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Reporting Live From The SmartZero City Conference, Taipei

What are sustainable cities, and can we build them? I put my Institute Fellows’ decades of experience...

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Lost In Austin - The Evolution Of An American City

       The book is author Alex Hannaford’s lament about changes in Austin...

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Fred PhillipsRSS Feed of this column.

After a dozen years as a market research executive, Fred Phillips was professor, dean, and vice provost at a variety of universities in the US, Europe, and South America. He is now Visiting Professor... Read More »

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There’s DEI, And Then There’s DEI

There’s DEI, And Then There’s DEI

Jan 12 2024 | comment(s)

A job interview, some years back, at No Name University (NNU). I was the candidate. The diversity question, pitched right on schedule. The surprise was who asked it. Of the seven search committee members (plus the search firm rep) only one was a person of color, and guess who they stuck with asking the diversity question? A clear signal I would not want to work at their institution, but I gave it my best game anyway.

The Economics You Were Taught? Dead.

The Economics You Were Taught? Dead.

Jan 05 2024 | comment(s)

This is a companion piece to “Enough: Toward A Sustainable Economics” 

https://www.science20.com/fred_phillips/enough_toward_a_sustainable_economics-256755.

Fallen Tech Heroes Miss Chance At Redemption

Fallen Tech Heroes Miss Chance At Redemption

Dec 24 2023 | comment(s)

Jobs. Gates. Berners-Lee. They opened our worlds to wonders: Graphical user interfaces, PCs, the World Wide Web. They were my heroes, and probably yours, deservedly so.

What Should College Presidents Do?

What Should College Presidents Do?

Dec 18 2023 | comment(s)


Enough: Toward A Sustainable Economics

Enough: Toward A Sustainable Economics

Aug 25 2023 | comment(s)

We're no longer surprised that so many people bow down to the Invisible Hand of economics, worshipping its messenger coins and notes, and attending its oracles, the Wall Street analysts. Adam Smith, the 18th-century originator of the invisible hand metaphor, took pains to affirm its workings should be tempered by moral considerations and should not be interpreted as the will of God. Those emphases have been lost.

COP Meetings – 27 Of ‘em! – With Still No.…

COP Meetings – 27 Of ‘em! – With Still No.…

Nov 24 2022 | comment(s)

And back at home, Congressman John Curtis (R Utah) tells National Public Radio that the “conservative climate caucus,” which he chairs, seeks climate solutions that “don’t demonize fossil fuels.”*

Now, as many of you know, I’m a political centrist at heart, but because the country has drifted so far to the right, I’ve resolved to be a knee-jerk leftist – a flaming liberal, a yellow dog Democrat – until things come back into balance.