Category Archives: William K. Black

What is the U.S. Media up to in its Coverage of Ecuador?

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Devin Smith | 6 comments

If the Obama administration wanted to improve relations with Latin America the most obvious move would be to seek closer ties with Ecuador. Ecuador has been transformed into a nation with a stable political system, a head of state reelected by enormous margins in free elections, substantial economic progress, and a pragmatic development program. That program embraces policies that even the Washington Consensus praised that focus government expenditures on health, education, and infrastructure. The policies also champion an idea most identified with the conservative economist Hernando de Soto – making it far easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses. President Correa is the leader who continues to surprise his friends and foes by taking steps that make economic sense even if they are identified with the “right” while keeping a relentless focus on the needs of the poor. That focus on the poor comes from Correa’s Catholic social justice beliefs that the Pope has recently been returning to centrality.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged correa, ecuador, u.s. media

What Would It Take To Get Andrew Ross Sorkin To Call For Jamie Dimon To Resign?

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Devin Smith | 10 comments

By William K. Black

I have concluded that the journalists who write for the New York Times’ “Deal Book” are incapable of embarrassment or introspection. I have waited in vain for Andrew Ross Sorkin to make a New Year’s resolution to make 2014 a fresh start. There are scores of Deal Book article that drive a white-collar criminologist and a (real) financial regulator to despair. I focus here on one article by Sorkin on October 14, 2013 entitled “The Bloodlust of Pundits Swirls Around Jamie Dimon” that exemplifies how much harm Deal Book does because of its pandering to the elite financial CEOs who became wealthy from the frauds that drove the crisis, its ethics-free approach to financial fraud, and its analytical ennui. Deal Book could be a national asset, but it is a net liability. This first installment discussing their “Bloodlust” article analyzes Sorkin’s use of the world “bloodlust.”

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10 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, andrew ross sorking, banksters, jamie dimon

Brownbackian Science in Kansas v. “Atheistic Theology Posing as Science”

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Devin Smith | 3 comments

By William K. Black

This is my fifth installment describing the assault on education, science, sex, and modernity in Kansas that was inspired by the Koch brothers. The leader of Koch brothers’ retinue of politicians in Kansas is Governor Sam Brownback. In my prior column I explained how Steve Abrams, a leader of the Koch’s shock troops, demonstrated the wisdom of our family’s twin rules whenever he wrote an op ed. Our family rules are:

It is impossible to compete with unintentional self-parody, and
When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging

Abrams’ op eds were not the only gift to scientists and educators resisting the Kochs’ assaults on education, science, and modernity in Kansas. Political wonks will recall that (then) U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, in a May 2007 Republican debate among candidates for the 2008 Party nomination for the presidency, was one of three of those candidates who held up his hand when the moderator asked how many of them did not believe in evolution.

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3 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Brownback, evolution, kansas, Kochs, science, young earth creationists

The Icelandic Chutzpah Prize is Retired: Portes and Baldursson Win by Losing

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Portes as the poster child for the failure of econometrics and neoclassical dogma

Richard Portes is the economist that the U.K.’s neoclassical economists chose to be their representative. They consider him to represent the greatest strengths of neoclassical economists in general and econometricians in particular. “Econometricians” is a fancy term for economists whose specialty is statistics. Economics is unique in that one can receive exceptional honors from fellow-neoclassical economists for proving catastrophically wrong – repeatedly and causing immense human suffering. Wesley Marshall and I are doing a book that illustrates this point by focusing on Nobel Laureates in economics, and explains the underlying pathology that has so twisted the field. Portes has not been made a Laureate, but he is a global leader among neoclassical economists. Portes’ pronouncements on Iceland have proven so wrong, so often, that they serve a similar purpose in illustrating these crippling pathologies.

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Tagged accounting control fraud, Iceland, Portes

Kansas, Where Science De-Evolves into Creation Myths

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Devin Smith | 8 comments

By William K. Black

This is the fourth article in my evolving series of pieces prompted by the Kansas Regents’ new policy that eviscerates academic freedom and tenure. In my third installment I explained that the Regents’ action, while cowardly, unconstitutional, and self-destructive, was not taken on their initiative but in response to extortion by Kansas legislative leaders.

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8 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged academic freedom, creation myths, creationism, kansas, Koch, NRA

What about Ecuador?

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Devin Smith | 2 comments

By William K. Black

The Wall Street Journal has written it’s latest “just so” article about how leftist Latin American leaders (Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela) are bad and rightist Latin American leaders (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) are wonderful. It quotes favorably this dismissal of progressive leaders.

“’We set out to create the Pacific Alliance because we wanted to set ourselves apart from the populists,’ said Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Peruvian finance minister. ‘We wanted a thinking man’s axis.’”

No thinking women, allowed, of course. Dr. Michelle Bachelet just busted the “axis” by being re-elected President of Chile by a large margin. No one intelligent, of course, could be a progressive, at least that is what the right claims.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Bachelet, correa, ecuador

Christie’s Staff Reveals Why Christie will Never be President

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Devin Smith | 14 comments

By William K. Black

No one can know the strengths and weaknesses of an elected official as well as his close aides. The official, unintentionally, reveals a great deal about himself when he chooses those aides. It is also the relatively smaller things that are most telling about character. How do the official and his aides react not to moments of crisis but to the routine disappointments inherent in life? How does he routinely use power? What level of empathy do the official and his aides demonstrate in day-to-day life? Does he and do his aides care about all the citizens or only their political supporters?

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14 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged Chris Christie

They’re Back: The Poltergeists in the Kansas Senate Renew their Attack on Education

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Stephanie Kelton | 13 comments

By William K. Black

Two Kansas legislative leaders who have been attacking Kansas education for over a decade through their wars on teaching about sex and evolution are back. Their threats drove the Regents’ policy destroying academic freedom and tenure.

Poltergeist: A ghost that manifests itself by noises, rappings, and the creation of disorder – from the German Poltern (to make noise) and Geist (ghost).

I have written two prior columns (here and here) explaining how the Kansas Regents casually ended academic freedom and tenure in their universities with no notice to or participation by the faculty.

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13 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged academic freedom, kansas, Koch, NRA

The Kansas Regents’ (Unintentional) Honesty about Academic Freedom

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Devin Smith | 21 comments

By William K. Black

I published a column this morning about the Kansas Regents’ effective elimination of academic freedom of tenure.

In thinking about the rule I realized that I had failed to make in blunt terms five points about how radical a rule it was. I circulated these five points about an hour ago to a number of my contacts.

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21 Comments

Posted in William K. Black

Tagged academic freedom, Koch, NRA

The Kansas Regents (Casually) End Academic Freedom

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Devin Smith | 47 comments

By William K. Black

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, the Kansas Board of Regents drastically curtailed tenure and academic freedom. The state attorney general aided this action. The Regents decided that when university faculty use common forms of modern communication (“social media”) they no longer have the protections of tenure and academic freedom. The Regents’ policy change does not even mention tenure or academic freedom. The Regents acted without consulting the faculty and without any open debate.

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