Rational Conduct

Okay, so I haven’t blogged in some time.  My bad.

What have I been doing, though?  Mostly the usual.  The final few weeks of the final term of the year were hectic with final projects, presentations, papers, and exams that had me stressed and kept me extremely busy (thankfully I made the presidents list for the third term in a row, woot!).

The very next week I had a Business Law class in a type of format that I don’t think many schools offer.  They call it a “mini.”  Basically, you sit in a classroom for eight hours a day and learn the subject then you go home and spend the rest of the night reading and studying the material trying to soak up as much information as possible.  Again, very stressful and kept me very busy.

THEN, I took a summer session.  Much less hectic, and it was a subject I am good at and enjoy:  Principles of Accounting III.  For two weeks, five days a week, four hours a day, you learn the basics of managerial accounting.  In my first two accounting classes I have realized I actually somewhat enjoy it and have decided that next year I will officially make it my minor.

Wait.  I’m not done yet.  Last week I was in Detroit at the Detroit Economic Club’s National Summit.  I actually took it as a substitute for one of my classes (Ethics, who needs ‘em in this market anyways?  Of course, I kid).  I’m glad I was able to go.  There were a lot of interesting and very innovative ideas and you could tell the entrepreneurial spirit was with many of these people.  I got to see people from Google, the CEO of Microsoft Steve Balmer, CEOs from both Ford and GM, among many other CEOs from FedEx, Research in Motion, etc, with about 60 CEOs from some of the biggest companies in the nation attending and speaking.  Also academics and politicians like the Secretary of Commerce, a senator from Michigan, Jennifer Granholm governor of Michigan, and Obama’s Chief Technology Officer.  I could probably go on and on with the list to be quite honest.  Many speeches were fascinating and you can really tell why these people are leaders, they really have a gift for speaking and getting ideas across to your average person.

However, I kept getting the feeling I was not at an economic conference but rather a lobbying conference.  It was very evident with so many influential eyes of the nation watching them they felt the need to advocate whatever their pet project was.  The energy companies were advocating more energy subsidies and regulation.  The manufacturing companies were advocating more money toward manufacturing subsidies.  The education companies (and really everyone else) was advocating throwing more money toward education.  It just seemed like everyone was out to get “theirs” and everyone else seemed to be drinking the kool-aid being served.

The ideological or even academic arguments for many of the policies they were advocated either were completely absent or lacking substance.  For example, Senator Debbie Stabenow was asked about protectionism and the first thing she said was “I’m against protectionism,” followed by the caveat, “BUT,” and then went into a long diatribe about how we need to, quote, “level the playing field” listing several protectionist policies.  Ugh.  I guess I expected it from the politicians, but the CEOs were just as bad in most cases (there was actually a many decent arguments against protectionism from the CEOs, however, their other policies were just as bad in other areas).

It wasn’t too bad though.  Once we got back to our hotel each of the three nights we got more free market speakers.  Lawrence Reed the first night, Terry L. Anderson the second night, and Peter Schiff the last night.  Larry gave a fascinating speech on the parallels of the current state of the U.S. with the ancient Roman Republic and how it fell into the Roman Empire.  Mr. Anderson gave a speech about how environmental issues would be better served if instead of reaching for government solutions first thing we rather looked to private property rights which made for another fascinating speech.  And Peter Schiff gave his speech I have heard so many times before, but was great to finally get to watch in person.  Peter is actually one of the reasons I’m back at school studying economics, banking and finance, so that was definitely the highlight of my week.  Next week I will be busy writing a research paper for a large chunk of my grade for the Ethics substitute for this seminar.

Finally, I get to this week.  This week I’m attending a superb seminar sponsored by the Foundation for Economic Education and its wonderful donors!  History and Liberty is the topic of the seminar.  This, thus far and by far, has been the highlight of my summer.  I have got to meet and have breakfast with Lawrence Reed, Sheldon Richman, Robert Higgs (one of favorite, if not favorite, economic historians!), Brad Birzer, Burt Folsom and the rest of the wonderful speakers.  This morning I got to talk about the Grateful Dead and other folk and bluegrass bands with Sheldon (little known fact (or at least I didn’t know), he plays the mandolin and bass guitar) and also got into a fascinating discussion about intellectual property rights  with him over breakfast.  The speeches are superb and far surpass my expectations, and I can’t wait for the other two FEE seminars I plan to attend this summer!

Later on this summer, as I just said, I have two more FEE seminars, and then an International Trade summer session class.  Should be exciting.  After that, it will be August which I plan to go back to my home state, Minnesota, for a couple weeks and visit friends and family.  Then to Montana to visit my Mom, Sister, and Nephew for another couple weeks.  I’m excited to see those familiar faces, but probably before I know it it will time to head back to Michigan and back to my studies.  It’s okay though, I love what I’m doing here.

The post started being just a quick update and ended up being much longer than I intended.  But, I’m not entirely sure how much blogging I will be getting into this summer.  Hopefully more than as of late.  I really do enjoy it, and I think it has refined my skills as a writer which I think have gotten rusty since I slowed down as I’m sure is noticable by the jumbled, random, and poorly organized post this has become.  I’ve just been so damned busy.  Anyways, I will try and get back in a groove and get more regular.  I just wouldn’t count on it being anytime really soon.   I hope you all, the few who read my blog, are having a good summer.