Suggested speaker

I think that Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics, A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, would be an ideal guest speaker for the Mac mods to support bringing to campus. Levitt addresses the "unintended consequences" of economic and social policies, that often leave a legacy of consequences decades or generations long. Although, more recently, the right has championed moral and religious agendas as rightfully belonging in the political arena, many of these issues are eternally divisive and probably can't be resolved politically, save dictatorship or worse. Yet, the roots of conservatism lay more squarely in an approach to economic issues and social policies that reflect moral values and the highest aspirations of a free people.

That said, we are all capable of being fools, even with the best intentions.

Levitt addresses many current economic issues to show how even the best intentions, right or wrong, right or left, can have unintended consequences. I think this would be a great way to introduce a dialogue on economic and social policies at Mac, without the element of political bias as a foregone conclusion, in a way that would foster cogent and creative thinking in an important way among young people and faculty about important political considerations of our day.

Levitt is originally from St. Paul, an alum of Saint Paul Academy, and now teaches at the University of Chicago. Let's follow up with an invitation to Chris Cox, the current Security and Exchange Commissioner, also a St. Paul native and St. Thomas Academy alum, to talk about the current credit crisis and the rightful role of the SEC and corporations in society and the government role viv a vis the current situation.