Economics - Compelled to Move Forward

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025

A CONSERVATIVE’S CALL TO QUELL THE VITRIOL AND VIOLENCE

As a conservative for over 40 years, I’m compelled to call out fellow conservatives for driving divisions among us and stoking violence. When tragedy strikes, like a shooting or assassination, all should know to restrain impulses to disparage the deceased and refrain from a rush to judgement. Tragically, our nation’s leaders, President Trump and VP Vance chose to quickly and very publicly blame “the radical left” and “left-wing radicals who gunned down Charlie Kirk”.

August 31, 2025September 3, 2025

TURNING TOWARDS THE GREATER GOOD

As a lifelong conservative, it grieves me to witness how the vast majority of political “leaders” have abandoned the values that once defined them, chosen to play to a base they’ve radicalized for their own purposes, and failed to articulate, let alone champion, policies that would serve the greater good. While “Republican” leaders seem to have won the day in taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and Democratic leaders press into righteous indignation against Republicans, I submit that we need to step back, at least a little, from what we’re against and step into what we’re for. That’s a hard thing to do when President Trump has marshalled the whole of government to forcefully advance an agenda thoroughly antithetical to our core values. However, for the sake of both our mental health and our civic effectiveness, we need to turn, at least partially, away from all the zero-sum negotiations and law suits being battled out, and focus on win-win, non-zero-sum opportunities to improve the lives of people and our country.

June 21, 2025June 21, 2025

ECONOMIC MALFEASANCE

As a conservative and a student of economics for over 40 years, it’s been downright painful to witness the economic malfeasance of the Trump Administration. Were it not happening in real time, it would be hard to believe any President would intentionally initiate trade wars with our allies, reduce the pool of labor needed to sustain growth, dismantle teams of experts working on our most pressing problems, reduce funding for public and higher education that underpin future economic prosperity, cut the overseers of our fiscal integrity, and damage the confidence our economy is built on. Tragically, it’s inevitable that these actions will create more uncertainty, stoke inflation and push us into a recession.

May 8, 2025May 8, 2025

THE AUDACITY OF EVIL

While former President Obama lifted us with “The Audacity of Hope”, tragically today, we are witnessing daily the audacity of evil. While none should find it difficult to recognize the conduct of my fellow Republicans in Congress as self-preserving cowardice, and the conduct of wealthy MAGA supporters as greedy, the conduct of President Trump seems to be in an altogether different class.

March 7, 2025March 10, 2025

“WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE”

With the holidays and songs of “peace on earth” having wafted well behind us, and years of political turmoil before us, perhaps it would be worthwhile to inquire, how can we find peace when lies, greed, and gross injustice, run rampant right under our noses?

October 30, 2024December 10, 2024

DECEPTION

Deception. It’s been a plague on humanity since Eve was beguiled to take a bite from the apple. Whether self-induced, or seeded and cultivated by those determined to profit from it, deception has driven many wars and resulted in incalculable destruction, heartache and loss of human potential. Hitler lured Germans into believing Jews were to blame for their economic problems, President Johnson told the American people not to “worry about Vietnam” and sent tens of thousands of young men into a war he knew we wouldn’t win, and George W Bush pressured us into believing Iraq had WMDs while the CIA warned him they didn’t. These are just a few examples of “leaders”, bent on their own self-serving agendas, bent on gaining and holding onto power, choosing to lure people into believing falsehoods, with disastrous consequences.

April 22, 2024May 11, 2024

A TRAGIC SYMBOSIS

Most of us learned in public school how a symbiosis is a “close biological relationship between different species”. Most of the time these relationships are co-dependences that benefit both species. Sometimes they’re fatal. Tragically, as a growing number of Christians have tried to assert their influence in political arenas, the accelerating ties between those who call themselves Christians and most Republican “leaders” dependent on their votes, has devolved to the detriment and mutation of both.

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024

INFLATION AND THE ECONOMY

While we often like to think America is “Number One”, underneath that veneer of bravado, we often feel like important aspects of our country are far from stable and fair. Inflation has undermined family budgets, and our economy often feels far from stable and prosperous. As we try to cope with these challenges, rather than follow in the footsteps of politicians whose dominant response is lashing out at political rivals, perhaps it would good to step back, examine why these aspects of our country are running far from what they ought to be, and what can be done to make things better.

September 15, 2023September 24, 2023

RESPONDING TO GLOBAL WARMING

Given the extreme heat we’ve endured, beach water that’s become as warm as a bathtub, smoke from massive wildfires, and a substantial increase in flash and hurricane flooding, hopefully those still dismissing global warming or calling it a hoax are few and far between. With climate change now beginning to bite into our lives, all are now able to see the earth’s response to the pollution we’ve poured into it and are without excuse. Just as CS Lewis explained how “God whispers to us in our pleasures, …but shouts in our pain”, hopefully we can now hear the earth screaming at us over the damage we’ve done, continue to do, and the need to change.

November 6, 2022November 6, 2022

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?

While advocating for America and protesting against candidates in my own Republican Party over the last five years, it’s been interesting to witness how much people have changed. Typically, hundreds of people respond with a big thank you and thumbs-up, while a few dozen hurl demeaning names at me and curse me. I’ve become accustomed to that, but several interactions lately, exemplifying a level of anger and ill-informed opinion I’d rarely seen before, lead me to wonder if it might be fruitful for all of us to take a step back and question the choices we’re making and what we’ve become.