Over one-third of total managed financial assets in the US are in funds that seek so-called sustainable investments, mostly in pursuit of strategies that focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations. In this talk, I evaluate the models of shareholder versus stakeholder capitalism, and argue that shareholder capitalism should be preserved. I consider how […]
How Will AI Change Ethics?
Please join the Salem Center as we welcome Pedro Domingos to discuss AI. The ethical issues surrounding AI have received a lot of attention lately, but unfortunately it’s all been about shoehorning AI into current Western ethical norms. But AI will dramatically change society and therefore ethics, as did previous technological revolutions (e.g., printing, the pill). This talk will examine how AI might change our views of what’s ethical and what’s not, and how […]
Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom
Please join the Salem Center as we welcome Dr. Ilya Somin to discuss how broadening opportunities for foot voting can greatly enhance political liberty for millions of people around the world. People can vote with their feet through international migration, choosing where to live within a federal system, and by making decisions in the private […]
Energy for All and Environmental Protection on The Journey to a Global Net Zero
Join us in person at RRH 4.314 or via Zoom here. Address: 300 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX, 78705 This is a thought-provoking nonpartisan presentation on the dual challenge facing ‘Spaceship Earth’ with 8 billion people ‘on deck’: energy for all and environmental protection. 2.4 billion people need access to clean cooking, […]
How Higher Education Betrayed the Public Interest
Between rising student debts, a dysfunctional employment market, and a sharp leftward shift in the ideological climate on campus, America’s university system is in peril of alienating the taxpaying public that sustains its basic operations. Using the tools of economic analysis, this lecture will examine what went wrong with American higher education and how we […]
Fossil Future: The Epstein/Caplan/Hanson Conversation
Bryan Caplan and Robin Hanson interview – and challenge – Alex Epstein about his controversial new book, *Fossil Future*. How many “climate denialists” really exist – and what should they take away from Epstein’s book? How widespread is the view that “nature is sacred” – and what’s the best way to deal with it? Why […]
Economic Inequality: Popular Misconceptions and Important Facts
Join us for a Policy@McCombs in person at RRH 4.314. Many people who worry about economic inequality are unaware of the facts about inequality. Here are five: (1) income inequality can rise even while poverty is falling; (2) even if everyone of the same age earned the exact same income, income inequality would be substantial; […]
Lecture #2: Marxist Philosophy
George Walsh (c.1923-2001) was one of those old-school professors who wrote little but read everything. These four lectures on Marxism, delivered in the mid-80s a few years before the collapse of the Soviet bloc, distill decades of study of Marxist ideas with great insight and humor. Lecture 1 covers the Marxism’s intellectual precursors; lecture 2 […]
Lecture #1: The Precursors of Marxism
George Walsh (c.1923-2001) was one of those old-school professors who wrote little but read everything. These four lectures on Marxism, delivered in the mid-80s a few years before the collapse of the Soviet bloc, distill decades of study of Marxist ideas with great insight and humor. Lecture 1 covers the Marxism’s intellectual precursors; lecture 2 […]
Science and Politics: Three Principles, Three Fables
Dorian Abbot has an undergraduate degree in physics (2004, Harvard) and a PhD in applied math (2008, Harvard). He came to the University of Chicago as a Chamberlin Fellow in 2009 and stayed on as a faculty member in 2011. Abbot uses mathematical and computational models to understand and explain fundamental problems in Earth and […]