Social distancing is giving us a lot of time to think. And except for keeping each other safe from this disease, what could be more useful than trying to learn from the pandemic for the future. This is not a commentary on the abject failure of the Federal government to deal with the pandemic in […]
The theory of efficient markets, when applied beyond financial markets, is proposed by those who bridle against government regulation of business. Their idea is that markets will punish bad behavior of individual firms or even whole industries and thus create incentives for firms to produce goods and services without harming employees, consumers, or the environment. […]
We went for the first time this year to the Orono Bog Boardwalk on Monday morning. This is an absolute gem of a resource for the Penobscot Valley community, giving people easy access to a part of our Acadian landscape that is not often so easily visited. If you have never been there you will […]
One narrative about the Yellow Vest protests in France is that politicians should not adopt energy taxes to change behaviors that lead to climate change. In this telling, the political costs of wise energy policy are too high. This is an overly simple reading of the French experience and is a convenient excuse for those […]
Not that long ago the purchase of many types of alcoholic beverages in Maine required a visit to a State-run liquor store. This was rooted in the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which ended the Prohibition era in 1933 and allowed states to regulate importation of liquor. But no longer, Maine got out of […]
The pain and suffering of the residents of coastal Texas and Louisiana fill us all with feelings of empathy and concern for their future. Most of us can only imagine losing all of our physical possessions and having to start over again. Hurricane Harvey brought an unprecedented rainfall event in U.S. weather history. So the […]
Republicans in Congress failed to fulfill their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), called by them “Obamacare.” The fight over the fate of the ACA reflected a narrow ideological battle over health insurance in the United States. At issue were different world views on who should provide health insurance (private firms, public programs, […]
Back in January I wondered out loud, Was the Internet a Good Idea? To my way of thinking the information technology (IT) revolution of the past 25 years has been a mixed blessing. It both created amazing tools for doing everyday tasks and introduced whole new means of mindless addiction and criminal opportunities. This IT […]
