Political lies

Op-Ed Boston Globe

Markets and GMO

There is one overarching argument in favor of labeling.

Markets work best when buyers and sellers both have full information.

We believe in markets; we must therefore label products accurately.

Published in Boston Globe

What do we Know about Social Mobility?

Waht do we know about social mobility?



OPED Cambridge Chronicle

Promises to Ukraine

We are in no position to male promises to Ukraine.

Letter in Boston Globe

Drowsy Driving

Metrowest oped on drowsy driving

Inequality and Social Mobility: Facts and Perceptions

Inequality: Fact and Myth

op-ed Metrowestr Daily News

First Home

Boston Globe Column

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/real-estate/2015/03/28/rental-everything-and-kitchen-sink/kuFWRQhrHoIGamkiEEyKFM/story.html

Downsizing in the Commonwealth

OPED in Metrowest Daily News

Charlie Baker's Leadership

OpEd in MetroWest Daily News. March 1 2015.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20150228/Opinion/150226405

It is no longer on line. Here it is:

The Governor Of Massachusetts

 

Martin G. Evans

Professor Emeritus, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

 

[450 words]

 

It is during a crisis that leaders show their mettle. Governor Baker has failed that test. His errors have been of omission and of commission.

 

He failed, as Governor Patrick did before him, to understand what was going on several levels down under his jurisdiction.  He did not find out the problems of the T by talking to General Manager Scott until those failures were blasted across the headlines of every newspaper in the state. Deval Patrick had similar problems in the lower levels of the Health Portfolio and the Family portfolio.

 

The leader needs to get accurate information from the lowest levels of the organization. It is very difficult to do this. For several reasons. First, direct subordinates may try to buffer their boss from bad news. Second, at each level of the organization, members in the hierarchy interpret information, and even recognize it, in a form that suits heir own purposes. That may not suit the purposes of those at the top of the organization who are interested in strategic and political issues rather than the technical and administrative issues that lower members of the organization focus on.. The Governor has only recently talked to  Scott of the T and the managers of the firm contracted to run the Commuter trains. He tried to justify this by saying that he wished to abide by the lines of command. What nonsense, lines of command are suitable for control in simple,  stable, placid environments not the crisis situation that we faced before the first big storm.

 

In his public appearances, the Governor has excoriated the T and the Commuter rail system. That is wrong. A true leader never tears a strip off his subordinates in public.  If necessary, that is always done in private. In addition, he did it on the basis of little inside information. He had not talked to the principal actors in the drama yet. Scott of the T showed how out of touch the governor was when she described the heroic workers of the T shoveling snow, thawing out frozen switches with blow-torches, and digging out trains, buses and bus stops on over 700 miles of bus and above ground train routes; in a typical day there are over 2000 scheduled subway trips carrying 650,000 passengers, and over thirteen thousand bus trips carrying about 360,000 passengers..  She demonstrated an under-appreciated role of leader: being an umbrella, to prevent the crap from on high falling on your people.

 

Leadership expert, Warren Bennis, has argued that effective leaders learn from the crucible of crisis. Let us hope that Governor Baker is a quick study.; so far he has been a miserable whiner.

Forbidding Political Lies

What is it about a lie, especially a political lie, that gives it Constitutional protection (Even misleading speech shouldn't be banned, Boston Globe, February 4, 2015: A14)?

Sent to Boston Globe

DeLeo's betrayal of the public on Term Limits

The Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives did a disservice to Democrats and democracy yesterday. By scheduling a vote on ending the Speaker's term limits without any time for public discussion, he disenfranchised the voters of Massachusetts.

We should remember that he is Speaker of the house. It is not the Speaker's House; it is the people's House.

Let us hope that, at the next election,  the primary voters in his district remember this betrayal and oust Mr. De Leo from the legislature.

Sent to Boston Globe

Process versus Content in Education

Mr. Beall (Letter, New York Times, Jan 21st. 2015: A18) claims that  "the capacity for creative invention and entrepreneurship (grit), not the ability to memorize procedures and algorithms and recall facts" is what sets America apart and contributed to our innovation and economic successes in the 20th century.

He is wrong. First those he extols were the recipients of the traditional education that he despises. Second, innovation and entrepeneurship need to be built upon a solid foundation of knowledge. One needs to know what is possible before one can attempt the impossible.

Sent to New York Times