Our current economic model, premised on profits and returns, consumption, and growth — on greed, has proven to be problematic for the environment, society, and governance.*   Over time, humans have inflicted grave damage to the land, forests, rivers, streams, and atmosphere. Some of this was in the interest of survival. A lot more was done […]

and we have no one to blame but ourselves. J. P. Jefferson suggested this opinion piece on December 19, 2023. I just ran across J. P. Jefferson’s recommendation again or for the first time, sigh. I just do not remember. I was able to sign into this WSJ Kevin Williamson piece due to my having […]

My friend Gunter grew up in the German Democratic Republic (“East Germany”). He eventually established himself as a professor at the Genetics Institute at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenburg, He first came to my attention through a series of papers he published in the early 1980s that I read as a postdoc. Then, in the summer […]

What is this that we call history? What is it good for? History is: a chronological record of significant events (such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes, a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events, the study of the past, …, the past in context. […]

Many macroeconomists use models of aggregate consumption based on utility maximization by a rational representative agent. Some models also include liquidity constrained or rule of thumb consumers, but all micro founded models include inter-temporal substitution subject to a lifetime budget constraint. It is also standard to assume that utility is additively separable in consumption and […]

rdan Dean Baker suggests some action in the form of a demonstration at the Chicago Bankers Association meeting October 25-26, 2009. Yves at Naked Capistalism recommends going, and Slate open forum contains comments. Several readers who live in the region have indicated they will be going. Perhaps we will get reports. Do you think they […]

Larry Johnson comments on the firing of whistleblower Mary McCarthy: I am struck by the irony that Mary McCarthy may have been fired for blowing the whistle and ensuring that the truth about an abuse was told to the American people. There is something potentially honorable in that action; particularly when you consider that George […]

Anthony Zinni co-authored Battle Ready with Tom Clancy and served in the Marines from the 1960’s to 2000. From 1997 to 2000, General Zinni was Commander in Chief of CENTCOM. Zinni is also a conservative Republican. Given his expertise, one would have thought President Bush would have heeded Zinni’s counsel not to invade Iraq. Zinni […]

A propos of recent discussions regarding immigration, I thought it worthwhile reposting the link to a relevant paper that I quite like: Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, “The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US Cities.” What are the economic consequences to U.S. natives of the growing diversity of American cities? Is their productivity […]

It appears that the blog is now viewable, but I can’t seem to post the things that I’ve been writing in the past 24 hours… Kash