Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Archive for February, 2011

Beliefs vs. Preferences vs. Facts.

Most of us spend much too little time separating our beliefs from our preferences from facts about reality. We tend to think that our beliefs are grounded in facts, despite repeated evidence that they rarely are. Beliefs get us into more trouble than preferences, or as pioneering blogger Mark Twain put it “It ain’t what you don’t [...]

Michael Lewis: When Capitalists Try to Destroy Capitalism

If the global financial collapse has a silver lining it’s the Vanity Fair accounts by Michael Lewis of how three different European countries responded to the meltdown. We can only hope that Lewis adds to these reports and turns them into another best-selling book. Lewis (Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short) is [...]

Astral Weeks: Venturing in the Slipstream

Sometimes an artist captures lightning in a bottle. Usually they aren’t sure how it happened and few can repeat the magic regularly. In 1968, Van Morrison recorded Astral Weeks under awful circumstances. Today, it is widely recognized as a transcendant work, truly one of the greatest albums ever recorded. It is an album that has made me [...]

The Federal Budget: Getting What We Asked For.

Budgeting is governing, so the federal budget is rightly the stage for intense political struggle. It also means that a budget is fundamentally as much about setting the stage for a political fight as it is a reflection of priorities. So what does the new stage look like? You can see a more interactive version here. [...]

Mills College: Women’s Education in a Post-Male World

Towards the end of last year’s hit movie, The Kids are All Right, Nic and Jules (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore) drop off their daughter Joni (Mia Wasikowska) to begin her freshmen year at an attractive, unnamed college. The campus was gorgeous — its stately buildings and lawns captured the promise of a nourishing and provocative [...]