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Michael Klein is an economist at the Fletcher School (and a good friend of mine). MIT Press will soon publish his first novel called Something for Nothing. Here is a quote from the publisher about the book’s plot. “David Fox (Ph.D. Economics, Columbia, Visiting Assistant Professor at Kester College, Knittersville, New York) is having a stressful year. [...]
Archive for August, 2011
August 31st, 2011
If Mark has his way, Rick Perry’s assertions that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme will not get thrown down the memory hole. Unfortunately, our last Ponzi scheme is already hurtling downward. If you think about it, a large part of American (and global) prosperity rests on a real Ponzi scheme: the financial system. I’m actually [...]
August 31st, 2011
Category: Elections 2010 and 2012, Science and its methods
Conservative candidates are now routinely asked to take a stand on whether they “Think evolution is just a theory” or whether they are among the fallen who “Believe in evolution”. These exchanges nearly bring up my breakfast on their own merits and have the added disadvantage of mis-educating the public about the nature of scientific [...]
August 30th, 2011
Category: Rick Perry
So says Rick Perry. Think he’ll be saying that a year from now, if he’s the nominee?
August 30th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
MIT’s Susan Hockfield makes a number of excellent points here but she doesn’t discuss the incentives for real world manufacturing plants to locate in the USA. In the absence of heavy industrial policy subsidies, does the United States offer the cost minimizing location for a specific manufacturing plant? Given that our workers are paid more in [...]
August 30th, 2011
Category: Public management
I was once the token scientist member of a team that was tasked with buying a research building for a government agency in Northern California. I know nothing about construction or real estate, but was there to describe how much space it takes to install a wet lab, what computer networks are needed for intensive [...]
August 29th, 2011
Category: Rick Perry, Uncategorized
That’s what one of Rick Perry’s *supporters* has to say about him.