The Imitation Game: Machines Imitating Man?

What does it mean to understand something? Put another way, what counts as understanding? The film, The Imitation Game (2014), touches on the question of whether machines (i.e., computers) can think, but the film falls needlessly short in pursuing the question. My aim here is to show how film can be more substantive along philosophical lines without sacrificing on entertainment value.

The full essay is at “The Imitation Game.”

Behind the Lower 2014 U.S. Federal Budget Deficit: A New Default

The U.S. Government’s fiscal deficit of $483 billion for fiscal-year 2014 is the lowest since 2007.[1] At a preliminary 3% of GDP, that deficit is much better than the 2010 deficit, which came in at 10% of the GDP. To be sure, the American economy was larger in 2014. Also, the federal government’s overall fiscal improvement masks changes “behind the curtain” that may not be so palatable.

The full essay is at “U.S. Federal Budget Deficit.”

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[1] Josh Zumbrun, “Budget Deficit Reaches a Seven-Year Low,” The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2015. The budget deficit for the calendar year came in at $488 billion.

Relaxing State Deficit Restrictions: Power-Grab by the European Commission

As the World Bank came out with its revised prediction of 1.1 percent economic growth for the E.U. (“eurozone”) in 2015, down from the earlier estimate of 1.8%,[1] the European Commission announced that it would allow states more leeway in meeting the federal requirement that state budget deficits be no more than 3 percent of their respective economic outputs. Lest this appear as a sign of political impotence, the “strings” demonstrate the opposite.

The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon.

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[1] Ian Talley, “World Bank Lowers Global Outlook,” The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2015.

Oil Supply: Problem or Panacea?

Between June 2014 and January 14, 2015, crude oil prices fell by 57 percent. Between November 1985 and March 1986, the prices had fallen by 67 percent.[1] That time, it took nearly two decades for oil prices to rebound. Would it take that long again? The answer has implications for how efficient the market mechanism itself is, and in turn for public policy on energy and global warming.

The full essay is at “Oil Supply.”

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[1] Russell Gold, “Back to the Future? Oil Replays 1980s,” The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2015.

God Versus Physics: Is Creation Behind the Big Bang?

In his doctoral dissertation, Steven Hawkins demonstrates that the universe could have begun spontaneously. That is to say, the big bang could have gone off without being triggered by a divine intelligent being, or God in the sense of the word as used in the Abrahamic religions. To say that the universe could have begun in a moment of singularity is not necessarily to vitiate the deity-concept of all content. In fact, Hawkins’ work may one day trigger a movement to hem in the concept to the terrain that is distinctly religious.

The full essay is at “God Versus Physics: Is Creation Behind the Big Bang?” 

Religion and Violence: On the Power of Self-Idolatry

Religion and power make awkward bed-fellows. Speaking in January 2015 on religious fundamentalism, Pope Francis suggested that violence belies claims of religious validity. That is to say, actions speak louder than words, and harming other people effectively renders a person’s claims of religious motivation null and void. Unfortunately, the typical assumption that people have that they cannot be wrong when it comes to their own religious beliefs also operates when political ideology is the actual motivation. Such pride, which I suspect is rooted in self-idolatry, stands as a wall preventing such remarks from influencing potential culprits.

The full essay is at “Religion and Violence.”

On a Central Federal Policy in Education in the U.S.: Implications for American Federalism

In a speech in January 2015, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged a continued central role for the federal government in education policy. He said the president was proposing to increase federal spending on elementary and secondary schools by $2.7 billion; Congress had appropriated $67 billion to the U.S. Department of Education—with $23.3 billion for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—in the 2015 budget.[1]  Typically, debate on the federal government’s role had focused on the use of standardized tests in holding schools accountable. I submit that a self-governing people has a duty to consider the wider implications, such as the impact of a greater role on the federal system. Otherwise, unintended consequences may show up after it is too late to do anything about them.

The full essay is at "Federal Policy in Education."

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[1] Caroline Porter and Siobhan Hughes, “Education Secretary Presses Central Federal Policy Role,” The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2015.

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Fiscal Responsibility in Alaska: On the Challenge of Falling Oil-Tax Revenue

With West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. benchmark oil price, at $46.07 on January 12, 2015, lawmakers in Alaska were getting nervous because the government was relying on oil-industry taxes to cover 89% of the government’s operating revenue.[1] At the time, the government had a $3.5 billion deficit in the $6.1 billion budget.  How the governor, Bill Walker, planned to deal with the shortfall can give us a glimpse of what fiscal responsibility might look like in government.

The full essay is at “Fiscal Responsibility in Alaska.”

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[1] Ana Campoy, Mark Peters, and Erica Phillips, “Energy-Heavy States Get a Crude Awakening,” The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2015.

Stockholder Activism at DuPont: A Conflict of Interest for Management

In American corporate governance law, the business judgment rule gives management expertise the benefit of the doubt over stockholder proposals. Compared with executive skill, they look rather populist and thus potentially irrational in nature. Nevertheless, with the rule chaffing up against the property-rights foundation of corporate capitalism, the managerial prerogative can be said to be dubious. Indeed, a strict private-property basis justifies displacing the default profit-maximization mission for a given corporation. Alternatively, stockholders may want to use their concentrated, collective wealth for other purposes, such as to alleviate hunger. Once enough profit has been made for the business to be sustained for another year or two, any additional surplus would be spent on food pantries, for example, rather than going out as dividends or being retained by the corporation. Because managerial skill is premised on the profit-maximization goal and its associated strategies, corporate executives intrinsically resist alternatives proposed by stockholders. The managers face a conflict of interest in providing their recommendation for stockholders. Even when the proposal assumes profit-maximization but differs from a current strategy (i.e., adopted by management), a conflict of interest exists should the management seek to provide a recommendation for the stockholders. In this essay, I use the activism of Trian Fund Management at DuPont to illustrate this point.

The full essay is at “Stockholder Activism at DuPont.”

Is Dark Trading Ethical?

“Dark trading” has a subterranean connotation, as if it were done by slithering snakes in the river Styx. In actuality, the term refers to trading in stocks that is done on computers that are less public than the exchanges. That is to say, the bid-and-ask quotations on a given computer network are known only to participants on it, and not to the traders on the public exchanges. Ethically, the public-private dichotomy is relevant. I submit that it reflects a wider trend in American society.

The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.com.  

Divestment as a Carbon-Reduction Strategy

As gas prices were dropping during the fall of 2014 throughout the U.S., sales of SUVs were picking up. That such drivers might find themselves with gas-guzzlers and high prices was apparently out of sight, out of mind. Moreover, that the increased carbon emissions might push the planet further from the habitable zone for humans was a point entirely missing from the mainstream media as well as office-holders. To the extent that some “socially responsible” investors selling off their holdings in or related to fossil-fuel companies was generally deemed to be a suitable approach to global warming, the overriding question may be how a species could treat its own survival as if it were an after-thought rather than a priority.

The full essay is at “Divestment”

Amtrak: Running on Empty

Letting Amtrak expire in the U.S. in favor of encouraging other companies to pick up new high-speed routes is, I submit, in America’s interest. I make the claim not because Amtrak trains are slow and cumbersome—which they are—or because the food is over-priced—which it is; rather, the company culture is the true culprit, being sordid in a way that I suspect few employees or passengers suspect.

The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business: A Malignant Mentality of Mendacity, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.com.

The Holiday: We Accept the Love We Think We Deserve

Two women suffering from unfaithful boyfriends swap homes in California and Britain, respectively, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love. By unfaithful, I don’t necessarily mean cheating; rather, the cheating variety can be situated within the larger category of not committing to love one person completely and with fullness of heart. Such is the plot of The Holiday (2006), a film that is essentially about five good people. As the three unfaithful people are pruned out, the viewer is left with an optimistic feeling about human beings being capable of emotional intimacy.

The full essay is at “The Holiday.”

Little Women: Strong in Death and Love

Little Women (1994), based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, can be thought of as a social history of civil-war-era New England—that is to say, the film captures what life must have been like on a daily basis. Yet the human predicament resonates and thus makes the film moving for viewers far removed from the world of the Marsh family in Concord, Massachusetts. In particular, the film confronts the viewer with the hard task of going on even with the emotionally heavy experience of loss.

The full essay is at “Little Women”

The Fed Lets Banks Continue Risky Trades: Too Big To Fail Ensconced

In December 2014, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank granted banks an extra year past the July 2015 deadline to comply with a major provision of the Volcker Rule requiring the banks to unwind investments in private equity firms, hedge funds, and specialty securities projects.[1] The Fed also announced that it would give the banks yet another year to hold onto their positions. The Fed’s rationale points to an underlying conflict of interest facing the Fed, a banking regulator that is arguably too vulnerable to the banks’ lobbying muscle.

The full essay is at “Risky Trades”

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1. Zach Carter, “Fed Delays Volcker Rule, Giving Wall Street Another Holiday Gift,” The Huffington Post, December 18, 2014.