Word: bent
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...rules, the simpler the better. I first encountered this argument last fall in the work of left-leaning blogger Matthew Yglesias--he advocated "crude measures" like the old ban on interstate banking. Lately, though, I've been hearing similar suggestions from those of a conservative, University of Chicago bent. "When you give a lot of discretion to regulators, they don't use the tools that are given to them," Chicago economist Gary Becker said at a conference this spring. His prescription: rules, not leeway...
...figure in the revival was the University of Chicago's Milton Friedman--and his libertarian ideological bent was certainly a factor. Friedman never believed markets were perfectly rational, but he thought they were more rational than governments. Friedman saw the Depression as the product of a Fed screwup--not a market disaster--and convinced himself and other economists (without much evidence) that speculators tended to stabilize markets rather than unbalance them...
...foreign policy, we only just learned the answer. By taking on the Israeli government over the issue of settlement growth, Obama is showing that he's a gambler overseas as well. Despite the conventional wisdom that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is impossible anytime soon, he seems hell-bent on pursuing one. And if he breaks china in the process...
...least, that's one finding of a new study by human-resources consultant Watson Wyatt and a nonprofit outfit called the National Business Group on Health (NBGH). Bent on slashing costs left and right these days, a growing number of big companies are nonetheless investing serious money in bribing, er, encouraging employees to get healthier. Nearly 6 in 10 (58%) now offer wellness programs, up from fewer than half (43%) in 2007. And the percentage of companies paying people to ditch bad habits (especially eating junk food and not exercising enough) has gone from 53% in 2008 to 61% this...
...Monday, a line of 11 Harvard and Cambridge police officers spaced themselves out across the grassy Malkin Athletic Center quad, walking toward Kirkland from the Lowell House side with heads bent as if looking for something...