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Joseph Stiglitz is one of the great economists of our time, a reputation that was secured even before he accurately predicted the financial collapse and its magnitude. He is a professor at Columbia University and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. But perhaps more importantly, he is a…
Read More »I am one of the youngest, if not the youngest, person to participate on this blog. I am so young that I cannot remember a time when gay marriage was not allowed; I was only 13 when the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued its decision ordering the state to begin granting…
Read More »Natural selection was Darwin’s key insight, the idea that truly made him famous. The idea of evolution existed before he was born, but there was no credible mechanism. Darwin, and Alfred Russell Wallace, uncovered that mechanism. Natural selection has been defined as “the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.” Before…
Read More »Today Senator Kerry announced that he would delay the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote on the new START Treaty. It appears that several Republican senators are on the verge of committing to vote for it, but have submitted several questions to the Obama Administration that they want answered before they…
Read More »In the past week, there have been two prominent opinion pieces attacking Republicans for their lack of concern about deficits over the past few decades. Neither talks much about Democrats and I’m not really sure if that’s because the authors think criticism of Democrats on this subject goes without saying…
Read More »I found out about the Anti-Defamation League’s decision to oppose the proposed construction of a mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero on Paul Krugman’s blog yesterday. He was incensed, attacking the ADL for hypocrisy. After reading the front page New York Times article this morning, I was…
Read More »This morning I noticed that Greg Mankiw had posted a link on his blog to an issue summary from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that was published four days ago. It can be found here. The report is entitled “Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis.” If you…
Read More »I’ve already written about the economic and environmental costs of failing to deal with climate change. Both phenomena are well understood and the forecast grows increasingly disheartening. However, there’s a third story, a moral one. I’m not talking about the morality of increased incidence of famine, drought, and disease; those…
Read More »It has become common since the beginning of the Tea Party movement to hear Thomas Jefferson’s “Tree of Liberty” letter quoted. Specifically, the sentences about the need for shedding the blood of patriots and tyrants and about the need for a rebellion every twenty years or so. I had always…
Read More »Here’s an update from the National Park about the Folk Festival concerning tonight’s weather: The Lowell Folk Festival goes on rain or shine! There are great acts, amazing food, and wonderful audiences at two stages tonight’s 24th Festival. For tonight only, the Lowell Folk Festival schedule has been shifted for…
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