My essay, Defending Shylock: Productive Work in Financial Markets, is now available in Kindle format. In this essay, I discuss the great value that financial markets add to an economy and the nature of the intellectual work that underlays them. In addition, I argue against the critics of financial markets who argue that those who […]
Defending Shylock — Kindle version Read More »
As someone who read and loved the book, this movie totally worked for me. Schilling’s Dagny is intelligent, emotionally expressive, and beautiful. Bowler’s Hank Rearden is equally intelligent and competent, with occasionally bemused, understated humor and equally occasionally understated anger. And the sexual chemistry between the two — yes, indeed. Wisocky is tone-perfect as that
Atlas Shrugged movie — first reaction Read More »
Why did the modern economic revolution in production and trade first happen in north-western Europe? At the APEE conference, Deirdre McCloskey delivered a plenary address based on her new book, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Her argument is that neither material resources nor technology nor capital accumulation nor geographical factors drove
APEE update — Deirdre McCloskey Read More »
A stunning glimpse of the future of the new media:
Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 2.0 — Sleep Read More »
I’ll be speaking as part of the final panel for the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour at Rock Valley College. Friday, April 15, 2011 from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM (CT) Rock Valley State College Student Center Atrium 3301 N. Mulford Road Rockford, IL 61114 Further information.
Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour coming to Rockford Read More »
Two images, the first taken on a walk yesterday near my home in Illinois. This is the northern part of the state in early spring. The second is one of my favorite Pissarro landscapes, Chestnut Trees at Osny, painted in northern France circa 1873. That coincidence makes me happy.
Camille Pissarro in Illinois? Read More »
This chart, based on a Bureau of Labor Statistics time-use survey of teenagers, presents data for four racial/cultural groupings: Asian, non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and black. If the data are accurate, how far does the chart go towards explaining differentials across the races in grades, graduation rates, employment rates, and income levels? Also interesting is the
Homework, race, and success in life Read More »
First published in 1912 ago, Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit makes this observation: “Gold is not an ideal basis for a monetary system. Like all human creations, the gold standard is not free from shortcomings; but in the existing circumstances there is no other way of emancipating the monetary system from the changing
Mises on the relative imperfections of the gold standard Read More »
My list of the Top Ten issues the current fracas in Wisconsin has raised. 1. Is Wisconsin’s state budget deficit a problem that must be dealt with? Yes or No 2. Should changing the wages and benefits package of public school teachers be part of the solution to the deficit? Yes or No 3. Do
Checklist of Wisconsin political issues Read More »
In my role as CEE’s Executive Director, I interviewed guest speaker Professor Al Gini on leadership, after his talk on that theme at Rockford College. Dr. Gini is also the co-founder and Associate Editor of Business Ethics Quarterly. For more from Dr. Gini, check out his many books, which include My Job My Self: Work
Interview with Professor Al Gini Read More »