Is there such a thing as too little corruption or too much anti-corruption? High levels of transparency and low levels of corruption in government and the private sector are critical to the stability of a democratic society. Even the appearance of corruption is known to erode public trust and social cohesion. As a result, populist…
Links have a new look! Starting this week, we will be posting our links as separate posts in order to keep each one digestibly short and a bit less eclectic (this makes it easier to have focused discussions in the comments too). Ten ideas to save the economy. Robert Reich, UC Berkeley professor and former Secretary of…
From Matt: ‘Shallow, selfish, and self-absorbed‘ (Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic): Despite its tongue-in-cheek-title, this article – drawing on a recent book by a similar name – provides an interesting take on why more and more people these days, women in particular, are choosing to not have kids. The article’s (and book’s) objective was to remove some of…
-Matt Burgess & Ian Burgess- On November 7, 2006, Michigan voters passed Proposal 2, the ‘Michigan Civil Rights Initiative’ (MCRI), by a 58%-42% margin. The MCRI amended Michigan’s constitution to ban affirmative action programs “granting preferential treatment to…any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” in public employment,…
–Matt Burgess- In July 2009, a group of scientists, led by Boris Worm of Dalhousie University and Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, published a study in the prestigious journal Science synthesizing the current state of knowledge on the status of global fisheries. The study found that a large fraction of well-studied fish populations have been severely depleted…
The Tête-à-Tête 