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COLUMN — Early childhood education: The right thing is also the smart thing

18.05.12

How do you justify taking a public policy position?

 Essentially, there are only two approaches: You can present an argument based on morality — or you can base it on outcomes — essentially reasoning from the expected “return on investment.”

 Half a century ago, when there was much more of a broad consensus on what government was for, reasoning based on projected results was the more common argument.

 Today, however, there are far more appeals to morality. Appealing on that basis is relatively easy to do. It’s also comforting to wrap one’s preferences in the gauzy warmth of moral principles.

 And to be sure, in some cases — the civil rights movement in early 1960s America, for example — the moral case has been so overwhelming that it decisively persuaded the majority of people that a series of specific and definite policies were needed.

 However, that is seldom the case, More commonly, one man’s morality is another’s heresy. Right-to-lifers argue passionately that abortion is intrinsically evil, as it involves the taking of a life. Pro-choice advocates assert, just as passionately, that to deny a woman choice over her reproductive rights is just as repellent.

Source: HollandSentinel.com

Why Ex-Lehman Executives Are Shaking in Their Wingtip Loafers

18.05.12

Runs a segment, people listen. A recent example concerned the STOCK Act , an act prohibiting members of Congress from trading on insider information they obtained in the course of congressional work. While the Act was introduced in 2004, it wasn't taken up until late last year , after the weekly news program aired a segment on insider trading in Congress. President Obama signed a watered-down version of the bill into law earlier this month.

It's for this reason that ex-Lehman Brothers executives are likely shaking in their Italian wingtip loafers this week. In a segment last Sunday titled " The Case Against Lehman Brothers ," the program's Steve Kroft made a compelling case for prosecuting the former investment bank's senior executives, including ex-CEO Richard "Dick" Fuld. Although most of the information contained in the report wasn't original -- my colleague Morgan Housel covered it extensively during the crisis and the segment itself was based largely on a two-year-old inquiry for the bankruptcy court overseeing the firm's dismemberment -- the mere fact that it's been brought back into the light of day is bad news for those concerned.

Source: DailyFinance