Republicans & Conservatives

Authors

Being temporarily back in Washington has the advantage of being able to do intellectual things, such as attending lectures, at low of no cost. My son I went to two of them this week. We saw Jonah Goldberg launching his new book called the "the Tyranny of Clichés" at AEI and H.W. Brands talking about his new book, "The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr" at Smithsonian. Both were lively speakers.

Throw off the Burden of History

Elizabeth Warren's affirmative action scandal put the whole silly system into perspective. Evidently Ms. Warren was telling the technical truth when she claimed Native American ancestry. She also is probably correct that it didn't help her get a job. The question is why should we even register by race at all?

Against Austerity & Reality

Greeks, French, along with Spanish and other protesters, have taken to the streets to protest reality. They have worked themselves into an outrage at their own fecklessness, indolence and hedonism. Of course, they don't blame themselves. It is work capitalism or maybe those thrifty but dour and stingy Germans, who insist on people paying debts and working hard. They call for strikes. What does it mean when someone who doesn't work goes on strike? Does he stop doing what he usually does and actually work?

Arguing from/for Ignorance

I have been accused of arguing that policymakers and others are too ignorant to make comprehensive and/or detailed policies. I am guilty. My study of great decisions in history and my more recent study of cognitive barriers to compete understanding make me even less confident in big decisions. I recently saw an interesting report Federal Reserve Bank of Boston talking about some of the "causes" of the recent collapse that were not true. If we don't correctly understand or diagnose the sickness, we cannot propose good solutions.

Obama Doldrums & a Better Future for My Kids

Collective Effort versus Collectivism

I have been reading the new George Kennan bio, which is reminding me of the horrors of the communist/Nazi varieties of collectivism. On the other side, I am just reading about "crowd funding" where small investors support artistic endeavors. I understood that we often operate under a false paradigm of individual v collective effort. We are implicitly accepting the flawed concepts of 19th century economists who really didn't know what they were talking about and/or analysis should have been left in its historical context.

Environmental Paradoxes

Things are never straightforward, especially when it comes to the environment. Recall when the UN said that Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035. Turns out some are growing. They call this a mystery. A similar "mystery" is the electric cars may cause more total pollution than the gasoline varieties.

Ask not what your country can do for you ...

A colleague on the left side talked about the inevitability of an Obama victory based on demographics. But it wasn't really demographics he was talking about; it was identity politics. He referred to people by their group identity - i.e. the blacks, the Latinos, the women, the gays etc. The operative voting assumption was that members of these groups moved more or less like Pavlov's dog, responding to political stimulus. Is this what we believe?

Pigs, Chickens and Human Beings

Only about 2.5% of the population can multitask but many more think they can and even more try. This is a source of grief and even physical danger, when people talk on cellular phones while driving, for example. Lack of focused attention is diminishing the quality of our decision making as a society.

End of this immigration wave

"Things decline after their reach their peak" is as much of a tautology as "you always find your keys in the last place you look" but it is useful to recall that the tide turns at its highest. This is what is happening with immigration. Some of Americans are still fighting old immigration wars; others are welcoming or dreading the growing Hispanic influence in America. They are overtaken by events.

How Cute

I was watching a TV program that showed NGOs helping women worldwide by teaching them skills so that they could earn money by making little objects of art in their homes. It was all very cute and uplifting, with dozens of women working together, often singing, while they made all sorts of baskets, boxes and little packages of homemade food. But it takes them all day to make one or two little items that they maybe can sell for a couple of dollars - better off getting a job at the factory. Maybe singing could be optional.

Rock-Paper-Scissors Solutions

I was talking to a group of visiting college professors today about why the academy has seemed to become more distant from society. The irony is that years ago, when universities really were places of the elite, they were better respected and integrated than they are today. What the heck happened and how can we get back to the way it was? I think some of the problem is admissions. Let me explain.

Creating Wealth is Your Responsibilty

It is worth pursuing wealth. Wealth is much more important than income and a person can have lots of stuff and not really have wealth. We all use the word wealth but sometimes not in same ways. The word comes from the old English word "weal" which means well-being and we should start there.

WoW, Democrats winning the War on Women

Democrats are good at using words and they control big parts of the media, so it works for them. They tell us that not requiring everybody to give free birth control is a war on women. It has been a good slogan, but it indicates a deeper pathology. Those making the argument evidently believe women require government to give them things rational people could get for themselves. Meanwhile, they support institutional structures that encourage dependency.

Mistakes of Others & Ours

The world is changing and so is America. But we are going the wrong direction. I read an article talking about how Canada is doing better than the U.S. It is not rocket science. They are just doing some of the smart things we did in the 1980s and 1990s, back when we used to make fun of them for doing things more like we are doing now. We Americans have been dropping on the index of economic freedom. If we keep it up, we may drop out of the top ten.