I generally accept that the planet is getting warmer, albeit at a more gradual pace than the politicized models of global warming alarmists suggest. Far from a cry to action though, acceptance of this fact warrants little more than a “so what?” If you doubt me, here’s a little historical thought experiment to consider: The first […]
Whether one agrees with its findings or not, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century has had a profound impact on the study of inequality in the United States. Partisans of the work hastily embraced his suspect empirics as confirmation of exploding inequality, and this endorsement has largely filtered into the political discourse where it is
Earlier this month the St. Louis Federal Reserve published a new briefing paper by economists William R. Emmons and Lowell B. Ricketts, in which they claimed to find recent evidence of the growing inequality trends predicted in Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century. As asserted in the Fed paper: “Data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances
Fed economists attempt to piketty their own U.S. inequality data Read More »
One of the most pervasive and pernicious myths of the adjunct activist movement is the claim that somewhere in the neighborhood of 75% of current university faculty are adjuncts. This figure derives from the frequently hapless, though sometimes intentional, conflation of terminology. Yet another example of this happened today in the Christian Science Monitor, which cited
Dear AAUP & Media: Non-Tenure Track does not equal Adjunct Read More »
Suppose you produce research that promotes global warming alarmism, and a regulatory tax scheme aimed at curtailing carbon emissions. Also suppose that your study is financed by somebody who has a large fortune in solar panels, wind, and other alternative energy companies that compete with fossil fuels, which will rake in billions when the taxes and regulations
In light of the recent Paris climate change summit, a number of representatives of the political class have set their sights upon what they deem “climate denialism.” The term is frequently used as a pejorative to dismiss persons who are skeptical of the many proposed political responses to global warming, but in its most narrow
Persons who peddle what they incorrectly label as “free market” arguments for climate change intervention almost invariably justify their prescription upon the claim that global warming causes “harm.” If such “harm” exists, then it follows that some sort of remediation (e.g. regulation, or the oft-favored carbon tax) is a legitimate corrective to the “harm” committed upon a person
Climate change may be real, but where are all of its “victims”? Read More »
Though regulated and at times highly distorted, academic employment is fundamentally a creature of market forces. Full time academic employment has actually kept pace with student enrollment growth since at least 1970, contrary to a number of myths that are often carelessly repeated in the press and by adjunct activists. Full time jobs are not disappearing under any
Why are there so many adjuncts in English & Literature departments? Read More »
When Thomas Piketty’s main inequality chart for the United States came under scrutiny from myself and others over the last year, he was largely non-responsive despite his mounting of a vigorous defense of other areas of his data. (My step-by-step deconstruction of the chart may be found here for reference. Similar criticisms figured prominently in my article
Saez-Zucman, the “Forbes 400,” and a new round of inequality data oddities Read More »
A few months back I ran a few basic calculations that refuted the myth of the “minimum wage adjunct” by showing that an adjunct faculty member would have to spend an absurdly high number of hours on out-of-class preparation time and grading to even approach an hourly equivalent wage that fell below the minimum wage. I revisited
An Adjunct’s Guide to Calculating Your Hourly Wage Equivalent Read More »