First-year students (especially those in my introduction to economics classes) often ask this question. I have a set of stories I tell and statistics I give them, but now I have something else: videos! Our department's video: A new video from the American Economic Association: A career in Economics...it's much more than you think from American Economic Association on Vimeo. If … [Read more...]
Trying to understand how Minnesota became “above average” since World War II is one of my intellectual passions. I just finished Citizen Swain: Tales from a Minnesota Life by Tom H. Swain (with Lori Sturdevant) and came away with a much improved understanding on how Minnesotans accomplished this feat. At the center of it was active civic engagement by men and women who moved between the public … [Read more...]
Yesterday in Iowa, Senator Marco Rubio joined the discussion about the value of the liberal arts. According to Inside Higher Education, Rubio made the same point in the past: "'So you can decide if it's worth borrowing $50,000 to major in Greek philosophy,' The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reported Rubio as saying. 'Because after all, the market for Greek philosophers has been very tight for … [Read more...]