This week’s host/co-producer Sanjeet Deka and co-producer C.P. Smith examine the ongoing debate facing defense acquisition and procurement. Guests interviewed for the show include: Admiral Bobby Inman, Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Former Deputy Director of the CIA; Kenneth Flamm, Professor of Economics and […]
Re-thinking Poverty
U.S. welfare policy is based on short-term goals; most welfare programs provide short-term assistance but their ability to support upward movement in the labor market is limited. The reason for this is the way poverty is viewed and understood in the United States. For more effective policy we need a thorough understanding of what poverty […]
Before sunrise on November 7, 2005, I joined members of the Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Públicos as we erected a blue tent in front of the Palacio de Justicia in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Volunteers readied vote deposit boxes, paper ballots, and signature pages in anticipation of the crowds of people to come. Over the next two […]
Who noticed when the titans of finance proclaimed absolute mastery over risk? Who stayed up late at night worrying about the outrageous levels of borrowing needed to feed our profit-hungry investment banks? And who noticed when the markets stopped behaving rationally? Markets are supposed to rely on buyers’ and sellers’ complete understanding of the consequences […]
This week on Dialectica: Co-producers Chris Holcomb and Jon Rogers explore the issue of government transparency. Includes interviews with Dr. Gary Chapman of the LBJ School and the 21st Century Project, Damien Brockman of Billhop.com, James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and LBJ second-year student (and LBJ Radio Group member) Sean Reyna. [soundcloud […]
Last week, 7 Online Editors were named to the LBJ Journal of Public Affairs. Please join me in welcoming our new staff: Akram Al-Turk Erin Boeke Burke Beth Casey Garrett Groves Emily Joiner Dianna Long Sameen Siddiqi Together we hope to bring the Online Edition of the LBJ Journal to new heights during the 2008-2009 […]
“My mother always said democracy is the best revenge,” remarked Bilawal Bhutto Zardari after reading his mother’s will, which declared him Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Like her son, Benazir Bhutto was also appointed chairman of the PPP without elections. It is somehow ironic that these strong advocates of “democracy” were not themselves […]
Main Street Blues
Politicians and others in recent weeks have been liberal in invoking the image of a suffering main street when considering the so-called Wall Street bailout plan and its potential effects on the average American. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama each used variations of the term twice during Friday’s debate, and traditional media and bloggers […]
Over and over again I hear people discussing the possibility of the United States losing its position of leadership in the world. China, they say, is rising. Russia, they worry, is becoming more belligerent. What is going to happen, they wonder, when America is no longer number one? This subject attracts a lot of attention. […]
In 1990, with the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and again in 1998 with the passing of the Section 508 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Americans with disabilities won victories toward the better use of technology for all. Like curb-cuts outside office buildings or wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, the purpose of these acts […]