- What We Learn When We Learn Economics by Christopher Hayes
- Conservatives have long critiqued academia for the ways professors use their position to indoctrinate students with left-wing ideology, but the left has largely ignored the political impact of the way people learn economics, though its influence is likely far more profound. So in order to find out just what students learn when they learn economics, I headed down to Hyde Park, where the University generously let me enroll in “Principles of Macroeconomics” for a quarter.
…when equity and efficiency trade-offs do arise, economists like Sanderson are systematically biased in favor of efficiency because that’s what they are experts on. Efficiency they can measure and analyze. Fairness? That’s the turf of philosophers and politicians. This tendency is most pronounced in discussions of economic growth, and how the benefits of that growth should be distributed.
- Meet MSNBC’s Next New Host, Christopher Hayes | Activism
- …Hayes’ road to punditry wasn’t paved simply with some glib lines… Had he never set foot on a television set, his writing alone would have yielded plaudits that other scribes might wait a lifetime for. …
…”There’s the financial industrial complex and the military industrial complex,” Hayes explains, in his customarily energetic way. “The twin pillars that are the enemies of a just, humane, equitable society are, basically, the warfare state and the financial state.”
[Hey, don't forget about the prison industrial complex (i.e. near-slavery) and the police state which feeds it! -L]
…”One of the most radical acts you can do as a journalist right now — the most important act you can do as a journalist — is the simple act of explanation,” Hayes says.
- Live Free And Die – NYTimes.com – Paul Krugman
- Life expectancy is rising just about everywhere in the world
- Is Rupert in trouble? Real trouble? | Hullabaloo – by digby
- “In sum: It is now well-documented that employees of Murdoch’s News of the World British tabloid eavesdropped on the voice mail messages of practically anybody who was anybody in Britain for the better part of the last 10 years—the most recent revelations put Kate Middleton and Tony Blair on this list…”
American media companies just don’t go after each other. …I don’t think it’s an accident at all that nobody’s talking about this in the American media.
- Clarence Thomas Decided Three Cases Where AEI Filed A Brief After AEI Gave Him A $15,000 Gift | ThinkProgress – by Ian Millhiser
- In 2001, a conservative, corporate-aligned think tank called the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) gave Justice Clarence Thomas the gift of a $15,000 bust of Abraham Lincoln. …
Thomas…either voted in favor of the result AEI favored or took a stance that was even further to the right in [Riley v. Kennedy, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, Whitman v. American Trucking Association]…
- The Secret To Great Secondary Education | Pandagon – by Jesse Taylor
- Newsweek has released its list of America’s best high schools, which reveal one startling key to a great high school: selectively screening all but the highest achieving children. …
The nominal purpose of this ranking list is to “highlight solutions” in terms of preparing secondary students for life in the real world. How can you possibly draw any conclusions from a sample of high schools whose entire purpose is to not have to deal with the problems you’re attempting to solve?
- Inside the corrupt process | Hullabaloo – digby
- It looks like it won’t only be the Republicans who take “Obamacare” apart piece by piece. …
If that is his signature legacy you’d think he would exercise strong control over the Democrats on this one issue if nothing else.
- 50 Cent to Author Anti-Bullying Novel | The Root
- …a semiautobiographical young adult novel.
- Brown v. Board College Grants Go to Whites. Fair? | The Root
- It may appear that black people are the only ones who are hurt when racism and fear motivate policy decisions, but in the long term, all Americans suffer.
- Levee Breach Dooms Tiny Black Community | The Root
- A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision to blow up an eastern-Missouri levee to prevent flooding last month appears to have sealed the fate of a tiny African-American community.
The corps blew holes in the levee in early May to relieve pressure on communities upriver that were being threatened by floodwaters. Pinhook, a town of about 30 residents, took a big hit when water from the bloated Mississippi River flowed through it.
- Is Marriage for White People? Review | The Root
- When titles for this book were being considered, perhaps Why Middle Class Black Women Can’t Find a Man and How the Whole Problem Could Be Solved if They Would Just Marry White Guys didn’t have quite the ring the publisher was after.
But that’s pretty much what Stanford Law professor Ralph Richard Banks’ [book] is all about.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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