Can EBPM work?

Recently an article by Gudula Walterskirchen in the Austrian daily Die Presse about evidence based policy making (EBPM) caught my eye. EBPM has been kicking around since the 1980s. Essentially it is the idea that policy decisions should be based on comprehensive, meticulously established, objective evidence as opposed to intuition, ideology, or common sense. It …

Device addiction 1990s style

I like unintentional prophets in popular culture, for example Larry the Liquidator. For those unfamiliar Larry, he is a corporate raider played by Danny Devito in the 1991 romcom Other People’s Money. Larry tries to buyout “Jorgy” Jorgenson’s (the amazing Gregory Peck in one of his final roles) company. Jorgy hires his stepdaughter Kate (Penelope …