DOCSLIB.ORG

Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2012 Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity David M. Schizer Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law and Economics Commons, Taxation-Federal Commons, and the Tax Law Commons Recommended Citation David M. Schizer, Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity, 35 HARV. J. L. & PUB. POL'Y 453 (2012). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/1113 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FISCAL POLICY IN AN ERA OF AUSTERITY DAVID M. SCHIZER* I. THE NEED FOR A POLICY AGENDA TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH ........................... 455 A. Deleveraging Hangover for Consumers ....457 B. Ballooning Government Deficits ................. 458 C. Intense International Competition .............. 460 D. Promoting Economic Growth ...................... 460 II. UNCERTAINTIES AND CHALLENGES WITH A KEYNESIAN STIMULUS ....................................... 461 A. Dueling Models and Multipliers ................. 462 B. The Challenge of Identifying "Shovel Ready" Projects ............................... 464 C. The Problem of Politically-Motivated P rojects ............................................................ 465 D . The Costs of Deficits ..................................... 467 III. TACKLING PROBLEMS OF SUBSTANTIVE LAW: THE EXAMPLE OF CUTTING CORPORATE TAX RATES ........................................ 469 A. Addressing a Broad Range of Problem s ........................................ 469 B. The Case Study of Corporate Tax Reform .................................. 470 IV. TACKLING PROBLEMS OF PROCESS: PROMOTING BETTER FISCAL D ECISIONM AKING ................................................. 476 Dean and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, Columbia Law School. I appreci- ate helpful comments from Mihir Desai, Michael Graetz, Glenn Hubbard, Yair Listoken, Sharyn O'Halloran, Alex Raskolnikov, Richard Richman, and Daniel Shaviro. I am grateful to Erin Dickerson and Lynn Belier for their research assis- tance. HarvardJournal of Law & Public Policy [Vol. 35 A. Problems of Information and Political Incentives ........................................ 477 B. Institutional Strategies to Promote Better Fiscal Decisions .................................. 478 1. Disclosure and Outside Fiscal W atchdogs .................................... 479 2. Institutional Reform ............................... 480 3. Hard Budget Constraints ....................... 482 CO N CLUSIO N ................................................................ 486 We face a time of stagnant economic growth, severe unem- ployment, massive budget deficits, and an increasingly competi- tive global economy. These daunting challenges are the legacy of a number of unwise policy decisions in both the public and pri- vate sectors. Although the good news is that unsound policies can be changed, the bad news is that no single step will do the trick. It is a challenge to rely on monetary policy when interest rates are near zero. There also is uncertainty-and a heated de- bate among economists- about the effectiveness of a Keynesian stimulus. One thing we know is that a stimulus is quite difficult to execute effectively. For example, it is a challenge to identify "shovel ready" projects that contribute to long-term economic growth, particularly on short notice. There is no uncertainty, though, about the need to address a broad range of specific problems contributing to our eco- nomic woes. We have to promote economic growth and fiscal stability over the long term. To do so, we should reform our housing and mortgage markets, our entitlement programs, our tax code, and much more. A short Article for a special is- sue cannot delineate all the challenges Congress is facing or provide definitive guidance about how to address them. As an illustrative example, this Article emphasizes the perils of maintaining the highest corporate tax rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in a competitive global economy. Cutting our corporate tax rate would encourage businesses to invest and hire more employ- ees, while also reducing incentives to engage in wasteful tax planning and to shift taxable income and jobs overseas. No. 2] Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity In addition to the problems with our substantive law, we al- so face problems of process that undercut our government's effectiveness. An important (and familiar) one is that politi- cians are consistently tempted to accommodate organized in- terest groups, especially if the costs of these favors can be qui- etly passed on to the general public. This is all the more true if special interest deals can be financed with deficit spending, so that the bill will not come due until long after our current po- litical leaders have retired. Various measures can constrain this familiar political dynamic, and this Article sketches three strat- egies as illustrative examples. First, we should make the costs of special interest deals more visible through better budgetary accounting. Second, we should enlist specific institutions within our government to target waste and pork. For example, we should empower special House and Senate committees to cut particular budget items or, alternatively, to sever them from the rest of the budget and subject them to a separate pub- lic vote. Third, we should create stronger institutional barriers to deficit spending. Scarcity focuses the mind, so that our lead- ers will have greater incentive to reject initiatives that are not cost-justified. Part I of this Article lays out the relevant economic chal- lenges and calls for a broad agenda to promote economic growth. Part II outlines difficulties and uncertainties with a Keynesian stimulus. Part III surveys a few substantive chal- lenges that require our attention and, as an example, shows the importance of cutting corporate tax rates. Part IV discusses the need to reform our budgetary process. I. THE NEED FOR A POLICY AGENDA TO PROMOTE ECONOMIC GROWTH The U.S. economy has taken a beating since 2008. Median household income has fallen to 1996 levels, and 22% of Ameri- can children are living in poverty, the highest level since 1993.1 1. Conor Dougherty, Income Slides to 1996 Levels, WALL ST. J., Sept. 14, 2011, at Al (quoting a Census Bureau report for 2010). HarvardJournal of Law & Public Policy [Vol. 35 As of January 2012, the jobless rate remained above 8%,2 and almost half of the nearly thirteen million Americans classified as unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. 3 The jobless rate is even higher among young people and minorities (for example, 38.5% among African-American teenagers). 4 If we also count people who have given up looking for work (2.8 million),5 and people working only part-time be- cause they cannot find full-time jobs (8.2 million),6 the overall unemployment rate in the United States is 15.1%. 7 The eco- nomic recovery has been sluggish; we need to create 125,000 jobs per month just to accommodate population growth,8 but in the summer and fall of 2011 we often fell short of even that threshold. 9 The human costs are staggering. Meanwhile, growth has slowed so that our gross domestic product (GDP) grew by only about 1.5% in 2011.10 After nine quarters of recov- ery, aggregate output is still not back to its level before the fi- nancial crisis.11 2. Press Release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Labor, Economic News Release: The Employment Situation -January 2012 tbl.A-15 (Jan. 6, 2012), http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm. 3. Id. at tbl.A-12 (42.5%, or 5.6 million, out of work for at least twenty-seven weeks). 4. Id. at tbl.A-2. 5. Id. at 2. 6. Id. 7. Id. at tbl.A-15. 8. John Mauldin, It's All About the Jobs... and Gold, THOUGHTS FROM THE FRONTLINE, Sept. 3, 2011, http://www.johnmauldin.com/frontlinethoughts/its-all- about-the-jobs-and-gold/. 9. Press Release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, supra note 2, at tbl.B (reporting fewer than 125,000 jobs created in May (54,000), June (84,000), July (96,000), Au- gust (85,000), and October (112,000)). 10. See Confronting the Nation's Fiscal Policy Challenges: Hearing Before the Joint Se- lect Comm. on Deficit Reduction, 112th Cong. 7-8 (2011), (statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Dir., Cong. Budget Office) [hereinafter Elmendorf, Fiscal Policy Chal- lenges] (noting that latest Blue Chip economic indicators forecast, representing average of 50 business economists analyses, is 1.3 %); see also Testimony on the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on the Budget, 112th Cong. 5, tbl.2 (2012), (statement of Douglas W. Elmendorf, Dir., Cong. Budget Office) [hereinafter Elmendorf, Economic Outlook] (estimating real growth in 2011 at 1.6%). 11. Ben S. Bemanke, Chairman, Fed. Reserve, Address at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, WY: The Near- and Longer-Term Prospects for the U.S. Economy (Aug. 26, 2011), http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20110826a.htm; see also Elmendorf, Fiscal Policy Challenges, supra note 10, at 13-14 (estimating output No. 2] Fiscal Policy in an Era of Austerity
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Chronicle of Higher Education
    THE CHRONICLE of Higher Education ® October 10, 2014 • $6.99 chronicle.com Volume LXI, Number 6 How ‘Yes Search Committees Learn: Means Yes’ Google at Your Own Risk A6 Works on One Campus A4 STEVE PYKE Brian Leiter Says LUCIO VILLA FOR THE CHRONICLE He’s Not a Bully, The Ph.D. Student’s Ticking Clock Just a New Yorker Life is complicated. So is getting students to finish faster. A18 A8 PEOPLE VIEWS INSIDE Outcome-Based Income TECHNOLOGY A pay-for-success method of funding higher education might help Yik Yak and Yecch low-income students the most. A22 Anonymous posts on the campus smartphone app veer into the Publish? Perish the Thought disgusting and the threatening. A11 For doctoral students’ sake, don’t let them reach print until they’ve earned INTERNATIONAL their degrees. A23 How Students Seized the Moment in Hong Kong THE CHRONICLE REVIEW A boycott of Historian to Lead classes put Global-Affairs School them in the R. Scott Appleby wants to put streets, the U. of Notre Dame on the map SCOTT VARLEY, DAILY BREEZE energizing de- for issues like climate change. A15 Thought Crime mocracy demon- strations. A12 Creative Spirit Debate Heats Up Lynne Jordan Horoschak knew that STUDENTS special-needs children could benefit Grad Rates: Look Closely from learning art, so she created a graduate program to help Over Exclusionary When the cell door shut behind the A peek at Indiana U.’s unusually deep that happen. A15 data shows why even an enviable Iranian philosopher, his solitary Religious Groups A10 statistic needs some parsing.
    [Show full text]
  • Review Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the Heroic First Women To
    Review Neurosciences and History 2019; 7(1): 26-40 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and the heroic first women to access medical schools R. Belvís1, D. Momblán2 1Headache and neuralgia unit, Neurology Department. Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain. 2Gastrointestinal surgery department. IMDM, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain. ABSTRACT Introduction. In the 19th century the first women were allowed to receive formal medical training at universities, after a long-fought battle characterised by deception, ploys, misunderstandings, and aggression. These women had to overcome numerous hurdles before they were able to qualify and begin practice as physicians, and very few were successful. Development. This article reviews the history of women’ s inclusion in the practice of medicine from antiquity to the 19th century, and focuses on a woman who perfectly illustrates the social transgression sparked by her and her contemporaries around the world, who dared to follow their calling, medicine, in a misogynistic society. This woman, Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, became the first woman to practise medicine in Great Britain after a bitter fight against the academic and medical establishment, also becoming the first woman to hold a mayor’ s office in Britain and the first to earn a doctorate in France. Garrett was a pioneer of British feminism, setting her medical prestige at the head of the women’ s suffrage movement. While she cannot be considered a neurologist, her doctoral thesis was one of the first in history to deal with migraine. We performed a comprehensive search of the MEDLINE database and on history web pages. Conclusions. Elizabeth Garrett and her contemporaries transgressed the societal norms of their day and brought about the beginning of the progressive normalisation of women’ s admission to medical schools and to universities in general.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Hill
    CAMPUS NEWS From the Hill RITES OF PASSAGE (clockwise from top left): Pollack greets the Schoellkopf crowd; Biden onstage with his custom ice cream; one of many personalized mortarboards; newlyweds Lin Wang, PhD ’17 (left), and Rusen Yan, PhD ’17, at their PhD hooding ceremony, shortly after tying the knot; Eva Garrido ’17 is commissioned as a second lieutenant in the annual ROTC ceremony. Pollack Presides Over CU’s 149th Commencement A worrisome weather forecast gave way to a blessedly dry and sunny by them. But it is through that vigorous defense, not through Sunday afternoon, as President Martha Pollack delivered her first enforced silence, that we move forward.” Commencement address in Schoellkopf Stadium. At the University’s The previous day, former Vice President Joe Biden had giv- 149th graduation ceremony, she exhorted the 6,000 newly minted en the Convocation speech, in which he noted that Ezra Cornell’s alumni to become agents of change and to clarify their own values. pledge to “found an institution where any person can find instruc- “While you are graduating into a world with significant challeng- tion in any study” inherently embraced the idea of a diverse es,” she said, “so too have previous generations of students, who student body. “I don’t have a lot of advice, but I know one thing,” have frequently met those challenges head on and made changes he said. “The people that are successful and happy are the peo- the world needed to be a better place.” ple who treat others with the same dignity that they demand for Pollack’s
    [Show full text]
  • Speaker Biographies
    Digital Media Symposium Speaker Biographies Elizabeth Garrett Elizabeth Garrett is provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at the University of Southern California and the Frances R. and John J. Duggan Professor in the USC Gould School of Law. As the university’s second-ranking officer, she oversees the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences as well as the Keck Medical Center of USC and 16 other professional schools, in addition to the divisions of student affairs, libraries, information technology, research, and student religious life and enrollment services. Since her installation in January of 2011, Provost Garrett has directed substantial new efforts to hire transformative faculty, with the goal of catalyzing targeted fields of interdisciplinary scholarship and invigorating USC’s research environment. She has accelerated the recruitment of Provost Professors and created the Provost’s Post-Doctoral Scholars Program in the Humanities. She was also instrumental in the university’s purchase of two hospitals, which now comprise much of the clinical practice of the Keck Medical Center of USC. Before joining the faculty of USC, Provost Garrett was a professor of law at the University of Chicago, where she also served as deputy dean for academic affairs. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Virginia Law School, Central European University in Budapest, and the Interdisciplinary Center Law School in Israel. Her primary scholarly interests include legislative process, direct democracy and the design of democratic institutions, the federal budget process and tax policy. Garrett is a fellow of the American Law Institute, a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Pacific Council for International Policy.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Hill
    CAMPUS NEWS From the Hill WELCOME TO THE HILL: Martha Pollack (clockwise from left) on the Arts Quad, touring campus with University leaders, and fielding press questions with Board of Trustees chair Robert Harrison ’76 Michigan Provost Tapped as CU President Martha Pollack, provost and executive vice president for aca- ability to “bring people together” as reasons for her appointment. demic affairs at the University of Michigan, has been named Said Zubrow: “She is uniquely qualified to realize our dream of Cornell’s fourteenth president. A graduate of Dartmouth and the ‘One Cornell.’ ” At Michigan, Pollack served as the chief academ- University of Pennsylvania, the fifty-eight-year-old Pollack is an ic officer and chief budget officer, responsible for an enterprise expert in artificial intelligence; she will have tenured appoint- comprising more than 43,000 students and 16,000 faculty and ments in the departments of computer science and information staff and with annual operating revenues of $3.4 billion. “As a science. She succeeds the late Elizabeth Garrett, who passed private university with a public mission, Cornell is the embodi- away in March 2016 after less than a year in Day Hall. ment of my own deeply held belief in the ability of knowledge to “One of the most wonderful things about Cornell is its abid- ing commitment to the liberal arts with a strong engagement in the more practical fields of study,” Pollack said during her ‘ Cornell is the embodiment of November visit to the Hill. “It has an enduring focus on the my own deeply
    [Show full text]
  • Nomineealert
    April 2009 NomineeAlert Garrett’s this issue: Background Elizabeth Garrett, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Treasury Co-Director, USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics for Tax Policy Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget, USC Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, USC Who is Elizabeth Garrett? Tax me more baby... Visiting Professor, California Institute of Technology On March 28, 2009 President Obama defines what she considers, “upper income,” or announced Elizabeth Garrett as his nominee to what she believes is “their fair share.” Professor, University of Chicago be Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Tax However, from her constant harping on the Deputy Dean for Academic Policy. issue one could conclude Affairs, University of Chicago When you think about the that no matter how high it Garrett is an academic objectives of a tax system you was it would not be Visiting Professor, UVA “ who believes that you think about progressivity, enough to be “fair.” Visiting Professor, Central are not taxed enough. fairness… We do a lot with European University “When upper-income our tax code. We don’t just Visiting Assistant Professor, It is unclear how much raise revenue... But ultimately people are not paying Harvard Elizabeth Garrett would you’re going to have to make their fair share, Ms. like to raise taxes; but Garrett said, ‘it erodes Legislative Director and Tax and some tradeoffs among those Budget Counsel for Sen. Boren from her public goals. Take a goal that’s very confidence in the statements, it is clear important to me: progressivity system’.” Fn.1.
    [Show full text]
  • Issues in Implementing Referendums in Israel: a Comparative Study in Direct Democracy
    Chicago Journal of International Law Volume 2 Number 1 Article 10 4-1-2001 Issues in Implementing Referendums in Israel: A Comparative Study in Direct Democracy Elizabeth Garrett Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Garrett, Elizabeth (2001) "Issues in Implementing Referendums in Israel: A Comparative Study in Direct Democracy," Chicago Journal of International Law: Vol. 2: No. 1, Article 10. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil/vol2/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Issues in Implementing Referendums in Israel: A Comparative Study in Direct Democracy Elizabeth Garrett* In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin promised that any peace agreement with the Syrians, which would return some or all of the Golan Heights to Syria, would be submitted for the people's approval in a national referendum. During his campaign in 1999, Ehud Barak reiterated that commitment and promised that any final-status agreement with the Palestinians, which would affect the sovereignty of Jerusalem as well as resolve other controversial issues, would also be the subject of a referendum. During the Camp David summit in the summer of 2000, Barak negotiated as his government fell apart at home, and he stated frequently that any deal with Arafat would be ratified by a vote of the people. Before the recent outbreak of violence and election of a new prime minister in February 2001, peace agreements seemed possible in the relatively near future, so Israeli politicians turned their attention to the mechanics of a referendum vote.
    [Show full text]
  • Medical Student Education Get Inspired
    FINAL PROGRAM anniversary STFM Conference on Medical Student Education Get Inspired. Get motivated. Get educated. Get connected. anniversary January 30-February 2, 2014 STFMGaylord Conference Opryland Hotel on& Resort • Nashville, TN Medical Student Education table of contents Overall Conference Schedule – 4 Preconference Workshops – 4 Session Formats – 8 Daily Schedules Friday, January 30 – 10 Saturday, February 1 – 21 Sunday, February 2 – 28 Posters – 29-32 Special Topic Breakfast – 18-20 STFM Group Meetings – 10 and 22 General Conference Information – 33 Society of Student-Run Free Clinics Conference – 35 Conference Partners and Supporters – 34 Hotel Meeting Space Map – back cover Search educational sessions and view abstracts at www.stfm.org/mobile or by scanning this QR code. Join the conversation on Twitter: #MSE14 conference schedule Thursday, January 30 7 am–7 pm Conference Registration Room: Tennessee Lobby 7 am–5:30 pm 2014 STFM Medical Student Educators Development Institute (MSEDI) (pre-registration required) Room: Ryman Studio F-G 1–5 pm Preconference Workshops: PR1: Engaging Today’s Medical Student Juliann Binienda, PhD, Margit Chadwell, MD, Wayne State University; Kathryn Conniff, MD, Mozella Williams, MD, University of Maryland; Peggy Cyr, MD, Maine Medical Center South, Portland, ME; Miriam Hoffman, MD, Boston University Medical Center; Amanda Kost, MD, University of Washington; Suzanne Minor, MD, Florida International University, Miami, FL; Jacob Prunuske, MD, MSPH, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Vincent WinklerPrins,
    [Show full text]
  • Last Will and Testament of M. Carey Thomas
    Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Publications, Special Books, pamphlets, catalogues, and scrapbooks Collections, Digitized Books 12-7-1935 Last Will and Testament of M. Carey Thomas M. Carey Thomas Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_books Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Custom Citation Thomas, M. Carey. "Last Will and Testament of M. Carey Thomas." Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 1935. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmc_books/19 For more information, please contact [email protected]. i, WILL OF M. Carey Thomas, Deceased. Probated in the Office of the Register of Wills of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1935, as Will No. 3617 of 1935, and Recorded in Will Book P. S. No. 18, Page 311, Etc. (Additional Codicil probated May 22, 1936.) LAST WILL 1//VD TESTAMENT WILLDt' -oF- M. Carey Thomas, g, f §fit. Executed in London at the Office of the American Consulate General, August 29th, 1934. Philadelphia, Oct. 20. 1934. e;, ,;4c!e.l.fhta Oet- :~o. 11.1~ ' This is the autoritative copy of my last Will and Testament, tak- ing preced<cpce over any duplicate copy I may have executed hereto- fore. M. Carey Thomas. WITNESS: J. B. Longacre • BE IT REMEMBERED that I, M. CAREY THOMAS, resident at Coombe Edge, Blue Ridge Summit, in the State of Pennsylvania, do make, publish, and declare this Will as and for my last Will and Testament,
    [Show full text]
  • Beth's Resumełł
    ELIZABETH GARRETT University of Southern California Bovard Administration Building, Room 102 Los Angeles, California 90089-4019 (213) 740-2101 [email protected] EMPLOYMENT: Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (2010-present), University of Southern California Vice President for Academic Planning and Budget (2006-2010), Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (2005-2006), University of Southern California Frances R. and John J. Duggan Professor of Law, Political Science and Public Policy (2009-present), Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, Political Science, and Policy, Planning and Development (2005-2009), Professor (2003-04), Gould School of Law, University of Southern California Co-Director: USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics (2007-2010) Director: USC-Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics (2003-2007) Board of Directors: Initiative and Referendum Institute at USC Courses Taught: Administrative Law, Law of the Political Process, Civil Procedure Affiliated Faculty Member: USC Center for Law, Economics and Organization Courtesy Appointment: Annenberg School, Department of Communication Honors: Distinguished Alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences (Social Sciences), University of Oklahoma (2007); Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society; Association of Trojan Leagues Outstanding Service Award (2008); Outstanding Teaching Award from the Latter-Day Saint Student Association (2006). Visiting Professor of Law (2004), California Institute of Technology Course Taught: Law and Politics Professor
    [Show full text]
  • Community Family
    UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA Family Community Summer 2003 MEDICINE DR. BETSY GARRETT IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE AS SHE STRIVES TO BE A Person with Passion, Commitment, and High Ideals ELIZABETH (BETSY) GARRETT pur- curriculum. And if she’s not involved in Eager to pursue this interest, Dr. Gar- sued a career in medicine because she teaching activities, she’s seeing patients at rett attended her first STFM meeting wanted to make a difference. Born and Green Meadows Family Practice Clinic. while still at Dartmouth – shortly before raised in Monett, a small Missouri town Her job offers variety and experiences she returned to MU to begin her fellow- where general practitioners attended to that are both exciting and rewarding to ship training. This meeting was huge for every health care need in the community, Dr. Garrett. “I enjoy helping patients and her, she says. In fact, it opened the door Dr. Garrett always considered family hope that my style makes them feel spe- for many valuable experiences and friend- medicine to be the “gold standard” and cial and cared for,” she explains. “And I love ships that have significantly impacted what being a doctor was all about. teaching medical students. As a family her professional growth and success. An MU alum – BGS ’75, MD ’79, residency medicine educator, I see them at the “My membership in STFM – like my ca- ’82, MSPH ‘88, Dr. Garrett joined the Family start of medical school and then later reer in medicine – has provided me many and Community Medicine faculty nearly during their third year.
    [Show full text]
  • The Road to the Nobel Prize Can Be Arduous
    From “Downsizing the Cancer Industry” by J. Morris Hicks and John Kelly, MD 10 The Road to the Nobel Prize Can Be Arduous By J. Morris Hicks I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. –Nelson Mandela Before Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1993 and elected president of South Africa in 1994, he served twenty-seven years of a life sentence in prison for conspiracy to overthrow the state. At the time of his death at the age of 95 in 2013, he was one of the best-loved and most respected individuals who ever lived. Although Dr. T. Colin Campbell has never spent a single night in jail, you could say that he has served for the last thirty years in what might be called a scientific prison. That unjust sentence was his reward for publishing dozens of peer-reviewed papers that challenged the nutritional quality of animal-based foods—that were produced by industries that contribute huge sums of money to colleges of agriculture like the one at Cornell University. As with Nelson Mandela being freed from prison and later becoming president of his country, in addition to receiving many of the world’s top honors—perhaps a similar level of long overdue recognition awaits Colin Campbell. I am one of a large group of individuals who believe that his unmatched body of work in cancer research is deserving of similar international recognition.
    [Show full text]