The American Ruling Class Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s Magazine, wrote this “cleverly contrived non-fiction film” (New York Press) that follows two fictional Yale grads around as they ask some of America’s cultural, political, and economic elite (Walter Cronkite, James Baker III, Robert Altman, Pete Seeger, Lawrence Summers, Kurt Vonnegut, Bill Bradley, Howard Zinn) to …
Continue reading “Sat. March 10, 2012 – 2 p.m. “The American Ruling Class””
For those wishing to learn the root cause of worsening poverty on an afternoon schedule, our final Winter term Progress & Poverty course starts this Monday, February 27. This is the modern version of the course, meeting for five consecutive Mondays thru March 26. Class starts at 2:30. As always, you’re welcome to attend the …
Continue reading “Feb 27, 2:30 PM: Progress & Poverty course”
Our Political Economy Book Club continues its discussion of Book I of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”. This session covers the second half of Book I (chapters 10 & 11). “The Wealth of Nations” is available for free download at http://www.gutenberg.org/. Feel free to participate even if you haven’t yet read the book and …
Continue reading “Feb. 22, 2012 – Political Economy Book Club continues with Wealth of Nations”
This documentary on much-needed education reforms is a clear-headed, gripping indictment. Using New Jersey as a case study, director Bob Bowdon lays out why one of the country’s most expensive school districts has one of the highest dropout rates and lowest standardized test scores. The problem is corruption, union bureaucracy, and reactionary politics. “Where the …
If you have not taken, or would like to refresh your knowledge of, Progress & Poverty, you’ll have two opportunities to start this week. At our Loop location, a Monday night class starts January 23 at 6 PM. This is the modern version, and Bob Jene will be the instructor In the South Suburbs, our …
Continue reading “Jan 23 and 28: Two more Progress & Poverty opportunities”
Curious Georgists Go to the Movies present Dr. Strangelove. You need to have a unique (and twisted) sense of humor to find nuclear holocaust entertaining, but director Stanley Kubrick does a marvelous job of balancing his truely bizzare humor with the gut-wrenching terror felt in the Cold War era. The political satire stars Peter Sellers portraying …
On Bob Jene will look at eight Republican presidential candiates, analyzing their proposals to “fix” the economy. (Yeah, there used to be more than eight, and by the time of the talk there probably will be fewer than eight, but Bob is working with eight.) He’ll also consider the views of their advisors, and evaluate …
Successful land speculation is really a matter of capturing for yourself the gains that belong to the community. George Menninger is one of many who have done it. Far beyond any need to earn a living, George now spends some of his time explaining how the bad public policy he exploited not only made him …
Continue reading “How I made a million dollars in Chicago real estate: I $tole it from you!”
Traditional Henry George School classes, including Progress & Poverty, help us comprehend how an economy based on justice would never crash the way ours has over the past few years. But now that we’re in a mess, how do we get out? After the Crash extends and applies Henry George’s analysis to the problem of …
We call this course Economics as if God Cared. The United States has no formal established church, yet matters of religion keep popping in political campaigns. What has the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious tradition to do with questions of political economy? One perspective is to ask how “God” advises us to organize our economic life. According to …
Continue reading “April 16 Monday: What has religion to do with political economy?”
