Adumbration

We might tell ourselves that the moon landing was about exploration and science, but perspectives of time and profession show the years of the space race in the context of the cold war. Those Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions were footnotes to the main story, that the United States could launch the biggest god-damn bomb in the history of the universe and land it in the middle of the Kremlin. more »

Not every scarce thing is valuable to lots of people, or even to a few people. Setting aside lifeboat situations and the like, our individual time in this life is unique in being both extremely scarce and generally non-transferable.  This note aims to r… more »

One of the things I appreciated about this episode was the explicit accounting of three perspectives with respect to social justice:  that from the standpoint of natural rights, the question of effectiveness towards ends, and that of how the institution… more »

Along the way to dispute the identity of money and wealth, I said that money developed from commodities that held intrinsic (albeit subjective) value and had those other characteristics, ... more »

This side project was a six part book club discussion of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759), which besides the Wealth of Nations (1776) is perhaps the most well known writings of 18th century economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) Theory of Moral Senti… more »

They talk around, about, and through the questions about what distinguishes non-profit from for-profit enterprises. Love, Money, Profits, and Non-profits (4/19/2010) - Mike Munger of Duke University talks about the world of profit, money, love, gifts,… more »

on cultural mores and global differences Cultural Norms (8/31/2009) - Michael Munger of Duke University talks about cultural norms--the subtle signals we send to each other in our daily interactions. Mike, having returned from a four-month stint as a… more »

The discussion starts with characterizing three aspects of liberalism: substantive (a set of principles), procedural (societal organization), and temperamental (individual willingness to experiment). Liberalism (5/11/2009) - Alan Wolfe, Professor of P… more »

I discover in my post-holiday reading that R W Bradford has died of illness. I recall my first connection to the man - it was though the money and currency newsletter and precious metals exchange he operated in Michigan back in the 1980's.  What drew… more »

If the police in our town were to spray bullets into a crowded street in the hope of stopping one criminal who might be there, we would gasp in horror. Let us not then allow our government to do the equivalent on a international scale, by recklessly bombing cities around the world. more »