New Year. And how fortunate we are to live here! On many cultural, commercial, and medical dimensions, life in and around Bozeman is ever better. Yesterday we had over 50 elk on our place. (Fortunately, our haystacks had been trucked off. Herds of elk eat and destroy them. […]
Read MoreThis is the season of “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men”. Although data indicates the world actually is becoming more peaceful, peace and good will remain exceedingly difficult goals to achieve. However, the Christmas season is an excellent time to recognize those who try: Success is contagious. This week’s FREE Insights […]
Read MoreLet’s count our blessings, not only because tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. (Also Chanukah so this suggests interesting menus.) Ramona and I have just returned from trips to big cities, Boston, New York, and Chicago. We were treated well indeed and greatly enjoyed seeing friends and relatives. Still, I felt blessed to return to Montana. […]
Read More“Mr. Larry was a past president of the Sarah Scaife Foundation and also a former board of director for Grove City College and Federal Home Loan of Pittsburgh. His hobbies included fishing, target shooting…” -From the published obituary. I owe a great deal to Dick Larry. He was the president of a major foundation, a […]
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I enjoy summers in Montana immensely. Thanks to vastly improved technology – think internet, FedEx, better insulated homes and vehicles, food from everywhere all the time -and global warming, winters are great too. Further, in the Gallatin Valley civility, community, and culture remain intact and indeed flourish. Bozeman must be the mother lode of non-profits: […]
Read MoreIntro by John Baden It is the exception that probes, not proves, the rule. I know of no logical system in which an exception to a general rule can “prove” the verity of that proposition, generality, principle, or rule. In this week’s FREE Insights, economist Michael Munger of Duke University describes an […]
Read MoreThis column is an exploratory essay and I welcome your suggestions. I’m thinking of creating the Greater Yellowstone Policy Salon Series, an adventure in intellectual and policy entrepreneurship. Let’s unpack this new idea and I hope influence change for the better. There is a huge potential for policy reform in nearly every arena of American […]
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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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