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Category: Dartmouth

Published on Leave a comment on Beyond Hillary and Obama

Dartmouth student David Imamura writes an interesting column in The Dartmouth today:

The most qualified Democratic candidate for president of the United States will be coming to Dartmouth today. And odds are you've never heard of him.

Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., has a resume second to none. He served in the U.S. Congress for 15 years. He was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton. And, for the final three years of the Clinton presidency, he was the secretary of energy. After Clinton left office, Richardson returned home to New Mexico, where he was recently reelected to office with a record 69 percent of the vote -- the widest margin in New Mexico's history.

Richardson's credentials speak for themselves. While governor of New Mexico, he has been repeatedly called upon by the State Department to negotiate on behalf of the United States around the globe. A few months ago, he brokered a cease-fire in Darfur. When talks with North Korea broke down over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, Richardson got them back on track. He has received wide acclaim for negotiating the release of American prisoners in Cuba, Iraq and North Korea. His diplomatic skill has led him to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on four separate occasions.

At home, Bill Richardson's accomplishments have been equally incredible. He has followed a centrist course in government, economically conservative but socially liberal. As governor of New Mexico, he balanced the state budget while cutting taxes for the middle class and increasing funding for education. He eliminated over $200 million of bureaucratic inefficiencies. His statewide energy policy has made New Mexico one of the few states that meet the requirements of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty. During his time in office, the New Mexican economy has been revitalized with the creation of 84,000 new jobs, many of which have been in high-tech industries. All the while, he has been a strong social progressive, pushing New Mexico to legalize civil unions while Democrats in other states have done nothing.

More than any other candidate, Bill Richardson has the experience necessary for the presidency of the United States.

But how can he win?

David goes on to provide a number of reasons, the third of which is:

Third, Richardson is the only Democratic governor in the race. Since 1960, 40 senators have run for president. And since 1960, no senator has ever moved into the White House. Go figure.

Back in October, I tried to 'figure' it this way:

There has been no one since JFK to move from the Senate to the Presidency. Every President since has either been a current or former Vice President or a governor. In this era, there needs to be some record of achievement (of whatever quality) in the executive branch of a government in order to campaign successfully for President. Look at John Kerry's bid for President in 2004--three terms in the Senate and essentially nothing to show for it during the campaign.

Candidates who have not had recent executive experience in government haven't made compelling candidates. In the current environment, we might regard a successful record as a chief executive at some level of government as a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for being elected to the Presidency.

Published on Leave a comment on Reading and Listening

Yesterday, when I got to my office, I thought this econoblog was going to be the best thing I'd read all day. It's Brad DeLong and Arnold Kling having a pretty contentious and articulate debate about the legacy of the New Deal. Read the whole thing.

But then, realizing that I would have to introduce Neal Katyal at his public lecture last evening, I started reading this article forthcoming in Vanity Fair. And maybe I haven't been keeping up with current events, but I found parts of it truly shocking. The public lecture was fantastic (read about it here), on a par with Katyal's appearance on the Colbert Report.

Published on Leave a comment on Should Religious Groups Ever Be Exempt from Civil Rights Laws?

This was the question posed by Professor Martha Minow to an audience at the Rockefeller Center last evening. Her dilemma in trying to find an answer, as recorded in The Dartmouth:

"To answer yes puts in jeopardy the civil rights laws and elevates religious groups above others."

"To say no infringes on the free exercise of religion and will just lead to religious organizations suing."

There seem to be two prominent examples. The first is when a religious organization wants to act as an employer in a way that removes some job protections established through civil rights laws. An example is a church that wants to fire an employee who becomes pregnant out of wedlock if that event or continuing to work after the child is born is proscribed by church doctrines.

The second is when a religious organization receives government funding for some of its services but does not want to make those services equally available to all groups. An example is when the religious group is paid for providing adoption services, but it will not place adoptees in the homes of same-sex couples because of doctrine prohibiting such arrangements, despite state laws requiring equal access.

It was a provocative lecture. I came to the following conclusions:

1) In the case of employment discrimination, this seems like it could be reasonably handled through the employment contract. For it to be valid, the contract would have to be signed in advance and the proscribed activity linked to established religious principles. As employers, religious organizations are quite small relative to just about every labor market in which they are active. There also seems to be little to complain about if the infringement on civil liberties is done with informed consent and in advance.

2) In the case of service discrimination, I think the state or federal entity should be required to find a different provider if the religious organization would violate civil rights laws in the performance of the service. Professor Minow had some examples of possible compromises, but I was not persuaded--civil rights laws mean civil rights for all.

3) In the case of #2, the immediate consequence is that we will lose some expertise in providing some social services. High-need adoptees won't get placed, for example. Well, that doesn't have to be true over any longer time period. It will only be true if the people who argue so forcefully in favor of civil rights laws are not willing to develop (or pay someone to develop) the expertise that will be lost when the religious organization leaves the state-sponsored market. So I regard that process as unfinished business in the Civil Rights movement.

For more of Professor Minow's scholarship, read Not Only for Myself or any of her other books.

Published on Leave a comment on Beyond the Headlines: Media Coverage of Economic Issues

On October 3, 2006, five national journalists were on the Dartmouth campus to discuss their work in covering economic and business news. Their visit included a public panel discussion titled "Beyond the Headlines" moderated by yours truly, in my capacity as director of Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center. Our guests were Peter Coy, Greg Ip, Steve Liesman, Eduardo Porter, and Andrew Serwer.

The panel discussed how economic and public policy issues are covered by the media, the public's understanding of these issues, and how these issues are likely to influence elections in the coming years. Panelists also described factors that impact the media's role in reporting these issues. Journalists also discussed new methods of communication and their impact on the future of traditional media in our rapidly changing environment influenced by technology.

You can watch the video here, courtesy of James Reese at RadioEconomics. Enjoy

Published on Leave a comment on Those Aren’t Books in There

When President Eisenhower received his honorary degree in 1953, he described Dartmouth as "What a College Should Look Like." That description is even more fitting today, in every way. Take a look at the Homecoming bonfire from Friday evening, as shown in The Dartmouth:


Would that the football team could improve just a bit more to win the game the next day. The post's title is a reference to the famous statement Eisenhower made to the students that day. Read the context here.

Published on Leave a comment on ROTC on Campus

Greg Mankiw makes a number of thoughtful points about the relationship between ROTC programs and elite colleges, referencing this post at Open University. I believe that there should be more support for ROTC at Ivy League colleges, and I made a point this year of attending the Army commissioning ceremony.

At the Rockefeller Center, we have also made a point of commemorating Veterans' Day. Last year, we invited Nate Fick '99, a veteran of both Afghanistan and Iraq, who delivered a remarkable lecture. This year, we will host Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer, authors of AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service--and How It Hurts Our Country on November 10. (The book is referenced in the Open University post.) There are some elements of citizenship that need to be shared more equitably, regardless of personal characteristics.

Greg ends his post with a poke at some of his colleagues' protests against ROTC:

Some faculty see the Harvard ROTC ban as a protest against the federal government's treatment of gay military personnel. But to me the form of the protest seems particularly sanctimonious, as the faculty are asking for a sacrifice from others (in particular, from potential ROTC students and from other students who would benefit from a more diverse student body), while giving up relatively little themselves. I propose that any professor who wants to protest federal policy can do so personally by refusing to apply for or accept any grants from the federal government.

Well put. I support neither the treatment of homosexuals by the military nor the obstacles to ROTC on campuses. I'll also suggest another dimension along which burdens could be more equitably shared. If conscription should be required in order to protect the United States, then the entire population below the age of service in the Vietnam era should be mobilized, excepting only those who have already been discharged from the military. This does not mean combat for everyone--it means service. There is no reason why the burden of fighting the war against Islamic radicals should fall so disproportionately on young adults.

Published on Leave a comment on And Dartmouth Does Not Follow

From today's The Dartmouth, we learn that Dartmouth is unlikely to follow Harvard and Princeton by giving up its binding early decision program. Quoting Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg:

"Every time we've [reviewed our admissions policies] in the recent past, we've come to the conclusion that early decision works well for Dartmouth and its students," Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg said. "There's no immediate need to change."

Although Furstenberg believes that Princeton's decision may put more pressure on other schools to make a change, he maintains that early admissions programs continue to offer certain benefits.

The article does not list those benefits. More from Furstenberg:

"We have worked hard to diversify the early decision pool with some success in recent years," Furstenberg said. "At the same time, the overall racial and socio-economic diversity of the entering class has increased in recent years."

According to Furstenberg, Dartmouth admits approximately 35 percent of its class early, as opposed to about 50 percent admitted early by Harvard and Princeton. In judiciously managing its early applicant pool, Furstenberg said Dartmouth ensures that incoming classes will represent many backgrounds.

In addition, Furstenberg believes that Harvard's claim regarding the disadvantages of early admissions with regards to financial aid packages is lacking when it comes to schools in the Ivy League, pointing out that Dartmouth offers need-blind admissions and extremely attractive financial aid awards to early applicants.

Here's some speculation as to what a binding early decision program can do. This is my own speculation, and it does not necessarily match how the Dartmouth admissions office views the issue.

Suppose that a university has two groups of applicants, A & B. Group A is stronger academically on average, but Group B has some other characteristics that the university wants to ensure are represented in its incoming class.

If there is a binding early decision program, then the university needs to accept only one applicant from Group B for every space in the incoming class it wants to be filled by a member of Group B, if it admits them at the early deadline. That leaves more admits for the academically more qualified Group A applicants, whether at the regular or the early deadline.

If there is no binding early decision program, then the university needs to admit more than one applicant from Group B for every space in the incoming class it wants to be filled by a member of Group B, since not all of them will come. But given a limit on the total enrollment of each incoming class, these extra admits from Group B necessarily crowd out admits from Group A or pose the risk that an incoming class will be too large for the facilities.

Under this arrangement, a binding early decision program can actually make it possible to raise the average academic credentials of the incoming class. This is not how the early admissions programs at Harvard and Princeton have been discussed this past week, which accounts for much of my skepticism of what's being reported about those programs. It is more reflective of what is reported in the article above.

Published on Leave a comment on Commencement at Dartmouth

Today was Dartmouth's commencement, and I confess that I have a soft spot for these occasions. The Class of 2006 was treated to blessedly cool weather and several fine speeches by valedictorian Rob Butts, President Jim Wright, and Elie Wiesel. Here was the part of Wiesel's speech that rang true and clear:

And this we better remember now for there exists a new or renewed scourge named fanaticism that afflicts contemporary events. In my life time, it has already produced collective humiliations and mass murder: political fanaticism in Moscow and racist fanaticism in Berlin. Both were defeated, one politically and the other militarily. But the 21st century is already threatened by a resurrected religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages. It grows in every religion, even in mine, and some of its practitioners on the other part, on the other side, some call themselves martyrs, forgetting that both in Judaism and Christianity a martyr is someone who dies for God, not someone who kills for God.

Congratulations and so long, Class of 2006.

Published on Leave a comment on Good Press for the Home Team

Courtesy of Brendan Murray at Bloomberg News, "Dartmouth Outshines Ivy League Rivals on Bush's Economic Team." I stand by my quote in the article (as it pertains to the alumni, not the former members of my department):

Unlike the Harvard or University of Chicago ties to the earlier administrations, Dartmouth's connection to this White House is more coincidental than ideological. Paulson, 60, graduated with an English degree in 1968, and Portman, 50, studied anthropology in the class of 1979.

"It's a very nice thing that the college is getting this sort of attention, but I don't think there's a common thread through all this,'' said Dartmouth economist Andrew Samwick, who was chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2004.

Nonetheless, the college's reach has extended recently into central banks. Timothy Geithner, 44, a 1983 graduate with a degree in government and Asian studies, has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2003. And Dartmouth Professor David Blanchflower, 54, last month became the newest member of the Bank of England's policy-setting committee.

The common thread, if there is one, is the one Daniel Webster, Class of 1801, pronounced nearly 200 years ago before the Supreme Court:

It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!"

It is as true today as it was in 1818.

UPDATE: The original link was broken, so here's the text:

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- The John F. Kennedy administration had its Harvard clique of advisers. The Ronald Reagan White House had the "Chicago school'' of economists. On President George W .Bush's economic team, "Big Green'' -- Dartmouth College -- rules.

High-profile alumni of the Hanover, New Hampshire, school include Henry Paulson, named last week by Bush to be Treasury secretary, and new White House budget director Rob Portman. Two of the three members of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers came from Dartmouth's faculty, as did a former CEA chief economist. Raul Yanes, tapped last week by Bush to be legal adviser and staff secretary, is a Dartmouth grad.

Dartmouth, the smallest of the eight Ivy League schools, is overshadowing rival universities Harvard, Princeton and Yale, which combined boast 14 U.S. presidents among their graduates. Dartmouth's ties to a president who plays down his own elite academic pedigree -- Bush has degrees from Yale and Harvard --are partly a result of its focus on researching issues from health-care to trade policy that are increasingly crucial to government, professors said.

"The Dartmouth economics department puts a lot of emphasis on policy-relevant research, and that fosters both faculty involvement and students who go on to contribute in government,'' said Katherine Baicker, 35, who taught at Dartmouth for seven years before joining the Council of Economic Advisers along with Dartmouth professor Matthew Slaughter, 37.

Just Coincidence

Unlike the Harvard or University of Chicago ties to the earlier administrations, Dartmouth's connection to this White House is more coincidental than ideological. Paulson, 60,graduated with an English degree in 1968, and Portman, 50, studied anthropology in the class of 1979.

"It's a very nice thing that the college is getting this sort of attention, but I don't think there's a common thread through all this,'' said Dartmouth economist Andrew Samwick, who was chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2004.

Nonetheless, the college's reach has extended recently into central banks. Timothy Geithner, 44, a 1983 graduate with adegree in government and Asian studies, has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2003. And Dartmouth Professor David Blanchflower, 54, last month became the newest member of the Bank of England's policy-setting committee.

Only Ivy College

The liberal-arts college's student body of about 4,100 undergraduates is about a third the size of the largest IvyLeague school, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Dartmouth is also the only Ivy League school that calls itself a college rather than a university, a title that hasn't changed since it was chartered by King George III of Britain in 1769.

The charter document declared the school's mission to be, in part, the instruction of Indian tribal youth in "all parts of learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and Christianizing children of pagans.''

Nowadays, many of Dartmouth's graduates also seek work in investment banking, most of them products of the Tuck School ofBusiness, which placed ninth in U.S. News & World Report's 2007 rankings of U.S. business-school programs.

"We tend to be very practically oriented and policy-oriented, so that makes us useful as a place to tap into in just about any administration, Democrat or Republican,'' said Doug Irwin, a Dartmouth historian and economics professor.

From Reich to Ingraham

Robert Reich, Labor secretary in the Clinton administration, and Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk-show host and former speechwriter for the Reagan administration, went to the college, as did Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. Prominent Big Green graduates in journalism include David Shribman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Paul Gigot, editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Dartmouth's approximately 400 faculty members for undergraduate studies aren't known for adhering to a single school of thought in economics or a particular political persuasion, Dartmouth economist Andrew Bernard said.

"What we have is a large number of very good applied researchers,'' Bernard said. "And they make really good candidates for policy positions because they've been dealing with real-world issues.''

Published on Leave a comment on Hank Paulson for Treasury Secretary

The President has nominated Hank Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs, to replace John Snow as Secretary of the Treasury. In what seems to be a surprise (via Greg Mankiw) to some, Paulson agreed to be nominated. The Wall Street Journal compiled a number of quotes from Paulson over the past 6 years that indicate congruence with the Bush administration's economic policies on taxes and trade.

There are a number of things that caught my attention in the news stories. Among them:

1) Let's hear it for the home team.

Paulson is a member of Dartmouth's Class of 1960. Newly confirmed OMB Director Rob Portman is Class of 1978. I direct a Public Policy Center here--it's great to have alumni who are willing to devote themselves to public policy for some part of their professional careers and who achieve prominence. Nothing motivates students as much as an example. Consider Paulson's statement about his experience right out of business school:

When I graduated from business school in 1970, I was fortunate to begin my career in Washington -- first in the Pentagon, and later in the White House as a liaison to the Treasury and Commerce Departments. For a young man in his early 20's, it was a wonderful experience being assigned to the team that analyzed the ailing Lockheed Corp. for then Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard, and then meeting with Cabinet officers and reporting to the President on tax policy issues. -- Investment Dealers Digest, May 22, 2000

Working in the public sector is not just good -- it's good for you.

2) Who says you need to major in Economics?

Paulson majored in English Literature. The lack of an economics degree at the undergraduate level did not seem to encumber his admission to Harvard Business School or his subsequent success on Wall Street. (This reminded me of the experience of Tim Geithner, President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and Dartmouth Class of 1983, who majored in Government and Asian Studies.) The message to students: use your time as an undergraduate to study what interests you. The rest will take care of itself.

3) File this under "You've got to be kidding me ..."

The Washington Post story linked above contains this statement:

Bush then fanned speculation that he would tap his close friend, former commerce secretary Donald L. Evans, by taking Evans with him to Camp David for the Memorial Day weekend.

Let's hope it was a small fan, not waved particularly vigorously.

4) The Job Description

The story continues with:

But with Paulson on board, Bush believes he will have a messenger with great credibility on Wall Street who can help first deliver the message that the economy is fundamentally strong despite public misgivings and second push through a refreshed economic agenda in 2007 if Republicans hold onto both houses of Congress in the fall midterm elections.

So the Treasury Secretary is a "messenger?" More of the same later in the article:

Yet while White House officials respected Snow, they believed he was not always the most effective spokesman for their policies.

Bush aides have been enormously frustrated that the economy is growing strongly -- gross domestic product was up 5.3 percent in the first quarter -- and yet polls show that the public gives the president no credit.

Maybe because they know that it partially compensates for the 1.7 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2005? Messaging to Capitol Hill or the public is a nice talent to have, but the soundness of the economic agenda is the Treasury Secretary's main responsibility. As Brad DeLong put it:

Henry Paulson is not somebody who is going to passively watch economic policy made by political operatives in the White House. This could be very good news[.]

In the absence of strong appointments at Treasury, OMB, and CEA, this is what would happen to economic policy in any administration. Paulson looks like a sound appointment all around. Let's hope it contributes to solid economic policy in the years to come.