If you are glued to the evening news or the radio, you might believe that the whole nation is waiting in suspense to see how our leaders are going to deal with the economic challenges of our day: recession, inflation, unemployment, bank runs, etc. There are proposed laws, bills flying everywhere, candidates promising this and that, press conferences, debates, op-eds, talking heads, regulations, investigations, proposals, and policies.

Then there is the real world.

The job fell to me, as it does at times, to do a radio interview. And the topic was — what else? — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the state of the banking system in the United States.

While preparing for this interview, I felt an unusual sense of foreboding.

While on an evening bike ride with my oldest son, we reminisced about one of the first government meetings we attended together — an annexation hearing before our county commissioners. Looking back, we agreed that the meeting turned out to be an invaluable opportunity to witness government in action.

Mötley Crüe rocked the 1980s. They played hard and partied harder. Their lifestyle was a toxic mixture of drugs, alcohol, fast cars, and fast women. Their reputation for drug abuse remains legendary — rivaling Ozzy Osbourne, the Grateful Dead, and even the Rolling Stones.

We are right in the middle of a season of summer seminar season. Some students are attending only one seminar, and others are completing a rigorous circuit of seminars sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies, the Independent Institute, the Cato Institute, the Mises Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, the American Institute for Economic Research, and/or other organizations interested in building on the intellectual foundations of a free society.