Facing a barrage of global and local crises of all kinds over the last several months, media pundits large and small (not to mention your crazy uncle Ralph) are offering up a bewildering and contradictory variety of opinions, each of them sure that they’re right, and each backed up by their own set of “facts.” […]
In 1949, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein visited Norman Malcolm (a professor of Philosophy at Cornell and a former student of Wittgenstein’s) for three months. On the first night of Wittgenstein’s visit, the Malcolms presented a makeshift dinner of liverwurst sandwiches, apologizing that they had not had a chance to do much shopping in preparation; however, […]
A misleading narrative has gripped the popular imagination in the United States over the last few months as we continue to struggle with re-opening our economy in the face of ever-increasing COVID-19 cases. That narrative is this: personal freedom is diametrically opposed to the well-being of the communities we live in. The moment we begin […]
Will COVID19 cause us to re-think government policy around economic security in the United States? Is some kind of basic financial security a privilege for the few, or a necessity for all citizens, especially in times of crisis? For at least the last hundred years, major economic crises have resulted in the strengthening of the […]
The world is a scary place right now: the novel coronavirus is spreading around the globe; the Saudis and Russians have picked the worst possible moment to engage in an all-out oil price war; financial markets have dropped about 30% since their record highs just a short time ago and entered bear market territory; and […]
It’s the New Year, the season when we typically make our lists of resolutions – the things we resolve to do in the coming year to make progress on our goals. The practice is an ancient one with religious roots, starting with the Babylonians about 4,000 years ago in conjunction with the religious festival of […]
