Address to those graduating with honors from UFM (May 2012)

Over the summer, there was a tendency for rising senior interns to ask me if I had any advice for someone set to be graduating into the face of a horrible recession. Unfortunately, the best advice I can think of is “hope the United States rapidly becomes more committed to equality and social justice” because the empirical evidence is that you’re screwed. Peter Orszag at the OMB Blog reminds us:

|Peter Boettke|

Tonight during his joint address to Congress, President Obama attempted to set the record straight on some of the “key controversies” surrounding the health care debate. While it’s normal for members of the opposition party to occasionally not clap at statements with which they disagree, congressional Republicans went further tonight, being outright rude at times.

The USA Today reports graduating class of 2012 is in for a rude awakening as Half of new graduates are jobless or underemployed. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While his colleagues got ready to go to the Capitol, Justice Antonin Scalia sat on a stage across town and held forth about why, for the 16th consecutive year, he would not be joining them for the State of the Union. He doesn't go when a Democrat is president. He stays away when the president is Republican.

So how did Barack Obama do in his second inaugural address? To find out, Scott Barber and Rubab Abid interviewed Gil Troy, professor of American presidential history at McGill University; Renan Levine, lecturer in the department of political science at the University of Toronto; Seva Gunitsky, assistant professor of political science at the Munk School of Global Affairs; and Gerald Shuster from the department of communication at the University of Pittsburgh.

|Peter Boettke| I am always excited to get back to school.  This term I am teaching two graduate courses --- Econ 828 -- Constitutional Economics, which is basically a course in social and political philosophy for economists --- and Econ 895 -- Advanced Topics in Austrian Economics --- which is the third course available to PhD students, and we are focusing on the themes of creativity, complexity and coordination.

|Peter Boettke|