Menckenism

A debate is raging among free market advocates regarding the proper posture to take with respect to Too Big to Fail (TBTF) banks. This has become an increasingly important issue as the financial sector has grown to take up an unprecedented share of our economy. While cleaving to tried-and-true libertarian defenses of finance as vital to the economy, some of us fear that the machinations of the crony capitalists running the TBTF banks—in cahoots with their allies in the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve—will result in not only another global financial collapse, but a populist anti-capitalist backlash that could destroy what’s left of our free enterprise system.

But before we can tackle this problem, we must figure out what is really going on. In all public policy debates, perceptions matter, and public perceptions are often driven by the leading narratives that gain cultural acceptance. Let’s look at what these are.

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The controversy surrounding the $400-million Encode project’s dubious public relations claims surrounding the function of ‘junk DNA’ and the Battelle Institute’s defense of the $3-billion Human Genome Project (HGP) as an economic miracle make this a good time to examine President Obama’s recent attempt to bring more of American science under centralized direction and control.

Well-established and politically connected scientists are salivating over the $100 million down payment proposed by the president this week for his BRAIN Initiative, (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, previously referred to as the Brain Activity Map project). No surprised here given the $2 billion promised in his State of the Union address. But young scientists not yet aboard the federal gravy train should recognize this as a threat to their future as independent researchers.

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Alumni need to take a practical approach to ensuring safety

I’ve been a Chi Phi since a week after I arrived on campus in the fall of 1972. I can honestly say that ever since then Chi Phi has been the central institution of my life. It is the source of my greatest friendships, my strength in times of trouble, the avenue through which I’ve enjoyed a cornucopia of inter-generational relationships, and the organization to which I give the most back, currently taking my turn to serve as president of our house corporation.

Because the Greek system at MIT is so strong, I know that I’m not unique in any of this. But since some of the fraternities are less well supported by their alumni than others—and because undergraduates at even well supported groups sometimes forget what role we play—I thought I’d share a few thoughts about some of the responsibilities a fraternity house corporation carries in keeping their chapters healthy, thriving, and out of trouble.

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GDP: Gross Distorted Product? BLS: Bureau of Lying Statistics?

Rick Santelli & Bill Frezza tell it like it is. To watch the video click here.

Let’s face it. We Baby Boomers made a total hash of democracy, hoisting it aboard a runaway train of unfunded entitlement spending with the throttles on full. Then, rather than address the problem, we got the engineer and conductor brawling over how much the first class passengers should tip the porter. But despite the mess we made, we sure have held on to one important skill. Man, are we good at suckering the young into impoverishing themselves to pay for our folly.

Courtesy TobyToons

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Concerned scientists on the dole reacted with fury when an amendment to the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, offered by spending scold Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), passed the Senate. It will limit the National Science Foundation’s ability to award political science grants to only those projects directly related to national security or the economic interests of the United States. “The amendment makes all scientific research vulnerable to the whims of political pressure,” shrieked the American Political Science Association in a press release.

The horror! Imagine what would happen if entrenched technocrats and the tenured professors they support were actually held accountable by the elected representatives of the taxpayers who pay their bills?

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As a chronic prognosticator of doom, I’m often asked, “Do you heed your own warnings?” I sure didn’t last time the stock market crashed. Despite forecasting the dot-com collapse in November 1999 (in an article titled, “Living in the Shadow of Vesuvius, The Dotcom Economy Parties On”) I froze like a deer in the headlights as I watched $2 million in newly earned wealth evaporate before my eyes, all the while chanting, “It’ll come back, it’ll come back!”

Never again. This time I am making contingency plans. Perhaps these will motivate you to make your own, if the recent unpleasantness in Cyprus isn’t reason enough.

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