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It seems that both will, independently of each other, write to the CFTC about the legalization of the “event markets” (here are the comments to the CFTC) —a bad term for the “non-hedgeable event derivative markets” (which is also, probably, a term that is quite awful to your ears ). What to expect from them? (WARNING: This is highly speculative.)

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TOM W. BELL

• He will state the libertarian point of view —laissez faire, laissez aller. - [DISCLOSURE: I am a mid-core libertarian myself, so I like that.]
• Overall, he will try to put up a basket of legal hacks —to establish that the real-money prediction markets should be as free as possible.
• In particular, he will try to make the point that “event markets” should be covered by the laws governing “notes” —not by the laws governing “contracts”.
• By doing so, he will tell the CFTC to go fugging themselves —since the CFTC is allegedly about “contracts”, not about “notes”.

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JASON RUSPINI

• He will state that all the real-money prediction markets should be covered by the CFTC.
• He will navigate within the legal framework that the CFTC has established in their “concept release”. – [See this document from the Arnold & Porter lawyers, if you wanna know what's a "concept release", in the mind of the CFTC regulators. - PDF file.]
• He will be very careful not to offense those bureaucrats.

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TOM W. BELL vs JASON RUSPINI

• It’s great that the libertarian point of view is elaborated and disseminated to these bureaucrats. However, the CFTC is an agency, not the US Supreme Court Of Justice —and the fact that Tom W. Bell is right does not mean that he will prevail.
• Jason Ruspini’s approach is extremely reasonable: he adopts the enemy’s point of view, and, from within, tries to maneuver the regulatory barriers to create as much room as possible. Also, Jason Ruspini will address only the CFTC questions which he grasps well. (Contrast that with some who spread themselves too thin, and answer all the CFTC questions, even those where they have no expertise or experience. Their answers are, and, will be totally ignored. It’s not what you say that is important; it’s what you say in relation with who you are to say that.) I’m pulling for Jason Ruspini’s approach.

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TAKEAWAY

• If Jason Ruspini does not fuck it up, he has the potentiality to influence positively the CFTC, and to become one of the great leaders of the field of prediction markets. Let’s wish for that. Our field needs courageous men (and women) with the right political compass and the sense of pragmatism.

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THE MIDAS ORACLE TAKES:

- CALL TO ACTION: Let’s fight so that the CFTC allows the FOR-PROFIT prediction exchanges to deal with “event markets”.

- In the for-profit vs not-for-profit debate, our prediction market luminaries, doctored by Bob, are on the wrong side of the issue.

- A young economist rebuts the American Enterprise Institute.

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BACKGROUND INFO:

- CFTC’s Concept Release on the Appropriate Regulatory Treatment of Event Contracts… notably how they define “event markets”, how they are going to extend their “exemption” to other IEM-like prediction exchanges, and how they framed their questions to the public. Here are the comments sent to the CFTC.

- The Arnold & Porter lawyers explain the meaning of the CFTC’s concept release on “event markets”. — (PDF file)

- The Schulte & Roth & Zabel lawyers’ takes. — (PDF file)

- The Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers’ takes. — (PDF file)

- What Vernon Smith told the CFTC.

- The American Enterprise Institute’s proposals to legalize the real-money prediction markets in the United States of America

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APPENDIX:

Paul Wolfowitz’s profile at the American Enterprise Institute

- How the neo-cons drove the United States of America into the unecessary Iraq war

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Check that CFM page for updates. And contact me so I can make additions to the list. (I’ll then re-publish that updated list on Midas Oracle.)

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• Michael Abramowicz – Michael B. Abramowicz – (Law School, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Bernd H. Ankenbrand – Bernd Ankenbrand – (Lecturer, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, E.U.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• James Annan – (Global Environment Modelling Research Program, Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan)
• Werner Antweiler – (UBC Election Stock Market, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)
• Kenneth J. Arrow – Kenneth Arrow – (Economics Department, Stanford University, California, U.S.A.)
• Tom W. Bell – Tom Bell – (Law School, Chapman University, California, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Joyce E. Berg – Joyce Berg – Profile – (Iowa Electronic Markets, Accounting, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• Richard Borghesi – (Finance, Texas State University at San Marcos, Texas, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Kay-Yut Chen – (Information Services & Process Innovation Lab, HP Labs, HP, California, U.S.A.)
• Yiling Chen – (Micro-Economic and Social Systems, Yahoo! Research Labs, New York, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Eric Crampton – (Department of Economics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Ely Dahan – (Marketing, Anderson School, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.)
• Anita Elberse – (Marketing, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
• Leslie R. Fine – Leslie Fine – (Information Dynamics Lab, HP Labs, California, U.S.A.)
• Gary William Flake – Gary W. Flake – Gary Flake – (MicroSoft, U.S.A.)
• Robert Forsythe – (Dean, College of Business Administration, University of South Florida, Florida, U.S.A.) — Previously: (Economics, Iowa Electronic Markets, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• Lance Fortnow – Lance J. Fortnow – (Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• Keith Jacks Gamble – Keith Gamble – (Economics (University of California at Berkeley) – California, U.S.A. — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Michael Gorham – (IIT Center for Financial Markets, Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology, Illinois, U.S.A.) — Previously: (CFTC)
• Thomas S. Gruca – Thomas Gruca – Profile – (Iowa Electronic Markets, Marketing, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• Refet Gurkaynak – (Department of Economics, Bilkent University, Turkey)
• Friedrich August Von Hayek — R.I.P. — The market as an information aggregation tool: The Use of Knowledge in Society —
• Robert W. Hahn – Robert Hahn – (Executive Director, Reg-Markets Center, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• James D. Hamilton – James Hamilton – (Department of Economics, University of California at San Diego – California, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Robin Hanson – Robin D. Hanson – (Economics, James M. Buchanan Center, George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• M. Todd Henderson – (Law School, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• Chris Hibbert – (Software Architect, Zocalo Project Manager, California, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Charles Holt – Charles A. Holt – (Department of Economics, University of Virginia, Virginia, U.S.A.)
• Bernardo A. Huberman – Bernardo Huberman – (Social Computing Lab, HP Labs, California, U.S.A.)
• Frédéric Koessler – (Economics, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, France, E.U.)
• Anthony M. Kwasnica – Anthony Kwasnica – (Business Economics, Department of Insurance and Real Estate, Smeal College of Business Administration, Penn State University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)
• Nicolas Lambert – (Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, California, U.S.A.)
• John O. Ledyard – John Ledyard – (Economics and and Social Sciences, Division of Humanity and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, California, U.S.A.)
• Andrew Leigh – (Economics, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia)
• Steven Levitt – Steve Levitt – Steven D. Levitt – (Economics, Director of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• Saul Levmore – (Law School, University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• Robert E. Litan – Robert Litan – (Vice President for Research and Policy, Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.)
• Thomas W. Malone – Thomas Malone – Tom Malone – (MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
• Charles F. Manski – Charles Manski – (College of Arts and Sciences, Norwestern University, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• Adam Meirowitz – (Department of Politics, Princeton University, New Jersey, U.S.A.)
• Paul Milgrom – (Department of Economics, Stanford University, California, U.S.A.)
• Tracy Mullen – (Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)
• Forrest Nelson – Profile – (Iowa Electronic Markets, Economics, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• George R. Neumann – George Neumann – Profile – (Iowa Electronic Markets, Economics, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• Ryan Oprea – Profile – (Director of the LEEPS laboratory, Economics, University of California at Santa Cruz, California, U.S.A.)
• Gerhard Ortner – (University of Applied Sciences, Austria, E.U.)
• Marco Ottaviani – (Management and Strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois, U.S.A.) – Formerly: (Economics Department, London Business School, United Kingdom, E.U.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• David Paton – (Industrial Economics, Business School, Nottingham University, United Kingdom, E.U.)
• David M. Pennock – David Pennock – (Principal Research Scientist, Micro-Economic and Social Systems, Yahoo! Research Labs, New York, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Charles R. Plott – Charles Plott – (Economics and and Social Sciences, Division of Humanity and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, California, U.S.A.)
• David Porter – (Economics and Finance, Chapman University, California, U.S.A.)
• Todd Proebsting – Todd A. Proebsting – (Microsoft & University of Arizona, U.S.A.)
• Russ Ray – (Finance, College of Business, University of Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.)
• Daniel Reeves – (Micro-Economic and Social Systems, Yahoo! Research Labs, New York, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Paul W. Rhode – Paul Rhode – (US Economic History, College of Management, The University of Arizona, Arizona, U.S.A.) – Formerly: (University of North Carolina, North Carolina, U.S.A.)
• Thomas A. Rietz – Thomas Rietz – Profile – (Iowa Electronic Markets, Finance, Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)
• Richard Roll – (University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.)
• Thomas W. Ross – Thomas Ross – (UBC Election Stock Market, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)
• Rahul Sami – (School of Information, University of Michigan, Michigan, U.S.A.)
• Sam L. Savage – Sam Savage – (Consulting Professor, Stanford U., California, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Thomas C. Schelling – Thomas Schelling – (Economics, School of Public Affair, University of Maryland, Maryland, U.S.A.)
• Emile Servan-Schreiber – (NewsFutures, New York City, New York, U.S.A. & Paris, France, E.U.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Robert J. Shiller – Robert Shiller – Profile – (Economics, Yale University, Connecticut, U.S.A.)
• Bernd Skiera – (Electronic Commerce, Goethe University, Germany, E.U.)
• Vernon L. Smith – Vernon Smith – (Economics, Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, California, U.S.A.)
• Erik Snowberg – (Stanford University, California, U.S.A.) — Soon at CalTech
• Peter Norman Sorensen – (Finance, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, E.U.)
• Martin Spann – (Marketing and Innovation, University of Passau, Germany, E.U.)
• Koleman Strumpf – Koleman S. Strumpf – (Economics, School of Business, University of Kansas, Kansas, U.S.A.) – Formerly: University of North Carolina, North Carolina, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Cass Sunstein – Cass R. Sunstein – (Law School, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)
• James Surowiecki – (The Wisdom Of Crowds) – (New York, U.S.A.)
• Paul C. Tetlock – Paul Tetlock – (Finance, Business School, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Philip Tetlock – Philip E. Tetlock – (Leadership, University of California at Berkeley, California, U.S.A.)
• Hal R. Varian – Hal Varian – (Chief Economist, Google, California, U.S.A.) — Formerly: (Haas School of Business, Department of Economics, University of California at Berkeley, California, U.S.A.)
• Dorina Tila – (Economics, George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.A.)
• Leighton Vaughan-Williams – (Economics and Finance, Business School, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, E.U.)
• Michael Wellman – Michael P. Wellman – (Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Michigan, U.S.A.)
• Justin Wolfers – Justin J. Wolfers – (Business and Public Policy, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle
• Eric Zitzewitz – Eric W. Zitzewitz – (Economics, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts, USA) – Formerly: (Stanford University, California, U.S.A.) — Post Archives at Midas Oracle

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(with thanks to Chris Hibbert of Zocalo)

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Iowa Electronic Markets – (IEM) – (Henry B. Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa, U.S.A.)

Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science – (ICES) – (George Mason University, Virginia, U.S.A.)

Economic Science Institute – (ESI) – (Chapman University, California, U.S.A.)

HP Labs – (Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A.)

Laboratory for Experimental Economics and Political Science – (EEPS) – (CalTech, California, U.S.A.)

Vecon Lab – (University of Virginia, Virginia, U.S.A.)

MIT Center for Collective Intelligence – (CCI) – (Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

Yahoo! Research Labs – (Yahoo!, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.)

Laboratory for Economics Management and Auctions – (LEMA) – (Penn State University, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

MicroSoft Research – (MicroSoft, Redmont, Washington, U.S.A.)

Google‘s Economics Group – (Google, Mountain View, California, U.S.A.)

Center for Prediction Markets – (National Chengchi University, Taiwan)

Knowledge Lab – (Witten/Herdecke U., Cologne, Germany, E.U.)

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Contact me to submit other entries.

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I’m pleased to be able to say that I have two consulting contracts at this point. I’m working with a group at Chapman University and another university I’m not allowed to mention in public announcements. The Chapman team is led by Dave Porter, who I worked with while he was at George Mason University. Most of the Experimentalists from the GMU Economics department have moved (or are in the process of moving) to Chapman in Orange County, California. Dave has been using Zocalo for economics experiments since 2005, while I was at CommerceNet. He has plans (and budget) to expand Zocalo to support a variety of experiments that he’d like to do. The software continues to be used at George Mason as well.

The other group is probably familiar to most of you, though my contract says I can’t use their name for publicity without approval (which they didn’t give). Suffice it to say, I’m happy to be working with this group; the professor in charge has been working on market-related software systems for almost 20 years.

These consulting contracts support my continued development of Zocalo, and both groups are fully supportive of the open source approach. Having these groups actively working with the software, requesting changes, and reviewing progress will contribute substantially to the usefulness and usability of the code. The fact that one group is working with the experiment configuration and the other with the prediction markets ensures that both will continue to be enhanced and get more robust as they are being used.

This announcement is being cross-posted to my blog: pancrit.org.

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1. Just updated to WordPress 2.5. (See a screencast here.)
2. I waited one week before upgrading, so as to take the time to monitor the WP 2.5 compatibility with our plugins.
3. To upgrade, I used the “WordPress Automatic Upgrade” plugin. The automatic process failed, but the step-by-step process worked fine. Overall, I’m happy. This plugin is a time saver.
4. WordPress 2.5.1 is due for May 2008. In the meantime, if you spot some gremlins, let me know.
5. Speaking of gremlins, WP 2.5 has now a better compatibility with Safari, so maybe Tom W. Bell will come down here to tell us what he thinks of the new US anti-gambling regulations.
6. The Midas Oracle post/page authors will spot a totally reconfigured “Write Post / Page” area.
7. They have added a bunch of “media buttons” (to insert pictures, sounds, videos, etc.) and an “embedded media” button (which you’ll find if you click first on the “Kitchen Sink”). I have yet to fully experiment all that.
8. There is now a “full screen mode” for the writing area.
9. They have hidden the 2 blockquotes button under the “Kitchen Sink” sub-menu.

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UPDATE: Gartner is out today saying that open-source software will take over the free world, eventually —and that includes Chapman University and Tom W. Bell…

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Matt Mullenweg

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- In Reverse Migration, 4 Economists Lured From the West to George Mason U. Now Head to Chapman U. – Chronicle.com

- NEW LINKS News: Chapman hires Nobel Prize-winner | smith, chapman, university – OCRegister.com + Chapman’s newest hire was tempted by ideal post” + “Today’s editorial: Chapman raises its economics profile”

- NEW LINK: Chapman U. hires Nobel winner and team – Los Angeles Times

- The George Mason University statement

- The Chapman University statement

- The Wall Street Journal take

Previous: Deep Throat on the George Mason University exodus to Chapman University. + All GMU’s ICES faculty except Houser and McCabe are leaving to join Chapman University. + NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH LEAVES ROBIN HANSON’S GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY TO GO WORKING FOR TOM W. BELL’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

- The Chapman University statement

- The Wall Street Journal take

Previous: Deep Throat on the George Mason University exodus to Chapman University. + All GMU’s ICES faculty except Houser and McCabe are leaving to join Chapman University. + NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH LEAVES ROBIN HANSON’S GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY TO GO WORKING FOR TOM W. BELL’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

UPDATE:

- Vernon Smith to Work on Californian Public Policy

- In Reverse Migration, 4 Economists Lured From the West to George Mason U. Now Head to Chapman U. – Chronicle.com

NEXT: The latest about the departing of Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith from George Mason University to Chapman University

#2. GMU still wants to be able to claim Vernon Smith’s name, and it could well be that he will remain with some affiliation at George Mason University.

#3. The ICES folks have had a tenuous relationship at best with many members of the economics faculty (Robin Hanson being the most prominent exception) and similarly shaky relations with other folks elsewhere in the university. [Note: About half the ICES crew strongly preferred to work at the Arlington campus, several miles from the main (more distant in the suburbs) Fairfax campus, where most of the department is housed.]

#4. Daniele Struppa [a male professor] was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at GMU when ICES arrived. Daniele Struppa, it seems, always did his best to make good on the university’s side of the deal that brought ICES to GMU. Daniele Struppa being at Chapman University, and now Chancellor, no wonder these ICES guys are so comfortable heading off to suburban L.A.

#5. In any case, within 24 hours or so of Wagner’s email to students, the ICES folks had heard from people at companies, federal agencies, etc., whom they were working, all calling to say “so, I hear you are leaving”. The ICES folks had heard from friends/associates in Europe within a day or so asking for news about what is up. In effect, Wagner’s (premature) email to students became the press release announcing the moves (even if all the details were not yet arranged).

—

NOTE: “ICES” as an entity was first established at GMU, but the six core faculty (Smith, Rassenti, Porter, McCabe, Houser, and Wilson) all arrived as a group from the University of Arizona, where they had all worked at the Economic Science Lab (which Smith led).

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UPDATE: Tom W. Bell…

Chapman is in Orange County–not “suburban L.A.”

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Previous: All GMU’s ICES faculty except Houser and McCabe are leaving to join Chapman University. + NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH LEAVES ROBIN HANSON’S GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY TO GO WORKING FOR TOM W. BELL’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

NEXT: OFFICIAL: NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH DECAMPS FOR WEST COAST’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

NEXT: The latest about the departing of Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith from George Mason University to Chapman University

Dear ICES Students:

While this letter is for those economics PH. D. students who consider themselves part of the ICES program, it is being sent to all students on this list server because I have no way to identify those students until they advance to candidacy. All ICES faculty except Professors Houser and McCabe will be leaving GMU for Chapman University in Orange, California. The only unsettled question at this writing is whether they will leave next month or next year. Which departure date they choose, however, has no substantive impact on the contents of this letter.

So if you are an ICES student who has not yet advanced to candidacy, you need to read this letter. And even if you have advanced to candidacy, you should also read on because you can be affected by these changes as well. Indeed, I will divide the remainder of this letter into two categories that relate to those two sets of students.

NOT YET ADVANCED TO CANDIDACY

Ph. D. students are required to pass two field exams in addition to micro and macro exams before advancing to candidacy (and also to accumulate 48 hours of course work and have your dissertation proposal accepted by your dissertation committee). For students who have chosen to work within the ICES program, the requirement of field exams as been abolished because participation in the ICES program involves an extensive and intensive set of activities beyond the 48 hours of course work that serves in lieu of field exams.

Starting now, this abolition is abolished. From this point on, all Ph.D. students will have to pass the requirement of two field exams before advancing to candidacy. Starting January 2008, we will add experimental to our list of field exams, with Professors Houser and McCabe serving on the committee (and with a third faculty member to be named later).

Those ICES students who entered GMU in August 2006 are clearly subject to this new rule, as you are now only at the stage where you are now about to take the micro and macro exams.

ICES students who entered prior to August 2006 but who have not yet advanced to candidacy are in a different, more compromised position, and it is you who are the prime intended recipients of this letter. Only I don’t know who you are, so you must identify yourselves to me if you want to file for an exception to this change in rules.

Here is the deal: if you want to be exempt from the new requirement of two field exams (one of which would, presumably, be experimental), you must write me to this effect by 1300 on Friday 24 August 2007. If I do not have your request for exemption in hand by that time, you automatically will be subject to the requirement of two field exams.

If you do request an exemption, I will adjudicate your request. Let me note briefly the principles I will follow in that adjudication. The prime issue I will look at is whether you are almost ready to advance to candidacy. You must present me with evidence and testimony to this effect; in some fashion you must show me that you are well along in the process of forming a committee, and are not just thinking about doing so.

Another issue arises at this point, but it pertains as well to those ICES students who have already advanced to candidacy, so I will cover that issue in the next section of this letter. So please read on.

ALREADY ADVANCED TO CANDIDACY

GMU policy states clearly that all three members of dissertation committees must be full-time GMU faculty members at the time the dissertation is defended. For some of you, the precise character of your futures depend on just when the ICES faculty leave GMU. The principles in play, however, are invariant to that departure date.

If you can defend your dissertation before those faculty leave, you are done regardless of when they leave. But if they leave before you are able to finish, you will have to reconstitute your committees. At this point, expectation and anticipation enters the picture. If you truly expect to finish before they leave, it’s smart to stay on your current heading. If not, you will have to change your heading through re-constituting your committee, and doing that sooner rather than later will surely contribute to your timely completion.

As for those students who have not yet advanced to candidacy, some of you might be in the position of being almost ready to do so, and to do so with those faculty who will be departing. If they don’t depart until 2008 and if you and they conclude that you can finish before their departure, you should continue with your current plans and I will grant your request for exemption from the field exam requirements.

SUMMARIZING AND MOVING ON

I realize this is a terribly long letter, and is irrelevant to nearly all of you as well. For this imposition I apologize, but I know of no other way to deal with this situation. Let me summarize: (1) we will start offering fields in experimental in place of the ICES program; (2) all students are now subject to the requirement of two field exams before advancing to candidacy; (3) ICES students who have not yet advanced to candidacy can petition me for exemption by demonstrating both that their committee formation is at hand and that everyone involved is convinced that the dissertation will be defended before the
departure of the ICES faculty.

By way of one final remark while I am thinking of it, let me also say that I subject all requests for exceptions, exemptions, appeals, and the like to rigorous scrutiny. The simple economics of this situation is that I bear the costs of these actions, and in two respects: (1) there are supporting documents I must prepare at the time and (2) there is even more work I must bear in the form of even more documentation if you don’t conform to the initial promises.

Doing the latter is something I dislike especially intensely, and to avoid having to do this is the reason I apply rigorous scrutiny to all such cases in the first place. If I carry forward your case to higher authorities, it will only be because you have convinced me that I will never be asked to repeat that action. Therefore, do not presume that I will automatically support your petitions, for I will not do so unless you present me with compelling reason to believe that I will not again have to have such matters cross my desk.

Yours Sincerely, REW

Richard E. Wagner
Department of Economics, 3G4
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone: 703-993-1132
Fax 703-993-1133
Home page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rwagner

Previous: NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH LEAVES ROBIN HANSON’S GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY TO GO WORKING FOR TOM W. BELL’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

NEXT: Deep Throat on the George Mason University exodus to Chapman University.

NEXT: OFFICIAL: NOBEL LAUREATE VERNON SMITH DECAMPS FOR WEST COAST’S CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY.

NEXT: The latest about the departing of Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith from George Mason University to Chapman University