31-Year-Old Middlebury College Grad In Charge of Dismantling GM

On June 1, 2009, In Government, Politics, Public Affairs, By Blake

My Middlebury College classmate, Brian Deese, is the subject of this flattering profile in The New York Times regarding the dismantling of General Motors. Mr. Deese, on leave from Yale Law School, found his way first to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and then to Barack Obama’s where he has been working on automobile industry issues. Well, it turns out that his smarts and his political savvy earned him the respect of just about everyone, including Gene Sperling and Larry Summers, currently the head of the National Economic Council.

“Brian grasps both the economics and the politics about as quickly as I’ve seen anyone do this,” Mr. Summers said. “There he was in the Roosevelt Room, speaking up vigorously to make the point that the costs we were going to incur giving Fiat a chance were no greater than some of the hidden costs of liquidation.”

Notes the Times,

But now, according to those who joined him in the middle of his crash course about the automakers’ downward spiral, he has emerged as one of the most influential voices in what may become President Obama’s biggest experiment yet in federal economic intervention.

While far more prominent members of the administration are making the big decisions about Detroit, it is Mr. Deese who is often narrowing their options.

Thumbs all the way up.

Tagged with: • • • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

It Should Be a Little Easier

On March 31, 2009, In Government, Miscellaneous, Newspapers and Media, By Blake

I read a sad story yesterday in The New York Times about college admissions. Apparently colleges are taking a more favorable look at wealthier applicants, or those that can pay full tuition. “If you are a student of means or ability, or both, there has never been a better year,” said Robert A. Sevier, an enrollment consultant to colleges.

My alma mater, Middlebury College, is referenced in the story.

Middlebury, which is need-blind and pledges to meet students’ full financial needs, will require students on financial aid to contribute more of their work earnings. It has cut its financial aid budget for international students. It is not need-blind for those on the waiting list or for transfers, but the college has not yet determined how many of those students it will take.

Do you want to know what I think about it? Here you go:

Tagged with: • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

When friends get in the game

On September 23, 2008, In 2008 election, Culture, Newspapers and Media, Politics, Voting, By Blake

Here’s a new blog with an interesting twist on the 2008 election.  It’s called Politico’s Politics and its administered by Irakly George Arison, a Middlebury College classmate.  There’s a permanent link to it under National Blogs.  He too gets into the electoral math.  Bookmark it.

Tagged with: • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

Down with Beer Pong!

On August 7, 2008, In Culture, Miscellaneous, By Blake

Have ever heard of beer pong?  Ever played it?  I have . . . many times, although not all that much since I left college a while back.  It’s a game where teams of two try and toss ping pong balls into cups of beer.  It’s played on a long table with all sorts of rules.  When I was in college, the game was very popular and, admittedly, quite fun.

But it has its critics.  In this week’s issue of TIME magazine, Meaghan Haire writes about the effort some college campuses are taking to ban the game.  Georgetown, Tufts, Penn, Yale and UMass – Amherst have banned “pong” and all other drinking games for everyone on campus.

It’s popularity led to the creation of a video game for the Nintendo Wii (angry parents at the Connecticut AG got involved and the game changed to “Pong Toss” where you throw into cups of water) and a World Series of Pong, now in its fourth year (played in Vegas . . . where else?).  Binge drinking is on the rise, especially on college campuses, and some have determined that issuing bans is the answer.

Knowing that bans at smaller colleges and universities just push drinking further behind closed doors, I’m not sure the approach serves as a practical solution.  Check out what Choose Responsibility, a non-profit founded by former Middlebury President John McCardell, is doing.  McCardell spoke at the Clinton School of Public Service last year.

In 2000, while I was still in college, I did an interview with Chronicle of Higher Education about beer pong.  A copy of the article is only available with a subscription, but in the abstract I am quoted as saying, “It doesn’t contribute to any sort of binge drinking or ‘dangerous drinking’ – it’s a recreational game.”  Based on the type of game we played then (and it varies from place to place), that was my view.

Tagged with: • • • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response
Go To Top »