December 8, 2025

Just as I was getting ready to submit this column, Mitt Romney dropped a New York Times op-ed piece titled, “Tax the Rich, Like Me.” They say that great minds think alike, but I believe that greater minds think independently. However, on this, we agree. Romney may not have any more Veritas than I do, but her certainly has a lot more gravitas. I suggest you read his column for yourself.

During the holidays, everyone likes a story with a Hallmark ending. Unfortunately, real life often does not cooperate. That clock you hear ticking is not your biological clock, or the Doomsday clock. It is the U.S. National Debt Clock. Our national debt is a ticking time bomb that will explode some day. Herbert Stein, who served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Richard Nixon, famously said “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” The national debt today stands at around $38T, which is about 119% of GDP. We now spend more on interest payments than we do on the national defense. The annual Federal budget deficit is 3% of GDP. Eliminating that would require eliminating all defense spending or all non-discretionary spending.

The two major drivers of our current deficits are inadequate revenues (taxes), and escalating healthcare costs (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.) According to economist, Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harper Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at the Kennedy School of Government, a country can move off an unsustainable debt path in six ways: faster economic growth, lower interest rates, default, inflation, financial repression, or fiscal austerity. For the sake of argument, I am going to dismiss the first five. Despite Trump’s claims to be overseeing the greatest economy of all time, we have been growing at 2-3% for decades. Trump has been jawboning the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has limits to what it can and will do. Default is not an option short of precipitating a worldwide financial collapse. Inflation as a strategy is the third rail of politics. Financial repression implies governmental controls over the economy, which smacks of socialism. That leaves fiscal austerity.

In the U.S., Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the main long-term debt drivers due to aging demographics. There are several options for reining in healthcare costs. We can raise eligibility ages slowly as life expectancies increase. We can adjust benefits for higher-income beneficiaries. We can reform healthcare pricing by controlling the cost of drugs. We can shift Medicare pricing from a volume to a value model. We can change the eligibility requirements for qualifying for Medicaid. The reality is that no serious debt plan works without entitlement reform. Math makes this unavoidable.

On the other side of the coin, we have tax reform, which includes adjusting the tax base, and closing loopholes. The U.S. generally has lower overall tax rates than other developed, high-income countries. Our corporate tax rates are lower than most. We certainly have room for adjustments. We could broaden the tax base by reducing special exemptions like the carried interest loophole. We could eliminate the tax-deductibility of many middle and upper class benefits. We could curtail the use of trust accounts to avoid taxation. We could impose a minimum tax on large corporations that pay little or nothing. We could strengthen IRS enforcement against high-income tax invasion.

There are things we can do, but we don’t seem to have the political will or the discipline to do anything meaningful. Neither side seems to be willing to compromise. The Republican blueprint going back to Paul Ryan and earlier has always been to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, and rely on the miracle of trickle down economics to satisfy everyone else. They cite the Laffer aka Laugher Curve as evidence. Their strategy is to create a debt crisis, which would then necessitate cuts to the social safety net. Democrats for their part are not willing to give an inch on social programs until they get tax concessions from the Republicans. We are not willing to take responsibility for our current state of affairs, and make the necessary compromises and sacrifices. Only a credible plan to restrain deficits and control our debt will ultimately keep our creditors happy.

December 21, 2025

I was recently traveling in Florida, which naturally got me thinking about getting older. In Florida, it’s hard to think about anything else. Over the years, I have crafted some observations about the aging process. I believe they are all original, but I won’t swear to it. In this age of AI, it is becoming more and more difficult to be truly original. One of the benefits of aging, however, is that it becomes increasingly difficult to remember what is original and what is plagiarism. If any of these sound vaguely familiar, please let my editor know.

What passes for polite conversation amongst adults invariably degenerates into discussions about ailments, real or imagined. I would rather hear about your grandchildren.

I finally realized that Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man was not about racial discrimination. It was about me.

Ovaltine, polio, and “Leave it to Beaver” were not that great.

I hate it when someone can’t pick me out of an old photograph.

When checking into a hotel, I immediately grab the bed closest to the bathroom.

One of the best days of my life was when I threw away all my combs.

I realized that the only thing separating me from dementia is the completion of the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. That’s pressure.

When setting goals, I check my wristwatch before my calendar? The fact that I still have a wristwatch is telling.

They say that the more money you have, the better looking you get. Great. Now I am both old and ugly.

I am at the point where financial planning and retirement planning are the same thing?

Do you find Viagra ads to be embarrassing because you don’t need it, or because you do?

If life were a baseball game, I would have rounded third, and am heading for home. I am hoping to get caught in a rundown.

4:30AM used to be the end of my day. Now it is the beginning.

I rate the quality of my day on a “Zero-to-Five Sir’ scale. A “Zero Sir” day is a great day. A “Five Sir” day is a sign of the apocalypse.

There is nothing sexy about being 50 shades of gray.

I know what golf tees I am playing. You are not fooling me by changing their colors or names.

As long as you are climbing the hill, you can’t be over it.

I spend a lot more time in the bathroom with a lot worse results.

I am afraid I will say, “Do I know you from some place,?” and then realize that you are my next door neighbor.

Exercising is a lot like finalizing an estate plan. They are both about tying up loose ends.

Aging is about tightening up what’s loose, and loosening up what’s tight.

I am not getting better. I am getting older.

I used to twist and shout. Now I shout when I twist.

If I were to pass away, it would be unfortunate, but not a tragedy.

My unexpected bathroom breaks are now totally expected.

I took five years of Latin, but I still hate all the drug ads.

Legalization of marijuana came fifty years too late.

I am closer to Kevork’ing than cavorting.

I now know what the first hole in my belt is for.

I want to shoot my age before I get too old.

I have lost track of all the things I keep track of.

The yards I have lost from the tee I have gained in my pants.

I often learn more about people at their funerals than I do at their dinner tables.

I have a small chance of making a putt, and an even smaller chance of bending down to take the ball out of the hole.

You can always tell the year someone retired by their wardrobe.

I am better at finding weight than losing weight.

I used to be able to see farther than I could hit a golf ball.

On my gravestone…You’re Still Away

I just figured out what the third thing to go is.

Age is not an excuse, but it sure explains a lot.

There is death after life.

You are only old once.

Wisdom is wasted on the elderly.

How will you know if exercise helped you to live longer?

Inheritance is all about the war between the estates.

It’s not near death experiences I crave; it’s near life experiences.

If it wasn’t for my pill box, I wouldn’t know what day it is.

There is a good chance that some Gen Z’er will misspell RIP on my gravestone.

Another day, another dolor.

December 5, 2025

One of the beautiful things about great art is that it resonates through the ages. Whether it be architecture, paintings, novels, music, sculpture, the stage, and so on, the messages remain as true today as they were when they were created. In the world of playwrights, the GOAT may very well be William Shakespeare. I was curious to see what he may have written that relates to today’s world. Here are a few quotes that may apply.

“All that glitters is not gold.” Actually, the exact line from the Merchant of Venice is “all that glisters is not gold.” It serves as a caution against being deceived by outward appearances. Apparently, Donald Trump has not read the play. He has bastardized the White House with so much gold bling that it looks like a French brothel. Shower heads in the Lincoln bathroom are now gold because that is what Honest Abe, the log splitter from Illinois, would have wanted. Trump is truly incontinent.

“It is a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. Can there be a better description of our current President? He has been described by people close to him as a “f$&@ing moron.” His strategy for winning any argument is to yell louder than the other person.

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.” Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. The phrase signifies that something appearing chaotic actually has an underlying, sensible plan. Many if not most of us agree that Trump’s behavior borders on madness. We just can’t figure out what his method is. Maybe that is giving him too much credit.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Henry IV, Part 2, Act III. President Trump shared what appeared to be an A.I.-generated video on social media showing himself wearing a crown and flying a jet that dumps brown liquid on demonstrators. Even Prince Harry poked fun at “King Trump.”

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” from Romeo and Juliet. It means that a name is just a label and doesn’t change the inherent nature or quality of a thing. Trump wasn’t happy with the “inherent nature” of the White House Rose Garden so he decided to “pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”

“All the world’s a stage” is a famous metaphor from “As You Like It” that compares life to a theatrical play, with humans as the actors who have “exits and entrances.” The “Apprentice” President surrounds himself with Fox & Friends. He is a terribly unserious person playing a role who has surrounded himself by two bit actors. Eventually, the curtain will come down.

“What fools these mortals be” is from a Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is spoken by the mischievous fairy Puck in Act III, Scene 2, as he observes the confusion and irrational behavior of human folly. I think he may have been referring to three-time, Trump voters.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows he is a fool,” from “As You Like It.” The saying conveys that those with limited knowledge are often overconfident, while truly wise people understand the vastness of what they do not know. “I have a very good brain,” from Donald Trump Act 1.0.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant taste death but once,” from “Julius Caesar.” Spoken by Caesar himself, it means that fear causes repeated suffering through hesitation and shame, while brave individuals face true death only once, having lived fully. President Bonespurs and the toy soldier pretending to be the Secretary of War must be truly proud of their bravery to nuke “narco-terrorists floating totally defenseless in the middle of the Gulf of America, using aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, F-15’s, and the Marines.

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Twelfth Night Act II, Scene 5. It’s often used to inspire people, but, in the play, it’s part of a joke on Malvolio, a pompous steward, who is the target of a prank orchestrated by other characters. His desire for social advancement and his lack of humor make him an easy target for the prank. Trump wasn’t born great, just wealthy. The joke is on us.

“I must be cruel, only to be kind,” from Hamlet. Trump has excelled at the cruelty part, but he needs to work on the kindness part. “Quiet, piggy.”

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here,” from The Tempest.

November 28, 2025

Spider “Vein” Man

Iron “Lung” Man

The Dependers

The “Hot” Flash

Wonder “Who I Am” Woman

Super “Senior” Man

Can’t Man

Bat “Shit Crazy” Man

The Gangrene Lantern

The Incredible Bulk

Sore

Black Panter

The Fan “Spastic” Four

Can’t Woman (Cat Woman)

Awkward Man

“Can you give me a hand” Solo

The Jaundice League of America

November 24, 2025

Tom Brokaw wrote a best-selling book titled, “The Greatest Generation.” In the book, Brokaw profiled Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War II. It turns out that my generation, the Baby Boom generation born between 1946 and 1964, is not quite as highly regarded by the generations that follow us. To be specific, I am referring to Gen X born between 1965 and 1980, Gen Y aka Millennials born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z born between 1997 and 2012. They share their distaste for their elders in a New York Times video posted October 17, 2025 titled, “Thanks a Lot, Boomers.” What did we do to deserve such approbation?

Younger Americans are struggling with the high cost of education, scarcity of affordable housing, and a diminished American dream. They have a 50% shot at being better off than their parents where the Boomers had an 80% chance. Communities are still divided by race, and burdened by debt. They say that we were handed cheap college, cheap housing, and abundant opportunities. We wound up wealthier than our parents, and not because we were smarter or worked harder. America was an “escalator.” There were more benefits for Boomers, more tax cuts, and the country borrowed to make up the difference. We added $30T to the national credit card. Public college costs today are four times what they were in 1970. Housing is twice as expensive. Boomers squashed new development to protect property values, which resulted in even more segregation in the public schools.

The first Boomer president was Bill Clinton. Hopefully, Trump is the last. The Bush years were peak Boomer. In 2001, we had a surplus, but we then passed a giant tax cut. In 2003, we passed another tax cut. In 2006, we passed a big increase in government spending for Medicare just as the Boomers were retiring. This all led to dramatic increases in the national debt. They will say that we were mortgaging their future. We preferred Walmart over factory jobs. We enjoyed the the deregulation of the banking industry, leaving the mess to future generations. We paid lip service to environmentalism. We never made the hard choices. Tree-hugging and recycling were feel good behaviors, but the planet just kept getting dirtier and hotter.

They say that they appreciate our efforts regarding civil rights and gender equality. Thanks, I guess. My gut reaction is to dismiss a lot of this as whining, and to tell them to get off my lawn. After all, Millennials and Gen X will be inheriting $90T in the Great Wealth Transfer. Unfortunately, they don’t want our china and silverware, but that is a different discussion. Maybe they should just say thank you.

However, my friends and I shouldn’t just dismiss their complaints out of hand because it isn’t convenient. We are experiencing today a concentration of wealth not seen since the Gilded Age, which should be a challenge for Liberals and Conservatives alike. According to an excerpt from economist John Kenneth Galbraith’s “Affluent Society”, “No other question in economic policy is ever so important as …. the distribution of income. The test of the good liberal is that he is never fooled, but he never yields on issues favoring the wealthy. Despite his efforts, the wealthy become wealthier and more powerful.”

We ignore and dismiss the Gen Z population at our peril. They are rapidly becoming a political force. By 2024, 40% of the electorate was Gen Z and Millennials. The Mayor-elect of New York City is thirty-four years old, and even the President welcomed him graciously into the Oval Office. According to surveys, in addition to affordability, their overarching concerns include the right of a woman to control her reproductive health; the right of all Americans to breathe clean air and clean water; the right of all voters to have unfettered access to the polls; and the right of younger people to feel safe from school shootings.

The Baby Boomers are not a monolith. They have seen much of the legislation that was enacted in 60’s undone by right wing extremists. The Dobbs decision undid the 1965 case, Griswold vs. Connecticut, which Boomers assumed would be Constitutionally-guaranteed abortion policy. The Clean Air Act was put into law in 1970 by Richard Nixon. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

When the historians that are produced by the generations that come after us write our history, it may not be flattering. Did we fall asleep at the wheel? Did we kick the can down the road? Were we blindly just feathering our own nests? They may blame us, fairly or not, for major shortfalls in housing and employment, inflation, income inequality, environmental degradation, an erosion of civil rights, and a lack of civility. They may call us the “The Greatest Degeneration.” I wholeheartedly disagree, but it is not up to me, is it?

November 8, 2025

I should be feeling great. I spent Halloween weekend attending, not participating in, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and then attending, not participating in, the New York City Marathon. Rather than seeing and experiencing the hellscape that the current President describes as a pretext for sending in the Marines, the National Guard, the FBI and ICE, I saw hundreds of thousands of joyous citizens celebrating what it means to be a New Yorker. People were singing, dancing, playing instruments, and parading under the watchful eyes of New York’s finest, who could not have been any nicer, more courteous, and more helpful under challenging conditions. Even Mother Nature was on board. People were partying like it was 1999, not 1929.

Then, on the following Tuesday, the Democratic (not Democrat) Party pitched a shutout worthy of Red Sox pitcher and hopefully Cy Young Award winner, Garrett Crochet. Democrats swept New York City, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and California. It was like a pandemic that even had Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. looking for a vaccine. The two major issues were Trump and affordability. As it turns out, I am not the only one that has Trump Derangement Syndrome for which there is no vaccine. Nothing epitomized the tone deaf President more, other than “YMCA” by the Village People, was his Great Gatsby Party at Mar-a-Lago. How did the Roaring 20’s and “The Great Gatsby” wind up? His next party should have a King Louis XVI theme with a prize going to the best Marie Antoinette costume.

So why am I in a dark place? In the words of musician David Bromberg, “I must have someone else’s blues.” I just finished two books on the Great Depression. The first was “1929” by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, and the second was “The Great Crash of 1929” by economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Because I am a glutton for punishment, I downloaded and started reading “Too Big to Fail,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin, which is about the Great Recession of 2008. Just as I was climbing out of my abyss, William Birdthistle, former director of the Division of Investment Management at the Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote a New York Times guest essay titled, “Trump is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again.” It’s back to the abyss.

One of the themes that all of these writers touched upon was the cheerleading optimism that the best and brightest financial minds had at the time despite all of the evidence to the contrary. A financial newsletter that I get recently cited five financial risks that you should be aware of, and why you should remain bullish. It noted high stock prices and valuations, a possible AI bubble, global instability, inflation and interest rate uncertainty, and high levels of debt. So what other parallels can we draw between the crashes of 1929, and 2008, and where we are today almost a hundred years later?

In 1929, regulation was almost non-existent. Investors believed in the infallibility of capitalism and the “invisible hand.” Insider trading was considered a virtue, not a crime. The Securities and Exchange Commission did not exist. Today, Trump is doing everything in his power to deregulate the financial markets. He has been busy firing regulators and tearing down guardrails. Not coincidentally, his machinations have benefited his family immensely.

Speculation was rampant in 1929. Everyone was on margin. Legal Ponzi schemes were created where leveraged vehicles similar to mutual funds could invest in other leveraged vehicles. In 2008, we had subprime mortgages being sliced and diced into unfathomable Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO’s). Today, we have a feeding frenzy over anything that starts with the letters AI. And again, there is the mania over bitcoins, which one day may look like tulips.

Both periods were characterized by low interest rates, which fueled the buying of stocks on margin. Consumer debt and defaults today are at perilously high levels, and the Christmas season is just starting. Trump continuously browbeats the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates.

Banks prior to The Great Depression engaged in both commercial banking and investment banking. Risks taken by the investment bank put the entire bank and economy at risk. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which separated commercial banking from investment banking, was essentially overturned in 1999 so that there is now no prohibition from commercial banks conducting investment banking activities. This was one of the major causes of the financial meltdown of 2008.

Mark Twain said “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” There are many eerily similar things about today’s financial markets and economy that hearken back to an earlier day. Let’s hope that Trump and slump don’t rhyme.

October 16, 2025

I recently received a blast e-mail from fellow classmate, friend, lawyer, father, and former President of the Boston City Council, Larry DiCara. The subject line of the e-mail asked “Am I a Conservative?” This was a perplexing question from someone, who spent his whole life as a liberal, Kennedy Democrat. Larry was by no means a left-wing terrorist even though he might be categorized as one today. Larry leaned left about as much as the Leaning Tower of Pisa does, which is about four degrees. While most of us were trying to learn what made America great again by studying the great western philosophers, and trying to understand Trumpian politics by studying Machiavelli, Larry was working the crowd. When we were desperately trying to enjoy our Saturday nights, Larry would go party-to-party in a jacket and tie, shake hands, and add us to his Rolodex. He was not exactly a subversive. He was an old-fashioned pol.

He quoted a NY Times piece that said, “protectionism, industrial policy, and government ownership, all once conservative bogeymen, are now official doctrine.” Larry worried about the national debt, imbalanced budgets, manipulation of the Federal Reserve, government intrusion in corporate matters, the government taking ownership stakes in companies e.g. 10% of Intel, using the military as the state’s police, the chipping away of inalienable rights, and the infringement of personal rights and privacy by the Federal government. So this got me to thinking because I was recently called out for having a lack of personal awareness by a letter writer. Maybe I should do a little introspection? Maybe I am a Conservative as well?

I believe in a strong foreign policy where we support our friends, challenge our enemies, and know the difference between the two. I support NATO as a bulwark against Putin’s Communism, which doesn’t make me a Communist. I support Ukraine over Russia. I believe in projecting soft power through USAID.

I reject government interference in personal matters. Individual liberties should be protected. People, not states, should be able to make their own decisions regarding abortion, gay marriage, trans medical care, and the like. Government should take care of its own house before it invades mine.

Like Larry, I believe that the government should be fiscally responsible. Massive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations are financially irresponsible and dangerous when the country is already running a large deficit, and adding to its massive national debt. Cutting interest rates when the economy is flush is also bad policy. When we do have a recession, and we will, we will not have financial flexibility to deal with it. Federal programs and entitlements should be evaluated on a regular basis, and changes should be made by our elected representatives when appropriate. Everyone should be taxed fairly, and taxes should be collected. I am a free-trader. Tariffs are anathema to my conservative instincts.

I support law enforcement. The men and women in blue are dedicated to the common welfare, and are trained as to how to do that. We don’t need a bunch of untrained cowboys and weekend warriors creating havoc in our cities. If you want better education, hire more teachers and pay them better. If you want safer streets, hire more policemen, and pay them better. It doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.

I can’t think of a more conservative principal than the respect of science. Science is what separates us from the apes (sorry Jane Goodall), and the twentieth century (sorry Donald Trump.) Science is the outward manifestation of the human spirit. It is what has always fought against tyranny and ignorance. It gave us the Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment. It gave us the Industrial Revolution and the Technological Revolution. It gave us the cell phone and mRNA technology. It is not creationism and vaccine denial. That is not conservatism. That is religious zealotry masquerading as conservatism. I, like all true conservatives, respect religion. Organized religions are free to proselytize and prosper. Like a true conservative, however, I don’t want a state religion, and I don’t want religion mandated in schools and other venues.

I respect the rule of law. That does not strike me as a conservative opinion, but apparently it is. Our current felonious President is a serial law-breaker, but he calls himself a Conservative. The people that do his bidding call themselves true conservatives, but how conservative is it when you freely blow up boats and people without due process? How conservative is it when you regularly detain individuals without due cause, and deport them to foreign gulags? William Buckley is turning in his grave, and George Will is turning in his swivel chair.

In summary, to paraphrase Kirk Douglas in “Spartacus,” “I am Conservative.” I invite my fellow Conservatives to band together to fight authoritarianism, injustice, and socialist fiscal policies.

October 8, 2025

A recent article caught my eye so I thought I would take a timeout from the tawdry topic of today’s Trumpian politics. The article appeared in the Science & Tech section of the Harvard Gazette, dated September 22, 2025. It was titled “How AI Could Radically Change Schools by 2050.” It caught my eye for two reasons. My very first column for the Springfield Republican was about artificial intelligence. The headline was “AI tornado will shake us to our foundations.” It appeared on October 1, 2023, a little over two years ago. The tornado has not only not subsided, but has gotten bigger and stronger every day. The other reason the article caught my eye was because it featured an interview with psychologist and social scientist Howard Gardner. Howard and his wife, Judy, were Soc. Rel. tutors in Quincy House (Harvard) my sophomore year, and they lived directly below us. I took Gardener’s sophomore tutorial, which, I believe, included Bonnie Raitt.

Gardner is the originator of the theory of multiple intelligences. His first book on the subject came out in 1983, and is titled “Frames of Mind.” In the article, Gardner called AI as fundamental a change to education as the world has seen in the last 1,000 years, and may render obsolete many forms of the mind he is famous for describing. The frames of mind that Gardner refers to are bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, mathematical, musical, naturalistic, and spatial. “Some of them will be done so well by large language machines and mechanisms that whether we do them as humans will be optional.” He says that AI could make most cognitive aspects of the mind optional for humans. By 2050, every child would need only a few years of schooling in the Three R’s plus a little bit of coding. Teachers would function more as coaches, and guide the students in what many call critical thinking. He acknowledges concerns that students might offload cognitive labor to AI, decreasing their critical reasoning skills.

I had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with Professor Emeritus of Business from the University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School, James Theroux. “JT” teaches an online class about new venture finance and how venture capitalists are investing in AI. He agrees that AI will move education from its traditional model of read, think, and write to one focusing on critical thinking. However, he finds that the term “critical thinking” gets thrown around loosely without any firm definition about what it is, and any ability to measure it. I recently asked a young person enrolled in an online MBA program what she was studying, and she mentioned critical thinking. When I asked her what that was, she did not have an answer. Regardless, Theroux shares Gardner’s concern that AI, if used improperly, could lead to the atrophying of problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and analytical thinking.

To combat the “atrophying” of its students, Deerfield Academy has blocked all sources of AI from student computers, which are school issued. Teachers take courses on how to spot AI, and are given tools to detect AI usage such as unusual typing patterns. Final essays have to be done the old-fashioned way by hand. There is still a suspicion, however, that students are figuring ways around the system. If they are caught, it could affect their status at school, and college admissibility.

The problems that AI present for educators are complex. I am only scratching the surface of what educators are dealing with every day. How do they keep students “honest” and challenged? How do they teach students to use AI as a tool, and not become tools themselves.” Theroux received his MBA from the Harvard Business School. HBS pioneered the case study method for business education. Students are required to read and analyze cases about real businesses dealing with real problems. Students don’t write their conclusions, but must be prepared to present their solutions to their fellow classmates in person, and defend their arguments. AI may be helpful in the analysis, but students are on their own in the classroom. Final exams are done in class with paper and pencil.

Educators may have to emphasize smaller classes and classroom discussion over large lectures, which today’s students tune out anyway. Students who can present and defend ideas in real time would be rewarded versus students who are good at composing ten-page papers, whose originality would always be in question. This is simplistic, I realize, and professional educators should be free to criticize. However, as Howard Gardner points out, we are headed for lion country i.e. if you know what the educational landscape is going to look like by 2050, you’re lyin’.

September 27, 2025

As I write, the United States Ryder Cup squad is on its way to an historic beat down by Europe. Worse than the embarrassment of getting beat on home soil will be having to read the endless articles produced by the golf media about what is wrong with the United States. Did Keegan Bradley screw up the pairings? Yes, but it would not have made a difference. You can’t hang this one on the dynamic duo of Colin Morikawa and Harris English. What happened to the home court advantage? What advantage? All of the Europeans live in the United States. After this debacle, the Americans may have to move to Europe, or enter the witness protection program also known as LIV. Maybe the New York crowd fired up the Euros with its obnoxious behavior? New Yorkers are guilty of a lot of things, but firing up a team is not one of them. May I offer you the Jets, the Giants, the Rangers, the Islanders, the Knicks, the Nets, the Mets, and the Yankees as evidence. Probably the best thing you could say about the U.S. is that their clothing wasn’t a distraction. It wasn’t an attraction either, but what do expect from an 85 year old fashion designer.

There will be other excuses for getting blown out. Do we need to go back to Paul Azinger’s Pod System, whatever that is? Maybe it was the time change going from Florida to New York? Was the team up all night partying in Manhattan? Did Donald Trump’s appearance and his ICE escapades distract them? None of these excuses masquerading as explanations hits the target. They are all lip outs like most of the Americans’ putts. The simple answer is that, under pressure, we are soft. Our mascot should be the manila folder.

Here is a thought experiment which is antithetical to golf. Is there a single player on the U.S. team that you would want watching your back in a bar fight? I know you are going to say Bryson DeChambeau, but, by the time he analyzed the situation and figured out there was nothing in it for him, you would be out cold. Would you rather have Scottie Scheffler backing you up or Tyrell Hatton? Scottie is the most like able guy on the PGA Tour, but Hatton looks crazy to me. Would you rather have Harris English, who would probably fight under the Marquess of Queensbery Rules, backing you up, or El Gran Senor, Jon Rahm. Sepp Straka could be a terminator in a bar fight like his fellow Austrian countryman, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rasmus Hojgaard is 6’2” tall. Ludvig Aberg is 6’4” tall. I am guessing Robert McIntyre has a terrific left hook. I am talking fighting, not golf. And who probably knows more about drunken fights in a bar than the two Irishmen, Shane Lowery and Rory McIlroy? Bar fighting is their national pastime, not golf. You won’t be hearing anyone from our side saying “Come back, Shane.” And Rory might be the best hitter pound for pound since Sugar Ray Robinson. I would have taken former hockey player Cameron Young before he lost all his weight.

Tomorrow, we have to suffer through the singles matches, and listen to the broadcasters tell us why there is still a glimmer of hope if this happens or that happens. Fortunately, we have the New England Patriots to distract us for three hours from the inevitable as they try to prove if they are tough enough. Kudos to the Boston Red Sox for making the playoffs. Despite all of the injuries and the Devers fiasco, they proved their toughness. They weren’t soft when they could have been. They may not make it past the first round, but they showed us what they were made of. The U.S. Ryder Cup team showed us what they were made of as well.

September 20, 2025

Donald Trump tells us that America is going to hell in a hand basket. In his 2016 inaugural address, he called it “American carnage.” “If we don’t do something about it,” he says, “we won’t have a country anymore.” “It’s a national emergency,” he says. Some people might say that one of the root causes for our deteriorating cities was inner city residents being discriminated against i.e. red-lined when they tried to look for housing elsewhere. Who would do that? Regardless, let’s take him at his word because he has never lied to us before. Let’s agree for the sake of argument that America’s blue cities run by Democratic mayors have let crime run rampant. It’s not true, but humor me. In the words that Republicans use when faced with Democratic complaints, “What are ya goin’ to do about it?”

Trump’s response is clear. Send in the military, including the Marines. Send in the National Guard, and give them weapons. Divert the FBI from fighting white collar crime, and domestic terrorism, and have FBI agents issue fines for speeding and jaywalking. For good measure, add $10 billion to ICE’s budget, and recruit the worst of the worst. It seems to me there must be a better way. If the Democrats can get the policy and the messaging correct, crime could be a winning strategy for the midterms and beyond.

First step, hire more police. That seems simple enough because who knows more about local crime and law enforcement than the cop on the beat. We just need more of them. Staffing is specific to each community, but many U.S. departments are currently operating with significant deficits and facing recruitment and retention challenges. A study from NYU finds adding a new police officer to a city prevents between 0.06 and 0.1 homicides, which means that the average city would need to hire between 10 and 17 new police officers to save one life a year. That sounds like a good investment to me when you consider the statistical value of one life is $10,000,000. Let’s make it a national priority to have more police on the streets where we live. We are not going to defund the police. We are going to refund the police. Where is the money going to come from? We can reallocate funds from the military, the National Guard, the FBI, ICE, and any other Federal organization that has sent troops illegally to America’s cities. I hope you are listening, Kristi Noem. If Trump and his stooges really believe that crime is out of control and not just a political football to gin up their base, they should be all in.

Secondly, provide free job training for every able-bodied man and woman in America. It’s cheaper than putting people in prisons and detention camps although not as profitable for Trump’s friends in the prison business. A recent study conducted by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and Workforce concluded that we will be need over 5.25 million workers with post-secondary educations to fill the jobs that will be created by the year 2032. We will need 611,00 teachers, 402,000 truck drivers, 362,000 nurses, 210,000 engineers, and 200,000 construction workers among others. With immigration not an option in Trump’s universe, we will need to grow our own. Hillsdale College won’t be able to fill the gap all by itself. We need to get going on this right away. Democrats need to focus on training while Republicans are focused on detaining. Here’s a Trumpian slogan. “Don’t detain, train.”

Lastly, we should provide a good-paying job for anyone who wants one. I think even Republicans can get on board with this idea. After all, they do want all Medicaid recipients to work. Let’s give them something to do. We need to build a lot of stuff. Our infrastructure is lagging even with the Infrastructure and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021 by Joe Biden. Donald Trump believes so much in infrastructure that he has ordered his name be displayed at infrastructure projects initiated by the Biden administration. That is what New Yorkers would call chutzpah. Let’s create millions of good-paying jobs for people to fill potholes, build cell towers, clean up our streets, paint over graffiti, and so on.

The simple, crime-fighting message for the Democrats should be “Cops, Jobs, and Education” rather than the Republican philosophy of “ICE, Prison, and Liberty College for all.”