Sunday, October 31, 2010

Another Election, Another Hurricane

With just two days remaining until the 2010 mid-term elections, all signs point to a conservative landslide in the House, Senate and state legislative races.  This might not come as a huge surprise to students of American political history, who are trained to expect major gains by the "out of power" political party in a mid-term election, but the pre-election polling data suggests we are on the verge of something bigger than the predictable tropical storm . . . this one is shaping up to look more like a hurricane.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

NPR's Shameful Move

Last week, executives at National Public Radio (NPR) managed to do something truly remarkable: they touched off a national discourse in which liberals and conservatives seem to be united.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Prize for the Times

Last week, a trio of academics -- Peter Diamond (MIT), Dale Mortensen (Northwestern) and Christopher Pissarides (London School of Economics) -- were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics for their groundbreaking analysis of markets in a way that challenged people to think beyond the traditional supply/demand balance equation.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Meg and the Hypocrisy Lesson

The political campaign underway in California to determine who will be elected the next Governor of our state took an interesting turn a couple weeks ago.  During a debate between the two major candidates -- Former Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic Party nominee, and Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the Republican Party nominee -- both candidates were asked about their proposals for dealing with illegal immigration in California.